Since beginning the Mr. Media Training blog in 2010, I’ve written about hundreds of media disasters. For this slideshow, I looked back at the most outrageous things people have said over the past three years and compiled the most jaw-dropping sound bites I could find. Here are 10 of the most jaw-dropping media interview answers from the past three years!

1. The 10 Most Jaw-Dropping
Media Interview Answers
Presented by The Mr. Media Training Blog

2. Since beginning the Mr. Media Training blog in
2010, I’ve written about hundreds of media disasters.
For this slideshow, I looked back at the most
outrageous things people have said over the past
three years and compiled the most jaw-dropping
sound bites I could find.
Here are 10 of the most jaw-dropping media
interview answers from the past three years!
- Brad Phillips
Author, Mr. Media Training Blog
www.MrMediaTraining.com

3. 1. “I’m Eating a Cookie.”
When confronted by reporters
about a shortage of available
beds in Alberta’s hospitals, Dr.
Stephen Duckett, the CEO of
the Alberta government
agency responsible for the
health of more than 3.5
million Canadians, gave a
unique answer. He lost his job
as a result of his response.

4. 2. “Am I Sexually Attracted to Underage
Boys? Sexually Attracted? No.”
When former Penn State
football coach Jerry Sandusky
spoke to NBC’s Bob Costas in
2011 about horrific allegations
that he raped numerous
boys, no one was prepared for
his jaw-dropping answer to
this direct question: “Are you
sexually attracted to young
boys?” Sandusky had to clarify
the question before finally
saying “no.”

5. 3. “Fucking Slutbag.”
In 2013, Anthony Weiner’s
Communications
Director, Barbara
Morgan, responded angrily to
a former intern who had
written negatively about the
Weiner-for-mayor campaign.
Morgan told a reporter that
the intern was a “twat” and a
“c-nt” – but it was her
particularly evocative
“slutbag” comment that stuck
in the minds of the public.

6. 4. “I’d Like My Life Back.”
When an oil rig exploded in
the Gulf of Mexico in
2010, eleven men were killed.
Leave it to former British
Petroleum CEO Tony Hayward
to make the crisis about
himself. “I’d like my life back,”
he told reporters– a
stunningly tone-deaf
comment that appeared to
slight the deceased oil
workers. Mr. Hayward was
soon relieved of his duties.

7. 5. “I Might Have Tacos When I Get Home.”
When four police officers in
East Haven, Connecticut were
indicted on charges of beating
Hispanic residents in January
2012, a reporter asked the
town’s mayor, Joseph
Maturo, “What are you doing
for the Latino community
today?” Mr. Maturo’s shocking
response led to him being
blasted by members of the
community, the governor, and
the media.

8. 6. “Legitimate Rape.”
Missouri’s 2012 Republican
Senate candidate, Todd
Akin, caused an uproar when
he said, “If it’s a legitimate
rape, the female body has
ways to try to shut that whole
thing down.” He lost the race
against a vulnerable
incumbent that he otherwise
might have defeated.

9. 7. “Her Daughter Suffered Mental
Retardation.”
2012 presidential candidate
Michele Bachmann opposed a
mandated HPV vaccine, which
protects against cervical cancer.
But she went too far when she
shared an anecdote about a
woman who claimed her
daughter “suffers from mental
retardation” as a result of the
vaccine. Her dubious medical
claim put at risk people who
decided to forgo the vaccine as
a result of her misinformation.

10. 8. “Shit Happens.”
Before he became Australia’s
prime minister in 2013, Tony
Abbott was known for a series
of high-profile media gaffes. In
one of his most infamous
moments, he reacted to the
death of an Australian soldier
by quipping “shit happens.”
When a TV interviewer later
gave him the opportunity to
explain his comment, he went
silent for a painfully awkward
26 seconds.

11. 9. “I Can’t Say With Certitude.”
If pictures of you in your
underwear—in an aroused
state—were circulating
online, you’d probably know if
they were of you or not. Not
so for then-Congressman
Anthony Weiner. In an
interview with MSNBC in June
2011, Mr. Weiner claimed he
could not say “with certitude”
that the tweet of an aroused
man in his underwear was of
him.

12. 10. “Tell Them To Get The Hell Out of
Palestine.”
In 2010, journalist Helen
Thomas, then 89-years-old, was
asked her opinion about Israel.
“Tell them to get the hell out of
Palestine,” she
responded, adding that Jews
should “go home” to Poland
and Germany. Her comments
sparked immediate outrage;
she resigned within
days, marking a sad end to a
storied career.

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