Tucker Carlson’s interview with Donna Brazille on Fox November 9, 2017 was a tour-de-force. Talk about knowing how to take charge of a live TV interview with a hostile interviewer. She is outstanding, classy and in her own words “fiesty and gutsy”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKdizNUG59U
And here’s the take away. Quoting her mother (always good in an interview like this) she says “It’s not what they call you. It’s what you respond to.” Anyone who can calmly call on short truism like this is a winner in my books
As always, you can see Mr.Carlson’s glee at the beginning as he is about to skewer Ms. Brazille for apparently undermining her own party in her new book. But Brazille is ready. She takes charge from the top and whenever Tucker jumps into to change the topic she smiles politely and then takes back control. I love the give and take in this interview and my respect for Brazille grows.
The second take away is to stay calm and respectful as she does when she wants to change the subject. She does so first by saying she respects it’s Carlson’s platform and not hers which disarms him, giving her time to get her point across.
Finally, since she agreed to came on the show and suffer Carlson’s abuse in order to plug her book (because she says she has mouths to feed, no less!), she finishes the interview doing so, overriding Carlson’s efforts to wrap it up.
Can see the respect in his eyes as she does that? I thought I could. Now that’s credible. Watch and learn, I say!
Jon Lovink is LMI’s president, senior coach and counsel. He has 20 years of intensive media and spokesperson training and counsel experience across Canada and the US.
Few media trainers in Canada can lay claim to his combination of years of media and crisis communications training and counsel experience with his 20 years of background in the trenches of day-to-day news and current affairs operations. His work as as CRED™️ coach and crisis communications trainer puts him in touch with multiple clients dealing with real time current news media needs including wildfire management, major Canadian and international construction projects, first nations issues, significant national and regional government and corporate news and social media engagements.