{"id":1976,"date":"2017-04-03T12:00:12","date_gmt":"2017-04-03T01:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/?p=1976"},"modified":"2017-03-23T14:30:19","modified_gmt":"2017-03-23T04:00:19","slug":"ministers-and-the-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/2017\/04\/ministers-and-the-media\/","title":{"rendered":"Ministers and the Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

Launching this week is\u00a0<\/em>Never a True Word<\/a>,\u00a0the debut political thriller from Michael McGuire. The book follows Jack, a journalist who thinks he’s met every shade of nutter, narcissist and bully,\u00a0until\u00a0he enters the bizarre\u00a0world of politics as a spin doctor. Perhaps\u00a0Jack might\u00a0have benefitted from reading\u00a0John Hill’s how-to,\u00a0<\/em>On Being a Minister<\/a> \u2013\u00a0here John\u00a0discusses his experiences with Adelaide’s ‘best informed, most intelligent and, at times, most offensive interviewers’, Matt and Dave.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My first Matt and Dave interview, as a minister, happened on my second day in the job. They asked me why I hadn\u2019t fixed some problem or other in the environment area. I think my response was along the lines of \u2018Give us a break; I haven\u2019t been in the job 24 hours yet!\u2019 I don\u2019t think either they or their listeners ever care what the minister\u2019s reason is \u2013 there\u2019s a problem and it\u2019s your job to fix it, no excuses! Fair enough.<\/p>\n

In almost 11 years as a minister rarely a week went by that I wasn\u2019t cross-examined, poked, accused, joked with or challenged on their morning program. Many weeks I was the minister du jour <\/em>two or three times \u2013 depending on the issue. The environment and health portfolios always had something of interest happening. That means that I did in the order of 500 or so live interviews with two of the best informed, most intelligent and, at times, most offensive interviewers in the business.<\/p>\n

Matt\u2019s and Dave\u2019s specialty is what I call the \u2018twist and turn\u2019. They like to take something you say and then use it against you (the twist) or jump from one issue to another (the turn). The fact there are two of them against one of you makes these interviews a challenging experience. I can\u2019t say I ever looked forward to these interviews, but I usually felt OK once they were over. To be honest, I generally enjoyed the contest \u2013 a seasoned gladiator in the arena with two growling middle-aged lions.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Some would argue that there is often little point going on these kinds of shows \u2013 relatively few people listen and the audience is generally older with established political points of view. Why go on and potentially make the issue worse? There is obviously merit in this argument; from a strict media management point of view it makes sense. And maybe my point of view is old-fashioned, but I think that if you can\u2019t stand up to tough media interviews you really shouldn\u2019t be in the job. It\u2019s like wanting to be a top cricketer without facing fast bowling. Ministers should front for a variety of reasons: it\u2019s part of their job, it toughens them (or destroys them) and helps build their reputation for openness (the public hates politicians who hide behind media management).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\" \"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Find out more about <\/em>On Being a Minister here<\/a>. <\/em>Never a True Word launches 4 April at 6.30 pm at the <\/em>Advertiser; find out more here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Launching this week is\u00a0Never a True Word,\u00a0the debut political thriller from Michael McGuire. The book follows Jack, a journalist who thinks he’s met every shade of nutter, narcissist and bully,\u00a0until\u00a0he enters the bizarre\u00a0world of politics as a spin doctor. Perhaps\u00a0Jack … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[225,107,112],"tags":[40,108,661,664,662,663],"class_list":["post-1976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events","category-extract","category-politics","tag-book-launch","tag-extract-2","tag-john-hill","tag-media","tag-michael-mcguire","tag-politics"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4v1Of-vS","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1976"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1982,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1976\/revisions\/1982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}