Preface from the 2001 Edition of Winning with the News Media

The rush by international mega-corporations to gobble up America's news media has accelerated. The massive shift in ownership is changing the way the media operate in ways the Founding Fathers could not have imagined.

Internally, they are in great turmoil. From the outside, it is very difficult just to keep track of which corporation owns which outlet. They constantly merge and morph.

We outsiders often wonder — Which rules are they playing by today? Newspapers, radio and television — delivered by broadcast, cable, satellite and the Internet — are dramatically different now than they were even 10 years ago.

Monks in the Monastery

The American heritage of press freedom was based on local, Mom-and-Pop newspapers. The "press" was the only for-profit business given Constitutional protection.

In my seminars and speeches around the country, I talk about my changing perspectives of the news media. Particularly newspaper people. That was where I grew up. I was one of them.

Now, I view too many of them as isolated monks in their monasteries. Printosaurus Rex. An endangered species unable to grasp what is going on in the reality of the outside world.

At the same time, I recognize that long tradition of isolated individualism was a marvelous counterbalance. The men who gave birth to this democracy (women were not allowed in Freedom Hall) had incredible insight into the evils that can corrupt a democracy.

They understood the capitalist system too often is driven by greed.
The writers and editors of their time were cantankerous zealots who stood apart so they could freely criticize government and society, and to hell with the consequences. Whether or not you agreed with them, you knew they followed their calling because they had convictions.

They believed their roles were essential in a free society. If their newspapers made a little money, OK. But that was not the holy grail.

Times Have Changed

My, how times have changed.

Most news media outlets today are small divisions of huge corporations which view the media as simply a distribution system for other products. Like movies and TV shows, or stock market data. News is a sideline commodity. Almost an afterthought.

The people who work in the news division within the big corporation are not as wealthy or as powerful as the lawyers and executives whose primary instinct and function is to make money.

These are the times that try men's souls, George Washington wrote during the dark hours of the American Revolution.

I believe the dark hours are here again. In the form of tough ethical decisions, when the new media corporations decide whether to tell us the truth, or hide it. Perhaps tell us some of it. But not the whole truth, nothing but the truth, if it will hurt the corporation. That has not been a part of their history or game plan.

The new material in this edition explores that idea in depth.

New in This Edition

In this edition (the seventh) I've expanded the chapters on Crisis Management, Ethics, Libel, Privacy, and Networks. Some of that was prompted by traffic on my website, which I monitor daily. These are the areas that attract the most visitors.

The book itself is eight pages thicker.

Every chapter has been updated. Some have been squeezed a little smaller to make way for the expanded material. The Technology Chapter is gone. New products, services and ideas are conceived so rapidly now, that chapter in recent editions was sometimes obsolete before the ink was dry.

The Internet as a resource for research continues to astound me. In gathering new data and statistics for the book, I no longer have to prowl the stacks of remote libraries or make dozens of long distance calls to update the information. It's all there, on the Web, at the other end of my DSL connection. In some cases, the keepers of the information gave me special access to their databases to assemble and update the names and numbers. Wow!

Thank you.

Afraid of the Media

I left the news business and became a news media consultant in 1984, after the first edition of this book took off. My experience with my clients since then has taught me a great deal.

They are almost universally afraid of the media. Afraid of being misquoted. Or taken out of context. Afraid of looking stupid or guilty, when they are neither. Afraid to admit they — or someone within the organization — screwed up.

Afraid of their own lack of skill, experience and understanding. Afraid of media bias — real or imagined. Afraid to face professional journalists whose job it is to cross-examine them.

Reporters often seem like litigators, searching for the vulnerable underbelly that will destroy the witness and win the case.

Allies, Not Adversaries

This book is designed to help you understand the process. In the huge majority of interviews, the reporter is not trying to destroy you. The reporter is simply trying to gather enough for a story. The reporter needs your input.

In too many cases, the fear — the stage fright — make you adversaries when you should be allies.

That's part of what this book is about.

The Most Powerful Force

The news media have become the most powerful force in this society. I can think of no other institution, no other group, with the power of the media. The media have the power to create — the power to destroy. And — unlike those other forces in our culture — they can do it almost overnight.

They are the instruments of change. They set the agenda for us as a people. We do not get around to discussing or solving a problem until the media put it on our priority list.

Executives in government and corporations spend a great deal of time and money learning how to be better managers. All that effort can quickly go down the drain — along with your career, I tell them — if you do not perfect your media skills.

Attorneys Need This

My experience has also led me to believe that attorneys in both government and corporate life are often responsible for the media decisions that lead to disaster.

In a crisis, they are often put in charge. They act in good faith, and in good conscience. They are doing what their training and experience taught them to do. But they do not understand that the media play a completely different game. With very different rules.

I tell lawyers I believe they are now guilty of malpractice — by not representing their clients' best interest — when they block, or fail to help them make the decisions that will win with the media.

No Guarantees

I make no guarantees with this book that you will always win. In fact, if you play the game you will take some hard knocks. Professional athletes are in the game to win. Sometimes they lose. The good ones come back the next week to play again as well as they possibly can.

I know you can win the media game most of the time if you develop your skills as a spokesperson. If you scout the media team and learn their plays. How they think. How they decide whether you're a good guy or a bad guy.

You may need to learn how to be brutally honest in the middle of disaster. To show your humanity in public. To apologize when you stumble, and not get arrogant when you win.

It works. It really does. I have had remarkable success with clients who were under attack by the media. And I have taken great pride in watching those I coached develop their sense of self confidence in speaking for themselves and the people around them.

That, too, is what this book is about.

Good luck.

Winning with the News Media

A Self-Defense Manual When You're the Story

2001 Edition (7th)

Copyright © 2005, 2001, 1999, 1996

By Clarence Jones

Copyright ^© 2005, 2001, 1999, 1996