Media Disaster: Just Walk Away Already!
Reader Bob LeDrew recently made me aware of a media interview featuring a Toronto School Board trustee named Sam Sotiropoulos. (By the way, what is the deal with Toronto public officials lately?)
Mr. Sotiropoulos generated some controversy late last month when he sent out the following tweet:
Shortly thereafter, a reporter from Canada’s Global News interviewed Mr. Sotiropoulos about his incendiary comments. The interview was an utter disaster and is worth watching in its entirety. (Video no longer available.)
As I watched this interview—which lasted almost nine excruciating minutes—I kept thinking, “Why doesn’t he walk away already? Does this man not have feet?”
It’s clear that Sotiropoulos thought his rapier wit was winning the interview, but he appeared blithely unaware that he was coming across as a smug dope who failed to score a single point.
Among the tactics he tried were:
- Repeating the same talking point almost verbatim numerous times
- Giving the reporter the silent treatment
- Denying that he had sent another controversial tweet that had appeared in his timeline
- Telling the reporter that while he could speak about his current tweet, he couldn’t discuss previous and related tweets he had sent
- Attacking the reporter for suggesting that there is a stigma attached to mental illness
- Claiming that his tweet was not expressing an opinion, but merely reserving the right to “form” an opinion
His last point was particularly disingenuous. He refused to acknowledge that his inference that transgenderism may be a form of mental illness could reasonably be read as a suggestion that it is. (For the record, the American Psychiatric Association ruled that “gender dysphoria” is not, by itself, a mental illness.) Using his logic, it would be completely fair of me to tweet the following:
But doing so would be a smear, and Satiropoulos would have a right to be upset at my inference. (I preceded and followed that tweet, sent yesterday, with an explanation that it was intended only as part of this story, not as a personal attack.)
Mr. Satiropoulos is entitled to his views, but he shouldn’t have sent his tweets if he was unprepared to defend them. For the same reason, he shouldn’t have agreed to an on-camera interview; a written statement would have served him far better.
Instead, he agreed to an on-camera interview without a time limit, during which he committed at least half a dozen interview errors. But of all his interview sins, the one that demonstrated his lack of judgment most is that he stood there like a punching bag instead of having the sense to end the interview and walk away.
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Wow, “there is no stigma attached to mental illness?” I think this guy spent almost 9 minutes telling the world that he is not educated enough to represent anyone in a public service position.
I have such a hard time watching train wrecks like this. I only got a couple minutes into it. I wonder what prompted the tweet in the first place; it seems somewhat out of context. In his interview he mentions comments from parents that he’s received, but then again I wonder why he felt the need to launch into this topic, and do so with a mere 140 characters. I often wonder, too, what about his position and the rules of the Toronto school board led him to believe that he could make such a comment under the auspices of his role as trustee. I’m reminded of some advice that I think came from Donald Rumsfeld as part of “Rumsfeld’s Rules” that in essence said that one had to always remember that one was speaking with the media on behalf of the administration, and that one’s personal opinion had no place in one’s comments. Sotiropoulos seems not to have considered that in both tweeting his comment and in the follow-up interview. He’s cast aspersions on the school board and their role in the oversight of education within Toronto. A sad outcome that goes beyond besmirching his own reputation.
Which of these two great visuals is more telling: his gaudy shirt or the totally empty bookcase behind him?
He is an empty suit.
This is so painful to watch, and his repeated “I reserve the right to form an opinion” is a dreadful line of argument. He seems to think it’s a clever way to avoid having to justify his tweet, but it’s clear to anyone watching that he is simply being evasive.