If there’s one thing I learned in television training at QUT – it was “never, ever say anything in front of a microphone that you don’t want recorded and broadcast”.
This was subsequently backed up in the media training session we had consultants in to run here at work. They went a step further. Never ever say or do anything anywhere near a camera that you don’t want recorded. The cameraman running our training said he’s seen people sacked for not turning up to everything with their camera rolling to capture stuff from beginning to end.
Time’s top ten “Open Mike” moments have some real gems that crystallise this point beautifully. Like this one, number one, from the Reverend Jesse Jackson:
“See Barack Obama been, um, talking down to black people on his faith based…I want to cut his nuts off.”