What is the best answer you could possibly give? In many situations when dealing with the news media? I don't know. Yes, that's it. I mean, literally say, I don't know. If a reporter asked you a question you don't know the answer.
Quite often, the best response is to say, I don't know. But don't just stop there. Then bridge to what you do know that's relevant, and that takes you closer to your message. Big problem a lot of people have is they want to be extra helpful to the reporter. They want the reporter to think they're smart, nice and friendly and resourceful. So when the reporter asked a question, and the individual doesn't know the answer, they'll guess.
If you guess and you guessed incorrectly, you've misled the reporter. You then misled the readers, viewers listeners if it gets into the final story, and you've destroyed your credibility, a reporter finds out It turns out not to be true. So my recommendation do not guess. Don't be afraid to say, I don't know. Here's the catch though the key to all this. Don't act embarrassed.
The reporter asked you a question you're like, I don't know. That's gonna be the most memorable, emotional moment of the whole interview. That's going to be if it's television, what the reporter will want to put in. So the key is, don't act embarrassed, just act Matter of fact. Now, sometimes a reporter may ask you something and you know, somebody in another office and other division in your organization will now just politely say, I don't know, Smithers and our accounting office does. I'd be happy to find out and I can call you back.
Certainly for any kind of telephone interview. That works fine. If it's a live TV show, you can always say that, you're happy to Have your office, send the information within the hour. The key is don't act embarrassed. And don't just stop with, I don't know. Awkward silence bridge to something relevant that you do now.
By the way, this is the perfect answer if someone wants to throw a hypothetical situation, do you have a how awful things are? If you are, in fact indicted, doesn't this mean your company is going to go through bankruptcy and your business career will be destroyed? Well, the person's asking about the future reporters asking me about the future. How many of us really know the future? So in this case, I am completely honest, ethical response, I don't know because I don't really know the future. So you can start off by saying, I don't know about that.
What I do know is every day I come to work, I behave in a third honest, ethical manner, helping clients. And that's what builds my business. So I've answered the question. I said, I don't know. The reporter cannot accuse me of dodging the question. If I said, I don't know, caveat, this doesn't work to just dodge if it's something you do now, the reporter says, isn't your client this evil dictator is destroying his country?
And is your client you can't just lie and say, I don't know, you know, your clients are. So you can't use it as a get out of jail free card with questions, you know, like, it needs to be restricted to questions you don't know the answer to. But in those situations, it works perfectly. Don't be afraid to say I don't know