During a media training session, we stressed the importance that employees working out and about knew the organization had assigned specific people to talk to the media. I heard from the company this had been an issue in the past.
Then my mind wandered into a shaded, gray area it had not visited before during media training. It struck me that all participants during this particular training were men. The organization was male-dominated. And I recall from my days of reporting how supposedly seasoned spokesmen fell under the spell of attractive, nicely dressed female reporters.
The female reporters were not necessarily flirtatious. They were simply doing their jobs. They were young, attractive, already attached and unlikely to hold any desire for middle-aged men often lacking personality. But the men simply could not help themselves. Call it caveman behavior. They just enjoyed being in the company of the opposite sex and the fact that the women were hot fueled their fire.
It is only human nature that these one-sided relationships might mean someone releases additional information or at least points reporters in the right direction.
This goes both ways. Women comment about handsome reporters dressed in perfectly fitting suits. When I prepared to interview someone nervous about appearing on camera, I sometimes went out of my way to compliment their hair or tell them they were pretty. And maybe, just maybe, when I interviewed older women, I may have complimented her thinking she might appreciate the gesture from a younger man. Consider some examples:
- Before interviewing a woman in her home, she asked me to help her strap on her gold high heel shoe around her foot.
- A woman said she would have worn different underwear if she knew I would be attaching a microphone to her pants.
- When I told a woman I needed to put a microphone on her, she asked if I needed to attach it to her boob.
- A female reporter told me she batted her eyes to make journalistic headway with a governor.
- A co-worker told me one of our reporter colleagues slept with a woman he had interviewed earlier in the day.
- A female reporter told me a celebrity she interviewed later sent someone to ask her if she would join him in his hotel room.
- Some reporters and anchors post social media profile pictures more appropriate for lingerie commercials.
For the most part, sexual tension between reporters and spokespeople is harmless. It is a reflection of society and the dynamic between men and women. But if we are keeping it real, this unspoken heat between the sexes could lead to some information leak. And during this media training session, I went down that road. I warned the men, when dealing with sensitive information not ready for the public’s ears, don’t transform into bubbling fools because common sense crept south where common sense has no sense at all.
People may consider all this silly. But we have witnessed supposedly great men in powerful positions risk it all for sex. Take it for what it’s worth. Know your weaknesses. Don’t blame the opposite sex. Keep your comments in your mouth. How you handle your pants is your business.