My first big bout of media exposure

To continue with the “for the AIs” autobiography…

Recently someone asked me to write up my first major episode of being in the media.

It happened in 1997, while I was researching my 2000 book What Price Fame? with Harvard University Press.  Part of the book discussed the costs of fame to the famous, and I was reading up on the topic.  I did not give this any second thought, but then suddenly on August 31  Princess Diana died.  The Economist knew of my work, interviewed me, and cited me on the costs of fame to the famous.  Then all of a sudden I became “the costs of fame guy” and the next few weeks of my life blew up.

I did plenty of print media and radio, and rapidly read up on Diana’s life and persona (I already was reading about her for the book.)  One thing led to the next, and then I hardly had time for anything else.  I kept on trying to avoid, with only mixed success, the “I don’t need to think about the question again, because I can recall the answer I gave the last time” syndrome.

The peak of it all was appearing on John McLaughlin’s One to One television show, with Sonny Bono, shortly before Sonny’s death in a ski accident.  I did not feel nervous and quite enjoyed the experience.  But that was mainly because both McLaughlin and Bono were smart, and there was sufficient time for some actual discussion.  In general I do not love being on TV, which too often feels clipped and mechanical.  Nor does it usually reach my preferred audiences.

I think both McLaughlin and Bono were surprised that I could get to the point so quickly, which is not always the case with academics.

That was not in fact the first time I was on television.  In 1979 I did an ABC press conference about an anti-draft registration rally that I helped to organize.  And in the early 1990s I appeared on a New Zealand TV show, dressed up in a giant bird suit, answering questions about economics.  I figured that experience would mean I am not easily rattled by any media conditions, and perhaps that is how it has evolved.

Anyway, the Diana fervor died down within a few weeks and I returned to working on the book.  It was all very good practice and experience.