Episode 464 Scott Adams: A Lesson on How to Answer Press Questions, aka Media Training

Hey, everybody, come on in here. I'm going to take some callers today in the context of teaching you a little lesson on how to answer questions from the press. Now, I'm sure that those of you who listen to my periscopes are ever so close to being famous yourself that the odds of you getting interviewed are pretty good. But even if you don't want to someday get famous and get interviewed, it's always nice to have a new skill. So I'm going to continue my little experiment of seeing if I can teach you 80% of a skill in less than 20 minutes. And this will probably be well less than 20 minutes. So the skill I'm going to teach you is being interviewed by the press. Now, I'm going to ask for some volunteers. So anybody who wants to click the button, the little happy face buttons at the bottom of the screen, which you can only see if you're using a mobile device, I believe, not on a laptop, but if you click that, you can be in line to possibly go live with me. And I'm going to interview you, and I'll only ask one question. So you each get one question apiece, and then I'll tell you what you did wrong, and then I'll show you how to do it right. Okay? So anybody who wants to be interviewed, jump into the queue. Let me start with some background. So when I first became an author and it looked like my book was going to be a number one best seller, which it was, my publisher wisely said, you know, what you need is some media training. And I'd never even heard of that. What the heck is media training? And it was explained to me that media training is learning how to answer questions in front of the camera, in front of a crowd from the media. And I thought, well, how hard could that be? Doesn't everybody know how to answer a question? Wouldn't it be exactly the same as if, you know you were talking to your friend and the answer is no? No, it isn't. And you really need to have the training if you're going to be in front of the public. And I'm going to demonstrate why in a minute. But one of the main things you learn in media training is that you don't have to answer the question that's asked. And unless you're part of the hard news news, if you're, let's say you're an author or, or you're a pundit of some kind who has something you're trying to persuade, you don't have to answer the question, you can simply answer your own question. And I'll give you an example. Let's say that you're an author and you're an expert on forest fires and reforestation after forest fires and preventing forest fires. That's your expertise. You go into a live on camera interview and the person interviewing you hasn't read the book. And so they ask you the wrong question. They don't even know really what your book is about. And so they say, when did you get interested in tree rings? And the first thing you say to yourself is, well, okay, I'm not here about tree rings. I'm not interested in tree rings. I'm an expert on forest fires. Has nothing to do with tree rings directly. But I got this question. The thing you shouldn't do is, well, actually that's not what my book's about. Because then you have an awkward moment. All the audience wants is. They want to. Damn, I might have to go get that. I'm going to ignore it. All the audience wants is some entertainment. So when they say, tell us about tree rings. And you have. You didn't come to talk about tree rings, you say, well, I'll tell you, tree rings will tell you a lot about forest fires. Forest fires. And then you just go into your. Whatever you were going to talk about anyway. So rule number one, you'd never have to answer a question. If you're there for political reasons or you're a lawyer on tv, then you do need to answer the question factually, or at least, you know, in some persuasive way. But other people don't really have to. If you're an author, you don't really need to do that and nobody cares. The thing they teach you is that nobody cares. The host will be just as happy that you answered an interesting question and they'll be happy that you ignored their actual boring question that was off topic. But there are three things that you sort of have to keep in mind when you're doing a press interview. You want to keep in mind the facts because you want to, you know, in most cases you want to be accurate. So the facts. You want to protect your brand, so you want to answer in a way that's not only true, but is good for your brand, whatever your brand is. And then there's a third level, and this is the fun part, the third level. And you have to have all of these in your head consciously. At the same time, the, the third level is making sure you don't say something that can be construed. The wrong way. So you can answer something clearly and honestly, but it can be done in a way that's so easy to take out of context that you're totally in trouble. That's the one you really have to watch out for. You can't make an answer that can be taken out of context easily, and it takes a long time to get good at that. All right, so I want to demonstrate how difficult this is. I'm going to take a guest and I'm going to interview said guest. And I'm just looking at everybody here, and I'm going to pick. Let's pick Jennifer. Jennifer is going to give some media training here. Jennifer, are you there? And are you ready to be interviewed?

Mr. Adams, it is a joy and pleasure to speak to you and. Absolutely.

All right, Jennifer, I know you've been running for the Senate for a while, and I have one question for you. Do you disavow the kkk?

Absolutely and completely, I disavow the kkk.

Jennifer, you just failed media training. Do you know what the headline tomorrow is? The headline tomorrow is your competitor had a good new proposal for a policy, but Jennifer is still denying that she supports the kkk. Your answer just paired yourself with the kkk. If somebody does a search for you, that'll come up with, she denies she's in the kkk. She did. She disavows them. You have failed as hard as you could fail on that question. And. And by you. But you learned something, right? And later I'm going to tell you.

It'S a no win kind of situation at first, but I'm sure you're going to teach us how to win.

So I will teach you how to win. Let's see if. Thank you, Jennifer. I'm going to pop you off here, and then I'm going to take another caller and we're going to ask somebody else. See Paul. Paul's coming on. Paul, are you there? Paul, can I interview you? Paul, have you ever danced?

I have, but I'm terrible at it.

