Handling Difficult Questions from the Media

Someone said that being interviewed by the media is like Russian roulette. You never know which question will kill you.

While most interviews are not nearly that dangerous, today many reporters seem intent on catching spokespeople off guard and getting a provocative “sound bite.”

In this type of environment, it is essential you keep control of media interviews.

That doesn’t mean evading difficult questions. If you evade a question or say “no comment,” you open yourself up to “ambush,” where an interviewer would literally interrupt you, stick a microphone in front of you and ask embarrassing questions.

In extreme cases like that, your evasiveness could become the story, which you don’t want. So learn three basic techniques for dealing with difficult questions: bridging, labeling and questioning.

• “Let’s consider the larger issue here…”
• “Before I get to that, let me fill you in on this…” or
• “To answer that question, I first need to explain that…” (Often the reporter will never get back to the initial question.)

As you can see, bridging offers different information than would have been included in a straightforward answer to the original question. In the process, bridging often brings up more interesting and positive matters than the interviewer initially asked.

Former Vice President Dan Quayle did this well early in the campaign for re-election. A reporter asked him if he and President Bush had discussed whether Qualye should leave the ticket, given his low approval ratings and the relatively high approval ratings of many other Republicans.

Quayle said that the president and he discussed many things, but that the real issue was Bush’s vision for the country, and went on to discuss the president’s campaign promises. That simple, straightforward bridge (“We have discussed many things…”) got Quayle back to where he wanted to be.

A note. Once you’ve bridged, volunteer more information than is required. This can encourage the interviewer to go off on your tangent rather than pursue the original line of inquiry.

The best labels are catchy titles or phrases that summarize your point. Good labels—the Iron Curtain, the Cold War, the Silent Majority—are hard to refute and easy to recall. By their very nature, labels are simplistic, but better you simplify things than leave it to the reporter.

Think up apt phrases beforehand; do not depend on the creative juices flowing in the pressure of the interview. (As Mark Twain said, “It usually takes me more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.”)

Use your label more than once in the interview, but do not belabor it. Three mentions are usually enough to make the label “stick.”

• “Would you please define that term?”
• “Would you rephrase the question?” or
• “Are you asking me X or Y?”

Use the question to shift the discussion to the issue you want to raise. Do not try to use a question as a weapon. The late Richard M. Nixon tried that when, during a campaign, he asked a testy Dan Rather if he were running for something. Rather replied: “No, Mr. President. Are you?” Nixon never really recovered in that interview, and people still remember that put-down.

For example, in a news conference during the Gulf War, a TV reporter asked a probing question. The military spokesperson danced around the issue, not answering it.

The response was predictable. The reporter rephrased the question, making it more targeted and direct. The spokesperson smiled and said: “That’s the same question I didn’t answer the first time you asked it.”

Everyone laughed and the topic was dropped. It was an example of how effective humor can be, when done properly.

©2005, Communications Plus

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—Kay Paumier, Communications Plus