As editor of Bioplastics are a hot story in the business press right now, but one recent report probably left viewers scratching their heads.
Fox Business did an Earth Day segment on bioplastics, interviewing Steve Davies, marketing manager at Natureworks LLC.
Check out the interview below. The anchors are poorly prepared. If they have a list of questions, you can't tell. They don't appear to be paying attention to what Davies is saying -- they're both reading their laptops while he talks, and then ask questions that barely make any sense when he pauses.
Davies does a nice job staying on point, especially given the circumstances. He's prepared, even though the reporters are not. He really holds together the 5-minute segment, unless you're interested in whether one of the Fox reporters can eat plant-based tableware, or if the other will get a free pair of shoes after the interview is finished.
I think most TV reporters do a good job. They handle many stories each day on a wide variety of topics, often covering issues and companies where they don't have a lot of expertise. That said, this report is disappointing.
I don't bring this up to slam these reporters. I'm not sure if the poor interview is their fault, or their producers', or the result of a technical problem.
But since I often counsel Plastics Blog readers that they should get their message out, including by doing interviews with journalists, this is an example of how an interview could go wrong if you don't prepare in advance.
This interview easily could have degenerated into a story that left viewers with the impression that all plastics, including bioplastics, are toxic. Davies is able to gently deal with that misconception and guide the reporters back to the point of the story, without getting into an argument.