Yeah. Have you ever tried, like, do you ever have a few drinks and try to moonwalk?

I prefer not to say.

Well, I'm sorry, Paul, but you failed media training. Because when I asked you if you're a drinker, you said. I declined to answer. Probably an alcoholic. He declines to talk about his drinking. See how tricky this is?

Oh, I am chagrined.

It gets worse. So, Paul, did you say that you've tried to moonwalk before?

Actually, no, I haven't because, well, I'm a white guy.

I can't do it. Well, okay, you just. You just failed video training twice, so. Don't say that. Don't say that. What? You just said less of that. So have you ever. Have you ever heard the. The song Billie Jean?

Yes, I have.

Do you like it? Do you like that song?

Yes, I do.

Wow. You've got a lot in common with a pedophile. Oh, man.

Weezer just covered it.

That one files so. So that one was a little exaggerated. You. Nobody would. Nobody would make the accusation I made, but they could easily say, well, you seem quite friendly with a famous pedophile. Is that a coincidence? So you can see how easily simply introducing a topic is the mistake. So you think to yourself, no, I'll say, I don't like that person. I'll say, I disavow that person. And your one level thinking that would work perfectly in your regular life doesn't work, because by disavowing it, you made that the headline, and now that's your brand. So you ruined your brand and you didn't think ahead. I'm gonna take another caller. Paul, thanks for playing.

I have been schooled.

All right, so we're gonna turn it around now, and I'm gonna let somebody interview me, all right? And I want you to ask me the tough question. Let's see if we can get. Oh, let's say I got to pick somebody good here. I'm going to say, Jill, you're all good, but I was looking at your profile pictures and trying to get a good mix of people here.

So, yeah, I was curious. Your relationship with your. Your girlfriend, we're all interested. And is that back together again? And what made you break up there in the first place for David?

I. Well, I don't talk about my personal life, but I want you to ask me a specific question, and then I want you. So you. If you'd like to play along, can you take. I do. I do.

I'm sorry. I just was stabbing and seeing if I could get you off balance there.

Well, that was very good. But let me give you the question. The question is, do you disavow the kkk? So you're the press and I'm the politician. Ask me the question.

Mr. Adams, how long have you known members of the KKK?

Now you have to ask it the right way. Ask. Do I disavow?

Do you disavow the kkk? Necessary.

That might be the dumbest question I've ever heard. Of course I do. And you should be ashamed of yourself to think that's even a reasonable question to ask. You know, the country has much bigger things to worry about than these little gotcha questions. I think it's time for you to take the training wheels off and see if you can join us at the big table. Now, let me tell you what I did right? Why, that's a good answer. Did you hear me say KKK in my answer?

I can feel the attack back in my gut.

You know, hold on. But did you hear. Did you hear me say KKK in my answer?

I did not.

No. So you'll never have a clip of me saying those words. So I made sure that the clip had to be shown the question and the answer together. And I made sure that the first part of my answer was an insult to the asker, because if they're gonna run it, if they're gonna run it, they have to run the insult. Then I shamed them for asking the question. But I did say, I do disavow them, of course, but without using the word. I just made a clear statement, but without using the word. And it wasn't the first thing I said first. I insulted him very quickly. So you don't want to spend a lot of time on that. You just say, that might be the dumbest question I've ever heard. Of course I disavow them. And you should be ashamed of yourself for asking these bush league gotcha questions. Now, hold on. When the press runs that clip, what is the interesting part about it? The interesting part about it is that I went all primitives on the asker. That's now the story. The story is how I. How I attacked the person who asked the question.

So the idea is to be merciless in your response.

The idea is to be interesting in your response in a way that takes attention from the question. So you want to take attention away from the question and put it on the answer that does not include the question and make sure that people have changed the frame to, God, what a dick. Who would ask such a stupid question? And you want that to be the clip?

I'm sorry for being a dick, Scott.

