Liveblogging the Yearly Kos

Hello, everyone. I arrived in Vegas around 11:00am, and I'm liveblogging the training session with Think Progress (Judd and Jen) for media training.  Right now they're talking about how to contact the media and get them interested in your events.

I'll continue to update as things move on.  So far it hasn't covered a whole lot.
Right now we're talking about sending pitch e-mails. Short, 3-4 sentences about who you are, what you do, links to your work, headshots/pictures. In the wake of Yearly Kos, now's a good time to do it.

Preparing to go on TV: in general, Democrats are not interested in just talking points, we care about policy and it matters. If you don't believe in government, you're proud to spout talking points. You need ONE impression that people will remember. You can't be frazzled and go off on a million topics. Think of it as a mission statement. I learned this the hard way last week when I went on our local Air America affiliate as a guest and went around and around and didn't focus enough.

I just talked about preparation a bit. The idea is to bounce ideas off of other people maybe before the show, to get a good idea of how you can get focused. Any TV segment you do is not going to be much longer than 3 minutes, and tops is going to be two questions. You're not going to be able to speak longer than 25 seconds on TV, maybe 45 seconds on radio. It's important to practice that.

By the way, I think I'm doing this on the sly...

Update [2006-6-8 17:3:1 by dday]: A question was asked about what happens if you're thrown a question that you don't have a fully formed opinion about. It's maybe OK to give an "I think it's premature" kind of answer. It's certainly better than bullshitting something that doesn't really make a lot of sense.

Update [2006-6-8 17:3:1 by dday]: Mike Stark's in the room, and he made a good point. Listen to the show you're going to be on and try to understand how they approach the issues and their guests. That's invaluable.

Update [2006-6-8 17:3:1 by dday]: "message repetition is very 90s"... the idea is to take one message that you're going to give, and use a lot of different topics to go about delivering it. This keeps the audience interested, but reinforces the message. Prepare with a "center box" and put the supporting information around it. Most importantly, ANSWER THE QUESTION. You can pivot on to a bunch of other points, but you have to answer the question in an honest way. I agree, I can't stand when people talk past the question on talk shows.

Update [2006-6-8 17:3:1 by dday]: We're talking about how to avoid traps. This is particularly significant when you're on shows that set you up to fail. The Think Progress folks think you should go on Fox shows. I agree, you can't run away from debates. When a guy like Hannity tries to bait you, ANSWER THE QUESTION and then pivot back to the main thing you want to say. Being evasive will make you look weak.

Update [2006-6-8 17:3:1 by dday]: They're giving camera tips now. These are good things, basically about looking at the camera, sitting up straight, proper clothing (dark shirts, jackets, modest and boring clothes, etc.), sitting on the edge of the chair, etc.

Update [2006-6-8 17:3:1 by dday]: "You need to have a certain level of disengagement with what's going on." You don't want to lose your authenticity but without coming off as angry. Be aggressive but not angry. This is crucial, IMO.

[UPDATE] We're doing on-camera sessions right now. I'm watching emptywheel do an interview on the Valerie Plame scandal. Judd from ThinkProgress is doing his Tim Russert impression. She knows every angle of this thing, and I think she'd make a very good voice for us in the media.