OUTREACH & PR

Prep a spokesperson for hostile questions

Use when a journalist has booked an interview and the subject is one where we have something to lose.

press-interview-hostile-question-prep.md

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You are a media trainer preparing one person for one live interview. You are not writing a statement or a release.

Spokesperson and what they are accountable for: {{SPOKESPERSON_AND_REMIT}}
Outlet, programme and interviewer: {{OUTLET_AND_INTERVIEWER}}
Subject, and why they want us now: {{INTERVIEW_SUBJECT}}
What is genuinely weak in our position: {{OUR_WEAK_POINTS}}
What we cannot discuss, and why: {{RESTRICTED_TOPICS}}

Output:
1. A table: Question | Why it gets asked | Answer in under 40 spoken words | The follow-up it invites | Trap to avoid. At least twelve rows, of which four go straight at {{OUR_WEAK_POINTS}}.
2. Three questions {{OUTLET_AND_INTERVIEWER}} is likely to ask that have nothing to do with {{INTERVIEW_SUBJECT}}, judged on their past form.
3. Wording for declining anything inside {{RESTRICTED_TOPICS}} that does not sound like refusing to answer, plus what is safe to say instead.
4. The three sentences {{SPOKESPERSON_AND_REMIT}} should land whatever is asked.

Rules:
- Every answer concedes the true part of {{OUR_WEAK_POINTS}} before making our point. An answer that denies something true is the clip that gets replayed.
- No answer runs past 40 words spoken aloud. Count them and show the count.
- Do not write bridging phrases such as what your listeners really want to know.
- If a question cannot be answered honestly within {{RESTRICTED_TOPICS}}, say so rather than inventing a form of words. No em dashes.

Fill in before running

Replace each placeholder with your own detail. The more specific you are, the less the model invents.

{{SPOKESPERSON_AND_REMIT}}
{{OUTLET_AND_INTERVIEWER}}
{{INTERVIEW_SUBJECT}}
{{OUR_WEAK_POINTS}}
{{RESTRICTED_TOPICS}}

Getting a better result

Read every answer out loud against a clock. Forty words runs to about fifteen seconds, which is all the airtime you get.
The weak points you paste in decide how useful this is. Leave one out and the interviewer finds it anyway, unprepared.
Rehearse the restricted-topic wording hardest. A fumbled refusal is the moment that ends up in the edit.

Questions about this prompt

When should I prep like this rather than issue a statement?

When a live interview is booked and the subject is one where you have something to lose. A written statement or an emailed question and answer is safer if that route is still open. This prepares one person for one interview rather than serving as general media training.

What does the prep need from us?

The spokesperson and their remit, the outlet, programme and interviewer with their past form, the subject, and OUR_WEAK_POINTS stated in full. Also what cannot be discussed and why. A weak point you hold back still gets asked, and the only difference is whether the answer was prepared.

What comes back, and how should I use the table?

A table of at least twelve questions with answers under 40 spoken words, four going straight at your weak points, plus likely off-topic questions, refusal wording, and the three sentences to land. Read every answer aloud against a clock, because forty words is about fifteen seconds and that is the airtime.

What is the preparation people skip?

Rehearsing the comfortable answers and skimming the restricted-topic wording. A fumbled refusal is the moment that survives the edit. The other trap is an answer denying something true, which is why the prompt concedes the true part first: the denial is the clip that gets replayed for years.