That's my job. Thanks for playing. I'm going to click off now. Having seen this context, think back to Jake Tapper asking President Trump, do you disavow the KKK and try to understand it with the new filter that I just gave you. If the President had said, I disavow them in just clean language, that would be compatible with things he said in the past. And it was Certainly incompatible with things he said subsequently. So it would have been accurate, it would have been consistent, and it would have been a giant mistake. Trump is one of the most savvy media people of all time, probably, I think that's fair to say, probably one of the most savvy media people of all time. And when he heard that question, here's what he knew that you did not get until you had media training. Simply answering the question with the truth. Yes, of course I disavow them. Becomes a headline the next day that looks like this. Hillary Clinton has some ideas for health care candidate Trump is still trying to explain why he's not a fan of the kkk. Those are your headlines the next day. He had no success vector without being as clever as I was in my example. Now, I had the advantage that I was prepared for the exact question and I actually told the caller to use the question on me. So I was ready with exactly the right response. You saw Trump stalling to answer the question. So when Jake said, just to be clear, I'm asking you to disavow the kkk, and you could tell that Jake was not quite knowing what was happening because it was such a simple question and he wasn't, and Trump was not giving a simple answer. Now, Trump's answer was, I would say, possibly true, which is that he didn't hear through the headpiece. I've done hundreds and hundreds of interviews involving earpieces, and I can confirm that they, more often than you would think, don't work. It doesn't mean it's the head, the earpiece that's bad, just the connection. So what are the odds that really he couldn't hear the question? Maybe I wouldn't rule it out, but it's not my personal, it's not my personal speculation. My speculation goes like this. Trump is not like the rest of you were an hour ago. He's an expert at the media, he's an expert at branding. He can see around corners a little bit better than you can. And when that question was asked, he recognized it as a trap. It wasn't quite as obvious to you as, you know, do you still beat your spouse? Right. There's no right answer to that. If you say you do beat your spouse, then you're a spouse beater. If you say you don't still beat your spouse, it indicates you used to beat your spouse. There's no right answer. There is no right answer to, as you're running for the presidency, do you disavow the kkk? He can't answer the question without making that the headline tomorrow, and he doesn't want that to be the headline. So the right answer would have been closer to what I did. And I don't think he was prepared for it. You can see his gears turning. And I also don't think, you know, look how much explanation it took for me to just explain the difference between somebody who's media trained and someone who's not. It's a pretty big difference. And so when I watched it, I had a different filter than most of you did because of media training. I said to myself, oh, that's a. That's a trick question. It looks like it's not. And that's what makes it tricky, right? I would say 99.99% of all the people who watched it said to themselves, good Lord, man, could there be the easier question? This is two plus two is four. Do you, running for president, disavow the kkk? How is that a trick question? That's just. I disavow them, right? Nope. Not if you have training. If you have training, you know that that question is designed to associate you with the kkk, because brains do not hear not. They don't hear disavow. They kind of hear him. In a technical sense, yes. But you end up associating the target of your trick question with that bad thing. So Trump could see, I'm sure, that this didn't smell right and that there wasn't an easy way out of the question because he kind of had to answer it, but he kind of wanted not to answer it because he didn't want to make that the headline in the association, there was no winning, Winning path. So let me take you to an example where Trump did better. Do you remember when Chris Cuomo, back in 2015 or 16, I can't remember, interviewed candidate Trump, and the Pope had just said that there were some problems with capitalism. So Chris Cuomo asked candidate Trump the following trick question. He says the Pope had some criticisms of capitalism. What do you say, candidate Trump? Now, the trick is that for Trump to disagree with the Pope puts him at odds with the Pope. You don't want to be at odds with the Pope, but you can't agree with the Pope because agreeing with the Pope would say capitalism is bad. And you can't be Donald Trump and say that capitalism is bad. So there was no way you could agree with the Pope, and there was no way you could disagree with the Pope. It was a great trick question. Do you remember how candidate Trump answered the question, and by the way, it was one of the most brilliant answers of all interview questions. This should be the media training clip that everybody learns how to do this. If you remember, he looked at Chris Cuomo and he said, I would tell the Pope to worry about ISIS because they want to take over the Vatican. You see it? Do you see the genius in that answer? Remember I told you that media training teaches you you don't have to answer the question. It's optional. You do not have to answer the question. So he did not answer the question because it was a trap question. Instead, he moved our minds to ISIS conquering the Vatican. You can't get that out of your head. So what was the headline? The headline was, trump says the Pope better watch out because ISIS might take over the Vatican. That was the headline. So he turned the trick question into a headline that makes him look like, you know, the strongest player on the field because he was tough on isis and he's, you know, bringing, bringing ISIS up again. That was exactly the right way to answer the question. The KKK thing, he screwed up, right? So there's no nice way to say it. You know, he flubbed the trick question. Now, if one of you had flubbed a trick question, I would not come down hard on you because at least until now, you had no media training. So if a civilian flubs a test, a trick question like that, you say, well, they were civilians. They're not really trained on talking on camera and stuff. You can kind of see why they do that. But if somebody as experienced as Trump then smells a trick question and still flubs it, that's just a mistake. That's, you know, I'm not going to put a spin on that. That's just a mistake. At his level, he should be able to do the ISIS taking over the Vatican move every time. All right, he should have been able to do that with that question as well. That was the right way to play it. But. Well, there is a difference. Let me call out the difference. With the capitalism and Pope question, nobody really cared about the actual answer. And I think everybody knows that nobody really cared about the answer. So when he changed it to a different answer about ISIS and the Vatican, everybody was happy. Well, something to talk about. But the question about, does he disavow the kkk? He couldn't really not answer that question. And you also couldn't answer it without hurting yourself. So that's why the approach that I told you earlier in the periscope was the only way to go all right. Was this useful? Did you learn anything? And did I keep it to 20 minutes? Probably not. All right, good. Well, media training is exactly the kind of stuff you could learn if you wanted to get a personal consult from somebody on the interface by WinHub app. So I don't know if we have any experts of that type, but it's exactly the right kind of expert to have on the interface by WinHub app. So if you were one of those experts and you do media training, consider downloading the free app. It's called Interface by wenhub. And then you can set your own price and people will pay you for the phone call. It's a video call, actually, by the minutes. That is all for today, and I will talk to you later.