You got a message, that's great, but you can't just trot out your message if you're Tom Cruise or some Hollywood celebrity and really famous. Yes, you can come out hold a press conference, read your statement and say that's it. No questions today, you can get away with it. At least for a little while. You cannot get away with that. As a public official as a spokesperson for a public official, you're being paid for by tax dollars, and governments in a democracy there is a presumption of transparency.

You've got to be able to answer questions. A CEO, a private sector consultant executive can get away with a lot as far as dodging certain questions slithering away, but reporters love to say to a politician, you're dodging the question. Don't dodge the question. You're being a weasel here. They love to point out when reporters or when political figures dodge questions when spokesperson dodged questions, so you know it's coming. So you're going to have to answer questions, but I want to give you some tips here some strategies to answer in a way that doesn't hurt you.

They're going to be tough questions that assume you and everyone in the agency is somehow corrupt, nefarious, doing things to harm people. There's a presumption among some of the media that anybody who would even work for government is evil tainted, Communist or fascist or something awful. And the tendency is to want to defend yourself and be defensive. Anytime you're defending in the media you're losing. You have to simply state your answers in a completely positive context. Even if the question has incredibly negative context.

I'll give you tips on how to do this. But do remember you're going to have to answer questions the key for the tough, nasty question. The unfair questions, the brutal questions, you'll get all of those. You have to answer briefly, blandly, and then you have to move to the message points you care about the most. That's the skill we're going to work on now.