BACKGROUND CHECK
How seriously do you take the opinions of ‘experts’ when the TV interview is beamed live from their living room, asks Juin Cassie
PRESIDENTS & POLITICIANS BORIS JOHNSON
From his sick bed, before he was admitted to intensive care, his backdrop featured a nice black and white etching of what looks like his favourite pub on the wall behind him.
Take him seriously, he was obviously planning to get back to normal as soon as possible — well, those plans have been scuppered.
DONALD TRUMP
Always flanked by a bevy of sycophantic ‘yes men’ all within coughing distance. Don’t take him seriously at all as he finds it difficult to stick to his own rules — he changes them every day, butts in and is known as being a spectacular example of the Dunning-Kruger effect — a cognitive bias in which people with low ability at a task overestimate their ability.
ANDREW CUOMO
The governor of New York chooses relevant backdrops — hospital yards, food banks, bustling ambulance parks, plain black curtains and crumpled flags. It’s very dramatic. Take him very seriously.
ALEXANDER LUKASHENKO
The president of Belarus’s backdrop is an ice hockey pitch while he advocates drinking copious amounts of vodka and doing lots of exercise as a cure all. Not really to be taken seriously. On the other hand, he might be right.
JOURNALISTS
Nine out of 10 times there’s a bookcase with shelves containing books graded in size and colour co-ordinated plus a set of 1960s encyclopaedias that have never been opened. Take no notice. Bookshelves with books, framed photographs of dogs/children, an ugly vase or a nondescript watercolour all give a welcoming family feel. Take more seriously as you can generally relate and see they care.
Books and greenery: healthy pot plants on the windowsill — listen, they’re keen for everyone to survive. Enormous triffid-type plant straight out of the Little Shop of Horrors which might gobble them up any moment: fascinating, but takes your mind off what they’re saying. They’re possibly more interested in saving the planet anyway. Ignore.
Now the bars are closed and the streets are empty it makes it difficult to illustrate a story. No bullets, no bombs, no trudging refugees. Foreign correspondents are reduced to filming at desolate airports or from sparsely decorated rooms. Take them seriously if they have an earnest expression and a new story.
FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS HEALTH EXPERTS THE NUTTY PROFESSOR
You’ll spend more time looking at the background than listening to the message. You live in fear and dread that this fragile man will disappear under an avalanche of files, books and dirty coffee cups teetering on the shelf behind him. You can take him seriously next time, once you’re used to the backdrop.
His cluttered backdrop includes a world globe, half a bookcase filled with motley paperbacks, a large triffid and what looks like a map of Benoni. Very confused, as is his message. Can’t take seriously.
MEDICAL DOCTORS
Hospital backgrounds. Take very seriously indeed, except for the one who appeared on Love Island. Can you take anyone from Love Island seriously?