Media Training: Evasion is the clip

Journalists have the right to ask, you have the right not to answer. How you decline is the craft.

In the clip economy, a dodge doesn’t look like a dodge. It looks like a guilty face, a lowered gaze and a pause long enough to cut. The question gets remembered. Your non-answer becomes the story.

So the most valuable thing I teach spokespeople is not how to answer. It’s how to decline.

Answer first. Technique second.

Start with the obvious, because it gets forgotten. If a straight answer works, give it. Answer, add one concrete proof point, then stop. Most questions need no manoeuvre at all. Spokespeople who reach for a bridging phrase when a simple “yes, early spring” would do sound exactly like media-trained spokespeople, which is its own kind of clip.

When a question does need handling, there are four tools, each with one job:

Tool	Its job	Sounds like
Block	Protect a boundary	“I’d rather get you the exact figure than guess. What I can tell you is…”
Bridge	Steer to useful ground	“It’s a fair question. What matters most to our guests is…”
Flag	Make one line impossible to miss	“If there’s one thing I’d want people to remember…”
Hook	Invite the next question	“…and there’s a view you don’t usually get from inside a lounge.”

Learn them separately; use them naturally together. The technique should disappear. The conversation should remain.

“No comment” is a clip of someone hiding

The rule for a good block has three parts, every time. Set the boundary plainly, with no apology. Give what you can, so there’s no vacuum for speculation to fill. Then bridge to your ground, or hand over warmly to the right person. Skip any step and the block becomes a dead end.

The warm handoff is underrated. “That’s one for our head of hotels; let me introduce you” is a complete, professional answer. Add “what’s your deadline?” and you’ve turned a refusal into service. Done coldly, the same refusal is a clip about secrecy.

Case study: one sentence, three moves

The Palace’s September response to Earl Spencer’s claims in his new book is the best block-and-bridge I’ve seen this year. Paraphrased: it declines to comment on books as a matter of principle, then notes the King is mindful that fraternal grief can cloud reason and colour memory.

Look at the mechanics. The block is a principle, not a “no comment”; it’s also the licence to speak. The bridge moves from institution to person: compassion, not rebuttal. And the landing casts doubt on the claims without ever calling anyone a liar. The next day’s coverage led on the statement. The price: it gave the story legs. Every technique has a cost; the skill is choosing which one you’ll pay.

Case study: an apology with no landing

Contrast Ed Sheeran on stage in Philadelphia, his first show after Macklemore was dropped from his tour. His words were sincere: he acknowledged difficult decisions and apologised for making mistakes.

But there was no block (what he wouldn’t discuss), no bridge and no landing (which mistakes, and what happens next). And the clip that travelled wasn’t the words. It was his eyes dropping to the autocue. Critics called it scripted. On camera, delivery is the message, and an apology without a “what” and a “what next” keeps the story open.

Case study: when the response becomes the story

The hardest example is the most important. A guest at a Travelodge was assaulted after staff gave her attacker a key card. She was offered a £30 refund, which she called insulting. Her email to the chief executive was handled on the CEO’s behalf. A meeting with MPs was cancelled. In August, the chief executive stepped down, reportedly over the handling rather than the incident itself.

This is a real victim and a serious crime, and the teaching point is only the handling. Every failure in that chain was a response failure: the refund, the unread email, the cancelled meeting. None of it started as a media problem. It became one at the moment of handling.

What to take into your next interview

• Answer the question, then take it where you want to go. Evasion is the clip.
• You cannot bridge from a fact you don’t hold. “I’d rather get you that than guess” is a first-class answer.
• Never say “no comment”. Block, give what you can, then bridge or hand over.
• A request for comment is a heads-up with a clock on it. Your job is speed of escalation.
• Silence isn’t neutral, but never argue in the lobby. Respond once, calmly, through the right channel, then stop.

Their right to ask. Your right not to answer. How you decline is the craft, and in the clip economy, it’s the part everyone sees.

For details of media coaching for founders, MDs, CEOs, PR teams spokespersons email mtl@markterrylush.com.