Vint gives a media masterclass…
August 29th, 2007 by Lloyd Gofton
Vint Cerf is doing the rounds with the UK media at the moment, I’m sure you’ve seen him, read about him, or heard him over the last few days.
I’ve been monitoring his interviews with interest, and not just because he’s one of the founding fathers of the internet, but because he gives a masterclass in how to deal with media questioning.
This is a subject that’s been high up on the agenda at Liberate Media today, so I thought I’d use Vint’s interviews as a case study and sure enough he didn’t disappoint.
My immediate thought was how has he managed to steer clear of all the negative press that the internet has kicked up over the last few years?
My answer quickly became apparent in an interview with ITV news this afternoon when he seamlessly side-stepped a negative question about the less desirable side of the internet, by turning it on its head and highlighting it was in fact society at fault, which the internet merely reflected.
This isn’t a new revelation from Mr Cerf, he uses it fairly regularly, so I thought that BBC Radio 4’s Today programme would give him a sterner test. When asked a similar question focused on content, in his guise as Google’s chief internet evangelist, Mr Cerf admitted Google “felt a responsibility” when it came to content that people were accessing via its search engine, but added that the company did not have control over what users posted. Only when illegal content was brought to its attention should it be compelled to act.
Beautiful, he answered the question but at the same time removed himself and his organisation from the glare of blame.
This strategy continued and he remained non-committal about issues of regulating the internet and the legal repercussions of illegal content.
Of course this strategy wouldn’t work for all spokespeople. Mr Cerf is only rolled out for non-contentious evangelism, and I’m not suggesting it as the key to media training, but I did stand back and appreciate that he’s gone into each interview with a game plan and delivered his messages. He has steered the conversation masterfully and only covered the subjects he wanted to.
It’s no coincidence that his interviews and quotes all sound the same. There’s only one person in control and that’s Mr Cerf.
