AHA Creative Strategies - B Seen B Heard B Known

By now, many people have heard about (or seen) the on-air fight that View hosts Rosie O’Donnell and Elisabeth Hasselbeck had in front of millions of people.

Naturally, like anything embarrassing, controversial or amusing, the video ended up on YouTube.

This is a perfect example of how people can lose it in front of a camera. These women are seasoned professionals – and yes, I am sure their mandate is to discuss and debate, but I would doubt that the producers wanted their conversation to disintegrate into this mess. These two women are on television all the time, they know how to behave in front of a camera, they are (agree or not with their view) TV professionals. But what happened here hit their hot buttons and common sense and logic went out the window and it turned personal. Except for that feeling of watching a train wreck happening, nothing good came of this fight. Did you learn anything specific about their opinions or was your mind opened to a new fact or information you didn’t have before?

Dealing with controversy is not easy, especially if someone is hitting your hot buttons. A good reporter who wants a passionate or dramatic response will know how to hit your hot buttons. How do you manage it if you find yourself losing your temper during a conversation with the media, on a panel or answering questions after a speaking engagement?

Many people think that it’s easy. It’s not. One of the components of our media training workshop is identifying the hot buttons and working through how to manage your personal feelings and emotions. Think about what your hot buttons are, what sets you off, how you can manage your message while lowering your blood pressure. Practice the key points that you would like to communicate. That is what is important, not biting at every controversial push from someone.

A few tips, if you feel yourself heating up.
• Before answering any questions, count to three. Visualize the answer on the evening news. Do you want your clip to be of you yelling?
• Put yourself in the shoes of the person asking the question, what is their agenda?
• Breathe deeply.
• Acknowledge that this is an important, personal or emotional question for you – and then focus on the three points you want to make about this issue.
• If the person asking the question is emotional – acknowledge it respectfully, (“I see that this is an emotional/personal/important issue for you and I appreciate that…”).
• Do NOT get into a yelling match, no matter what. If voices are escalating, take a deep breath, ground yourself and respond by saying something about the emotional nature of the issue and that perhaps a short break might be needed so that everyone can collect their thoughts and return to the question at hand more calmly.

Disagreement is not easy. Conflict is not easy. And it has splashback. For the women of The View, it went farther than the fight between Rosie and Elisabeth. Guest star Alicia Silverstone was on as a guest right after the fight and she completely snubbed Elisabeth.

If I was Silverstone’s publicist, I may have given her grief about that snub. That fight was between Rosie and Elisabeth – and Silverstone put herself into it. But – you have to remember when you let your hot button get pushed – that it is usually in front of more than one person and you may negatively influence other people by losing it.