The Ten Worst Media Disasters of 2010

3. Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-NC) Assaults Interviewer
When Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-NC) was confronted by two young interviewers in June, he responded by striking the camera and violently grabbing the wrist and neck of one of the interviewers. It later emerged that the two interviewers were coordinated by Republican political strategists – but that’s no excuse for his stunning physical assault.
Rep. Etheridge lost his re-election bid by about 1,500 votes. This incident likely sealed his fate.

2. Bigoted Woman Ends Career of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown was locked in a tight re-election bid when, just one week before May’s election, he spoke with one of his constituents on the street. He politely ended the conversation with the woman, got in his car, and was driven away.

But he forgot that his microphone was still attached. As he was driven away, he called the woman a bigot. The tape was played on an endless loop in the press. And his party lost 91 seats in the election.

1. BP CEO Tony Hayward Wants His Life Back
Every so often, a spokesperson delivers a phrase so ridiculous – so out-of-step with reality – that it becomes a national catchphrase.

When an oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico in April, eleven men were killed. Five million barrels of oil gushed from the sea floor. Tens of thousands of local workers who depended on the Gulf for their livings lost their jobs. Fishermen were left without seafood to sell, hotels were left without guests, and restaurants were left without diners.
Leave it to former BP CEO Tony Hayward to make the crisis about himself. “I’d like my life back,” he told reporters in May – a stunningly tone-deaf comment that appeared to slight the deceased oil workers.

Hayward’s highly-publicized media missteps created an irreversible narrative of a clueless company that just didn’t get it – and just didn’t care. Mr. Hayward was soon relieved of his duties, but the reputational damage to BP will take years to fix – if it can be fixed at all.



This post first appeared on Mr. Media Training blog and is re-purposed here under a mutual agreement.
Brad Phillips is the author of the Mr. Media Training Blog. The Mr. Media Training Blog offers daily tips to help readers become better media spokespersons and public speakers. It also examines how well (or poorly) public figures are communicating through the media.