I read an article in the newspaper this morning that had a go at the Federal Opposition and its leader for always disagreeing with the Labor Government's policy ideas. I couldn't agree more and have been saying that for years. If you want a fresh take in the media and an almost guaranteed run, step up and tell them you heartily agree with this policy or that. After all, they can't all be bad.

The same paper today sets out Australia's net Government debt as peaking in 2012-2013 at 6% of GDP. This compares with 154% for Japan, 86% for USA, 84% for Britain and 75% for Germany. That almost cries out for the Federal Opposition to say that Labor has done a good job managing the economy. They might add how they would intend to improve it further but at least admit the Government has done something right - something those other big economies haven't been able to manage.

Trust me, the media would headline such a response with a line like "The Libs Agree, For Once" and the public (read voters) would start to think the Opposition was more normal than the Government - which could also learn a lesson here.

I have to give credit where it's due and the Victorian Government did apologise to those people in Footscray (see post below this one) but it took them two days to come to their senses - and sideline the lawyers I suspect!

However, I'm still hearing that these people won't know details of who's lost their homes to compulsory acquisition and so on for the next few months - and this after two years of planning.

All the media training in the world won't help you handle them if you're not doing the right thing in the first place.

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The Victorian Government is in damage control today after completely stuffing up the announcement of its new multi-billion dollar transport plan for the Western suburbs. While the bureaucrats and politicians dined at a fancy city restaurant to announce the plan, the media were left to tell the Footscray residents of one street that their homes would be bulldozed to make way for the Regional Rail Link. 

Let's leave alone the woozy behaviour of the transport bureaucrats who, upon seeing television news cameras in the street, quickly abandoned their plans to alert the residents of the government plans. Let's look instead at an arrogrant government who then refused to apologise to those residents.

We keep telling anyone who'll listen - if you stuff up (and this was a monumental cock-up), apologise and move on. But no, my guess is that the lawyers in government have closed ranks and told the government not to apologise as that would leave them open to bigger compensation claims.

I personally think the Victorian Government should find other nearby houses for the 26 families affected and swap them into the new residences whatever the cost - we taxpayers would bear it in the interests of progress. But please, stop treating the public so arrogantly and refusing to apologise when you get it wrong - or that same public will retaliate at the polling booths in November.

Well, I hate to say I told you so but I did tell a lot of people last year that the Australian Prime Minister had disconnected from the people and I wouldn't be surprised if he was a one-term leader. Today, that prediction came true as he meekly handed over the baton to his deputy, Julia Gillard, because she had the numbers to roll him. She became our first female Prime Minister.

What went wrong? Well, he lost party support because Labor members were terrified of losing their seats at the looming Federal election as a result of that disconnect. Kevin Rudd failed to communicate with the electorate and went from being a pompous, bureau-babble speaker to one at the other end of the spectrum, a leader trying too hard to be one of the people and using silly phrases like "fair shake of the sauce bottle" when he wasn't the type to say such things (and it's wrong anyway).

But for too long I'd been thinking - where is our Prime Minister? Why isn't he talking to us through the media and showing leadership and vision?

The media are important to anyone who wants to communicate with the population of our country but particularly for politicians. Oh dear, Kevin, you should have realised that and maybe you would have lasted longer than one term.

By the way, I suspect something similar will happen to President Obama unless he improves his game and starts connecting with the American public.

An interesting aside to last night's impassioned media conference by Kevin Rudd who, at that stage said he would fight to retain the leadership. He told the media that the Australian public had elected him as Prime Minister. No, we didn't Kevin. We're not in the USA where that does happen. We elected you to Parliament but your party elected you as Prime Minister, not us!

Well, BP just keeps doing it. This time  the company chairman, Carl-Henric Svanberg, has referred to victims of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill as the "small people".

The comment was made to the media after the chairman met with President Obama at the White House. The chairman later apologised for his "clumsy" language.

The latest gaffe follows CEO Tony Hayward playing down the extent of the spill and saying he "wanted his life back." The CEO later apologised for having made "a hurtful and thoughtless comment".

The thing is - he shouldn't have made any comments like that, nor the chairman. You can't control what the media will use of your comments but you sure as hell can control what comes out of your mouth. Time for BP to learn that lesson and start thinking about what it should and shouldn't say to the media.

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Besieged oil company BP is digging a deeper hole for itself over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. As the media today takes a fresh look at how much oil is actually coming out of that pipe on the ocean floor, the company has admitted it is buying Google search terms to direct searchers to its official PR Crisis site.

AFP reports that searches on Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft's Bing for "oil spill," "Gulf oil spill," or related phrases deliver a "sponsored link" at the top of the search results page to BP.com and the message: "Learn more about how BP is helping."

It would indeed be much better if BP ignored the lawyers (always bad for public relations!), fessed up to its sins, said it was sorry and used its vast financial resources to put in a place a regime that absolutely minimised the likelihood of such accidents occurring again. Sure, I always advise companies to put the positive aspects forward but not at the risk of ignoring the negative - and this is too big a negative to ignore or gloss over with positive spin.

