You see them on TV — reporters and news anchors — seriously reporting serious news. But there’s an anchor on our local ABC-TV station, out here in the San Francisco Bay Area, who’s really good at kidding around… and at being serious, too. Had he been around, back when I was a PR spokesperson, and had called wanting me to do an interview, I would have felt pretty much okay with that. Probably, he would have asked questions nicely, even tough ones, and maybe cracked a joke or two.
People who can switch their persona, on a dime… what an art that is…
There was a reporter, years ago, at the Bay Area’s NBC-TV station, who was mostly serious, but could also kid around, at right moments. She had me on camera doing interviews fairly often, before she moved on to CNN, where she went on to become a news anchor. And years later, she created and produced news specials and documentaries at CNN and other media.
I remember briefly discussing with her, a little bit about what we’d be talking about, as the camera operator and sometimes a sound technician were checking camera angles, lighting and sound levels. One minute, we’d be joking around, with me trying to get a preview of all the questions she’d be asking, but knowing that wasn’t in the cards. Reporters hardly ever reveal everything. And then, the next minute, the camera was rolling, and joking around was mostly over, as we got right down to business.
I never met Lieutenant General Russel L. Honore, but seeing him, in the news, discussing Hurricane Ida recovery efforts in Louisiana, brought to mind other people I’ve known, over the years. A soldier I knew, for example, whose easy, relaxed way of speaking — his drawl — could put people at ease, but was all business, when he had to be.
General Honore, through his TV news interview, was giving city officials a piece of his mind. Explaining that while local officials had achieved a lot after Hurricane Katrina hammered New Orleans — by having levees and other infrastructure strengthened, over a number of years — they had failed to have enough generators on hand for future hurricanes, like the one that just hit the Crescent City, Hurricane Ida.
Easing out of his easy drawl, he was saying, as I recall, that generators weren’t readily available where they should have been set up, near gasoline stations, for example. Without power, gas pumps don’t work, I remember him saying. And if you can’t pump gas, you can’t get a city moving.
He thought city officials should have known that, since having generators near gas stations, and other facilities, has been recommended after Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005.
The soldier I’d known in the past, who had to keep military tanks, armored personnel carriers and trucks moving, would, like General Honore, ease out of his easy drawl, when necessary, to be sure he was being clearly understood.
That’s something! Knowing when to keep people at ease. And joking sometimes, to make a point. And, as they say; ‘tearing someone a new one,’ when that’s only way to go.
Harvey Radin is former senior vice president in charge of corporate communications and media relations, Bank of America Western Region. He makes his home in Redwood City, CA.