When you’re doing a media interview and the reporter asks you a question you’d rather not answer, never say\u00a0“no comment.”<\/p>\n
The only thing that’s worse than that response is\u00a0trying to embarrass the reporter by asking an unrelated question so preposterous that it’s designed to throw him off guard.\u00a0 People who do that usually end up embarrassing themselves.<\/p>\n
Thanks to Sharon Dotson<\/a>\u00a0of Bayou City Public Relations<\/a>\u00a0in Houston,\u00a0Texas who sent a link to a video interview<\/a>\u00a0conducted by investigative reporter Elliott Davis\u00a0of WTVI Channel 2<\/a> in St. Louis, Missouri back in 2002.\u00a0 Elliott hosts a segment called “You Paid for It”<\/a> in which he uncovers government waste and corruption.<\/p>\n In this particular interview, he was asking St. Charles County Executive Joe Ortwerth about the battle between Ortwerth and county judges over the new $5.3 million county justice center that had been standing vacant for several months.\u00a0 The judges wanted metal detectors and a full security detail in the building.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ortwerth refused.\u00a0 Taxpayers were left paying for utilities and other expenses while the disagreement wound its way through the courts.<\/p>\n When the reporter asked Ortwerth about the squabble, Ortwerth first said he would answer questions but only if the reporter submitted them in writing.<\/p>\n When Elliott Davis persisted with his questions, Ortwerth asked: “Do you know that Jesus loves you, Elliott?”<\/p>\n “Yes, and I love Jesus,” Davis replied.\u00a0 Then he kept questioning Ortwerth.\u00a0 The county executive continued digging a deeper hole for himself with responses and questions related to Jesus.<\/p>\n Instead of trying to embarrass the reporter, the politician ended up embarrassing himself.\u00a0 Not only did his responses make him look guilty, wimpy, cowardly and unable and unwilling to come to his own defense, they made him look clueless.\u00a0<\/p>\n Davis,\u00a0on the other hand, appeared cool, calm, collected—and completely in charge of the interview.\u00a0 That, in turn, gave the investigation more credence.<\/p>\n If you know which questions to expect during an interview, you’ll be better prepared to answer them.\u00a0 See\u00a0“Special Report #2: Questions You Can Expect Reporters to Ask During an Interview.”<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When you’re doing a media interview and the reporter asks you a question you’d rather not answer, never say\u00a0“no comment.” The only thing that’s worse than that response is\u00a0trying to embarrass the reporter by asking an unrelated question so preposterous that it’s designed to throw him off guard.\u00a0 People who do that usually end up\u2026 Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","iawp_total_views":5,"wds_primary_category":609,"footnotes":""},"categories":[609],"tags":[168,620,29],"class_list":{"0":"post-1243","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-tv-radio","7":"tag-crisis-communications","8":"tag-how-to-interview","9":"tag-media-relations","10":"entry"},"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Joan Stewart","author_link":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/author\/jstewart\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1243"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41669,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1243\/revisions\/41669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}