By Joshua Green
Rich Masters, forty-two, is the managing director of media relations at Qorvis Communications, a mid-sized public-relations firm in Washington, and a Jedi master to television pundits. Last year a Qorvis partner spotted an unmet demand—hardcore pundit training—and hired Masters to devise a cutting-edge program to fill it. Qorvis built a faux television studio in downtown Washington solely for this purpose, identical to the real thing in every detail, including decorative books and a rubber ficus.
Masters is an energetic, fast-talking Louisianan, a former television reporter and senatorial staffer who favors alligator-skin boots regardless of the occasion. He is also a player-coach, as rare in the political-talk-show world as in sports: in addition to training clients, he appears regularly on television himself. Were his métier football and not feuding, Masters would be said to prefer a “smash-mouth” style of play; a Democrat, he is a frequent and enthusiastic guest in the enemy territory of Fox News, and gives as good as he gets. …
Qorvis gives its clients a choice of goals that, as best I can determine, range from politely assertive, for nonpartisan reporters simply wishing to sneak a word in edgewise, to partisan jerk, for aspiring cable-TV mainstays. I opted for the full-blown-jerk treatment, and Masters seemed pleased.
Source: The Atlantic