Meanwhile the investigative journalism site, ProPublica has published a damning story that calls into question BP's safety and environmental practices this century. The story goes much deeper than any daily news report can go and paints a very unsettling picture of BP operations and culture.

That, of course, is to be expected as the Gulf of Mexico oil spill continues. The media will dig deeper and look at other company operations. The industry generally must be quaking because the media spotlight is sure to broaden its reach to include other oil companies and their safety and environmental records. Stay tuned. 

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The media (and therefore the public) absolutely frown on anyone ignoring sensitivities. The latest example came from BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward who said he would "like his life back" after weeks and weeks of dealing with the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

The comment was seen as tactless given that 11 workers had died when the Deepwater Horizon rig blew up in April.

How do you avoid such mistakes? Simple really - be aware of any sensitivities surrounding the incident and make sure you don't overstep any boundaries. In media training for the incident, draw up a list of the "no-go" areas and firmly cement that in your brain.

The best tip of all - have some compassion inherent within you. Don't let corporate life rob of you of that virtue and then you naturally won't fall into holes like that!

As an addendum to this post - here's what the The Independent had to say about Tony Hayward today:

.... it is also important that BP's chief executive, Tony Hayward, puts a cap on his own stream of self-pitying and self-regarding remarks, which have only inflamed US hostility towards the company and indeed towards Britain.

From the now infamous complaint that he wanted "his life back" to yesterday's smug-sounding assertion in a television interview that BP would remain in the Gulf "long after the media have gone", the public face of BP has continued to display a tin ear for public opinion, turning himself into an almost pantomime figure, the proverbial smooth-talking, ill-intentioned Brit of so many Americans' darkest imaginations.

Over and above the question of Mr Hayward's individual gaffes, his responsibility for the overall direction of BP's public relations strategy with regard to the oil spill needs to be taken into consideration. From a distance in time of more than six weeks, this strategy must be pronounced a total failure......

...............if he does not start to display more sense and sensitivity in his all-important communications with the American public, pressure will grow for him to step down sooner rather than later in order to let someone else do a better job.

From a media training perspective - OUCH!

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Body movement beats being frozen any day when it comes to communicating on television. However, there are certain types of body movement you should avoid and one is the annoying habit of moving up and down on your toes, as if trying to make yourself taller. George Colombaris of Masterchef Australia fame has started a craze with this annoying habit on the popular show. I notice that now his cojudges are doing it as well as some contestants.

To use a George phrase - what could go wrong here? Well, people could get annoyed so, please, stay the same height as you animate for TV!

The latest casualty in forgetting that rule is American Vice President Joe Biden. Standing at the dais with Barack Obama yesterday as the President signed historic health reform into law, the gaffe-prone Biden muttered "This is a big f...ing deal", in an aside meant for Mr Obama's ears only.

However, he was clearly heard on television microphones which easily picked up his less than statesmanlike comment.

Why anyone would say something like that when near a bank of microphones is beyond me.

I know, I know; there are times when you need to read a prepared statement to the media. However, be advised, it often looks insincere. I realise we have the lawyers to thank for this one (and I strongly suspect the USA lawyers are to blame initially) but to see people reading from a  prepared draft looks so insincere especially if the statement relates to an emotional issue; which they often do.

If possible, you'd be much better to take the prepared points on board and say them in your own words without referring to a piece of paper at all. That way, you look more sincere and your credibility will be greater. Try it.

Oh, by the way - if you get caught up in a firestorm like Tiger Woods, learn from his contrition mistakes. Don't assemble a throng of supporters who all looked like they were stuffed dummies with no reaction to anything he said; don't have the so-called media event in a setting that looked like a funeral parlour; and, as above, try to say something from the heart rather than from that damned bit of paper that the lawyers wrote for you.

We now offer really inexpensive web sites to customers. If you require a small site for your business, you've come to the right place. There are more details on this page but, basically, we can get you up and  running for 12 months for only AUD$490 - and wait till you see what that site contains:

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We're pleased to announce that we now offer online media training. We can use the phone or any of the Instant Messaging services like ICQ, AIM, Yahoo etc to help you prepare for a news media encounter.

If you prefer we can videoconference for free through Skype so we can see each other. We believe this new service will be of particular benefit as a sort of "just-in-time" session for those of you who have a news media encounter looming and you're just not sure how to best handle it.

We have a tonne of experience in this area and no matter where you're based, we can help. If you are interested just use our Contact page.

Our first comment has to do with appearing natural on TV news programs. When a reporter or cameraman or woman asks you to walk from here to there so they can get some overlay or voice over footage, please try to ignore the camera and walk naturally. I've seen so many versions of people walking like they have a stick up their bum that it really depresses me.

All you have to do is forget all about that blasted camera and the crew and walk to the far point as if you were walking to lunch or a coffee on your own. Be NATURAL or, guess what? You'll look like a real twit on the TV news tonight or tomorrow.

Well, this is our new blog as we've now consolidated all our media training and video production information onto the one jimdo site. We hope you like the new website and that the information we will post here helps you in your media and video endeavours.