Body language: the link between Test cricket and media training
Well done Mitchell Johnson, former Aussie quick, for pointing out the…
By Robert Taylor on the November 29th, 2017
I always tell my trainees that they should never agree to do a media interview before they‘ve asked themselves two questions: “why am I doing this?” and “what’s in it for me and my organisation?”.
Very occasionally, however, it’s better to ignore self-interest and speak from the heart.
That’s what Andy and Pat Cardy did on Thursday outside the court where Robert Black, notorious paedophile and mass murderer, had just been convicted of murdering their daughter Jennifer in 1981.
The Cardys spoke with passion, yet dignity. They spoke of their pride and love for their daughter, and the immense pain of losing her. They described the horror of hearing in court about the last hour of her life – worse, said Mr Cardy, than they’d even dared imagine.
Most impressively, without any hint of bitterness, anger or vengefulness, they calmly articulated their view that murderers such as Robert Black should receive the death penalty.
They also spoke about their Christian faith. In this country, in general, people who volunteer their faith fail to realise how irritating they’re being and how smug and patronising they sound. They often repel ten times as many people as they attract, yet appear to convince themselves that they’re doing God’s work.
Such “evangelicals”, I fear, kid nobody but themselves. But Mr and Mrs Cardy showed how it should be done.
Without a smidgen of smugness, without any hint of self-righteousness, they described how their belief had helped support them for three decades.
Their simple, dignified statement was – precisely because they didn’t mean it to be so – the single best advertisement for Christianity I can remember.
