Failed U.S. Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell generated so much ink for walking out on a live CNN interview with Piers Morgan that many press and pundits wondered: Was the whole thing an elaborate PR stunt?
It certainly made the news. O'Donnell walking off the set on a quiet Aug. 18 night quickly became a popular replay on network and cable news.
The Youtube video got heavy play. Hundreds of stories were written about it in newspaper and blogs early the next morning, August 18.
Here's the clip of the when O'Donnell walks out.
So there are two real questions.
First, was intentional and part of a PR strategy?
And second, is this sort of stunt smart, something that belongs in your tool box?
We may never know the answer to the first question. But I believe it wasn't intentional.
Her retreat was awkward. It took a long time. There was nothing smooth or slick about it.
The whole thing made her look thin-skinned and amateurish, which is not the sort of image you want to project, whether you're running for the U.S. senate or trying to hit the NYT bestseller list.
She told the host, Morgan, something about another speech she had scheduled that night anyway, as if any kind of speech to a ballroom of 100 or even 500 people could compare to a national and international audience on Piers Morgan Tonight, a flagship show for CNN, the show that replaced Larry King's signature anchor for the network.
A former candidate best known for a TV ad stating the "I'm not a witch" should've been focused like a laser on the job of rebuilding her credibility and authority.
The questions that Morgan asked weren't rude. They weren't personal.
She walked out after he asked her about gay marriage. That's a pretty standard question to ask a social conservative like O'Donnell.
Her response of saying she was there to talk about her book rings false, because she talks about gay marriage in her book.
So there is some evidence this walk-off could've been planned. But probably not. It was simply to rough, slow and stilted.
And in the end, the second question -- Is this sort of stunt smart? -- is what really matters.
The answer is No.
Did she generate headlines? Sure. But those headlines came at the expense of her public image.
Hundreds of stories hammered at O'Donnell's weak spot of credibility and seriousness, of being thin-skinned and a lightweight, unable to take the slings and arrows of media attention.
Those headlines may have spiked interest in her books by hard-core O'Donnell fans. But it did nothing for her ability to be a strong voice for conservatives. This gaffe hurt her public image with anybody on the fence about O'Donnell as a political leader and author.
Conservatives value strength. They like politicians and pundits to swing at ever inside fastball a reporter throws at them. If she really wanted to score points with her fans, she should've picked a fight with Piers and stayed around to win it.
This is part of the reason Michelle Bachmann is doing so well right now. She doesn't flinch at hard questions. She's unflappable under fire.
The problem with walking out of an interview, whether it's with a print reporter, a radio host or Piers Morgan on live TV, is that other reporters and editors take notice.
Sure, they'll write bad stories about you. But that's not really the worst of it.
The tough part is now every reporter, radio host and TV pundit knows which buttons to push.
Reporters and TV hosts get the same ink and attention -- and higher ratings -- when famous people huff and puff and walk out of an interview. It's exciting. It makes news.
Walk out of an interview like this and you might as well paint a target on your back for the press. They'll all push harder, just to see if you'll crack and walk off again.
Some politicians and public figures will fall into this trap. They truly are thin-skinned, and they'll implode, making a habit of bailing out after being asked any uncomfortable question.
You see this with professional athletes who refuse to talk to the press for weeks or months at a time.
You see it with candidates who won't answer questions from the press pack following them unless they've scheduled a press conference or media scrum.
This is a bad idea. Reporters have a job to do. They have to write a story every day.
When you give the press answers and quotes, they have something to work with.
When you give them the cold shoulder -- or walk out -- that's all you give them as raw material. And that's what they'll use.