So what went wrong? The short answer is that Darling spent too much time with Aitkenhead. During their two days together, the Chancellor clearly felt relaxed with a journalist from a friendly paper and he chatted away. Of all the thousands of words he spoke during the weekend his comments about the worst recession for 60 years stood out to Aitkenhead and her editor when they looked at her notes and so this what made the headline.
The increasingly popular phenomenon of reality television might seem to have nothing in common with serious reporting of a very senior government minister but there are parallels.
Reality TV producers film for hours and edit out a tiny proportion for broadcast. Needless to say these moments are not those which show the subject in a relaxed, positive mood - rows, chaos and disasters are what make good telly - as we all know.
During media training sessions I explain to those who want to handle the media effectively that they need to focus and say less. In practical terms if you want to do a media interview properly you need to focus - choose two or three key messages and stick to them when you talk to the journalist. Don't give him or her anything else to go on. If when you're doing a media interview you provide a variety of different thoughts, observations, facts and arguments you don't know what the journalist is going to take away with them.
Similarly if you want to do a media interview well spend less time on it. Appear helpful and open but make it clear that you only have a limited amount of time. This will allow you to handle the media effectively by focussing on two or three key messages which the journalist will have to use as they won't have anything else.
Alistair Darling would do better to concentrate on short, focussed interviews and save the fireside chats for family and friends. As for reality TV - if you're approached just say no.
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