your dhs presents: interview hell!
when we created the old “red button blog,” part of the thinking was that we would be able to talk about stuff that happens when the red button is off…the behind the scenes stuff…inside baseball…y’know? well, we recently had one of those days.
there’s this pr guy for the department of homeland security. he’s coming to town with the fusion conference. i tell him i want the secretary or the director of national intelligence (DNI). he laughs. that’s not unexpected. people laugh at me all the time. so he offers 4 possible interviews. 2 of them don’t interest us. the other two guys work for the DNI and can talk about intel and terror. good stuff.
but the guy keeps pimping the two who make us yawn while we insist on one of the other two guys. what’s the difference to him?
now, i understand that if i don’t do what the guy wants, i can be wire-tapped, followed, have my emails read, credit cards cancelled, house torched, cats waterboarded and that i will likely be shot in the back of the head in a dark alley (ellen says i’m being over-dramatic), but i don’t care. we don’t take interviews for the sake of taking interviews.
things got a little outta hand though. while still trying to convince us to take one of the yawners, he’s yelling at our executive producer jayme (she wanted to contribute to this post, but i didn’t have the time to edit it) because we won’t take his guests.
seriously? does dhs control the airwaves? i thought that was the fcc (and they usually only have an issue with johnny). so poor baboo-the-pr-bear finally breaks out his color-coded threat-level fanny pack slash secure tea-thermos-cell-phone and calls washington to arrange the interview we wanted. and guess what, the guy, john cohen, was quite good and interesting.
so why all the tooth-pulling? at least this guy is the exception. most pr folks who approach us are respectful and good to work with as we try to be when we go after interviews.
the next time this guy calls, i hope he’s offering up the president for an interview. otherwise, we’ll probably let it roll over to voicemail…and then think twice before we listen to the message.
rock’n'roll