President Pinera: masterful management of media and miners

It was a live global media event - the biggest since 9/11, nearly a decade earlier: 33 miners rescued from the San Jose mine on 12 October.

Billions watched, but one man media-managed it all and came out smelling of roses: President Sebastian Pinera of Chile. And he followed his triumph with a European lap of honour, meeting the Queen, the Prime Minister and the leaders of France and Germany; giving them all souvenirs of 'his' rescue. 

One shouldn't be surprised: in his previous life, Harvard-educated Pinera was the owner of Chilevision, a network of TV stations. He understands the media, and he understood the importance of rescuing the miners, leaving his dying father-in-law to go to the mine in Copiapo on 7 August.

Once it was established on 22 August that the miners were alive, it was all systems go from the Chilean government to rescue them and to bask in the glory of it all.

The story had everything: characters, drama, tension, plot and two possible endings - one glad, one sad. Hardly surprising then that the world's media flowed to the Chilean desert. At the zenith there were 2,000 journalists and technicians at Camp Hope, along with the miners' relatives. Pinera was there too, if not always physically then in the shape of his doppelganger, the mining minister Lawrence Golborne, who, like him, spoke perfect (American) English.

Money was thrown at the engineering of the rescue itself to speed it up. Those of a cynical nature might have noticed that Pinera was due to go on a European tour starting on 17 October and it would be neat if the rescue could be accomplished by then. It was.

Pinera knew the hazards of allowing a media circus, so he created a pool. The only pictures coming from the top of the mine and from inside the mine (an innovation that surprised and pleased the world's media) during the whole rescue came from a Chilean government feed, controlled by one of Pinera's lieutenants from his Chilevision days. To make sure of exclusivity, the top of the rescue shaft was surrounded by Chilean flags, rendering others' shots unusable. Everything was wrapped in the Chilean flag: the rescue vehicle in national colours, flags flying everywhere and the national anthem playing as each of the 33 emerged.

Pinera was omnipresent at the rescue itself as the pictures and emotion traversed the globe by satellite. As each of 'Los 33' emerged to the waiting Chilean cameras, they first embraced their wives (or their mistresses), then were thrown into the warm embrace of Pinera and his wife, and then together they sang the national anthem. Each and every one of the 33 - in the 23 hours it took to bring them to the surface - got that Pinera hug.

But Pinera wasn't finished. When 'Los 33' were put together for a group photo in the hospital in Copiapo, who should be sat slap bang in the middle (he's the one without medical sunglasses) but President Sebastian Pinera - managing the miners and managing the media masterfully to the end. A lesson for us all?

John Mair, a senior lecturer in broadcasting at Coventry University, delivered a version of this post to the Dubai Police Conference on World Media on 19 October.