All Hail the Spinmeister - Tony Blair's performance at Leveson critiqued
Today, former Tony Blair was in front of the Leveson Enquiry, discussing his relationship with News International boss Rupert Murdoch and admitting that his Government's policy was to get close to the media and develop those relationships. He is a man who has plenty of experience in front of a camera, and who knows how to play the media game. Max Prangnell, co-founder of specialists media training and communications consultancy Millbankmedia discusses the techniques Blair used and just how well he did.
In the curious world of media training there are three public figures who we at Millbankmedia hold up almost daily as stellar performers. RBS boss, Stephen Hester is one. Alex Salmond is another, but the Daddy of them all has to be Tony Blair. Today at the Leveson Inquiry into media ethics he did not disappoint. We were treated to a masterclass in the three basic techniques which so many others attempt to employ and so often, so transparently, fail at.
First is the tone. Our Tone has got it bang on. He’s a pretty straight guy dontcha think? Well no maybe not, but his tone, his language, his confident-but-slightly-discursive answers are all about trying to convince you that he’s right. It’s the manner of the slightly exasperated, secretly posh, dad trying to convince his teenage kids not to take drugs. It’s the little smile at the beginning of an answer that gives the game away. It’s a little smile that says ‘I thought you might ask me that, ‘cos hey, I get where you’re coming from and I was young once, but...’And for just a split second you’re on his side because you can see that he’s in a difficult position and you’re ever so slightly embarrassed for him. You want him to answer the question well. That smile says he too recognises the cringiness of the moment and he’ll help you through it because underneath he’s a really nice bloke.
Much was made by the Twitterati today of the way he was using his hands. The BBC presenter Lauren Laverne tweeted that she was being hypnotised by his ‘honesty hands’, well maybe so Lauren but what’s the effect? Again, ‘I’m an honest bloke and if I can just explain this simply enough you'll agree with me…’ And then there are the words. We teach all our trainees never to use words or sentences that a bright, interested fourteen year-old wouldn’t understand. Straightforward language reads straight across as straightforward bloke. On tone alone our Tone delivered, and whatever your view on his personal integrity, if you were asked if he appeared honest today, it would be difficult to say no.
Second, there’s the content. TB knows in his bones what Gordon Brown never got. As an interviewee, you do not get to sit down with the journalist or even the lugubrious Robert Jay QC and say, ‘it’d really help me if you asked me this this and this.’ So how do you get from tricky question to good answer? Well it’s simple Gordon (and Ed!) You reframe the question. Hester does it, Salmond does it beautifully and Blair was back doing it instinctively today. His favourite technique is to use the little word ‘look’. Cast your mind back to how many times Blair begins answers with the little word bridge that takes him in to the territory he wants to talk about. The sub-text behind ‘look’ is ‘it’s not about that it’s about this’, and then he goes on to give the answer he wants to deliver. We call it the Blair reverse ferret, it resets the context of the question and combined with the little knowing smile can be a highly effective. Incidentally, it doesn't have to be ‘look’, Nick Clegg likes ‘listen’.
Finally, there’s the underlying narrative. As any decent media performer will tell you (and yes dear reader it is a performance) It’s not just about batting away the questions. You also need an underlying narrative. An over-arching story. Something that says how all your answers fit into one big picture that the punters will like or agree with or even vote for. Blair, as usual, went for the ‘small concession’ approach today. In essence this was, ‘Yes, I cosied up to Murdoch. Who wouldn’t? Is he powerful? Yes, of course. But did I do anything that any other politician hasn’t or wouldn’t do? No. Did Murdoch directly influence policy? No.’ But, on the crucial question before Leveson today, ‘did Blair get the balance of that relationship wrong?’ ‘Look, it’s a definite maybe on that one, but let’s just put that in context...blah blah blah.’
In the end, what did we get? No real revelations. No big confession. You could argue no real grilling. And our lasting impression? Just an ordinary bloke doing a very tough job in difficult circumstances. And that’s just what our Tone wants you to think. After all he’s a ‘pretty straight guy’ isn’t he?