Responses to Hard Talk

You can pick a skill or 2 on how to evade probing questions or anwer hard hitting questions when you listen to BBC's Hard Talk. In the program the reporter interviews prominent or newsworthy people often grilling them to uncover the truth.

The following are some ways which the interviewees handle them:

1) Repeatedly reiterate prepared answers. When challenged by the reporter for not really answering the question, simply retort "your question is irrelevant".

2) When probed as to the cause of certain failures, briefly remark that the situation has been very challenging then promptly and continuously focus on the steps which have already been taken to remedy or improve the situation.

3) When the reporter persistently wants to uncover the cause of some events, remarks like "this is an issue that requires context, it must be viewed in the new context" helps.

4) Motherhood statements and vague terms like "structural reforms are being taken" sound good without giving away any thing.

5)When pressed for more specific or concrete steps that have been taken, comment that the technicalities or details have yet to be finalised and can not be disclosed.

6)When reporter challenged one's statements by quoting comments from ordinary citizens that indicate otherwise, retort that individual views is not representative. When reporter quotes opinion from other prominent people resort to "it's a matter of judgement" or "well, once upon a time people thought the world is flat".

7) When queried about some bad image, admit "we do have a lot to do" or "the issue is rather complicated" but list all the things that have gone well including procedures or regulations which have always been in place.

8)When grilled for what will happen next, say " I am not a foreteller ".

9) When asked to comment about some personal wrong doings, deny without flinching and ask for concrete evidence. When challenged by the reporter that some other well known figures believe of one's wrong doings, remark "There is a lot of misrepresentation here, I don’t have to prove my innocence, someone else has to prove I was wrong and they can't".

10) When grilled about the wrong usage of sensitve words or phrases which stirred up much protest or unhappiness , use Whoopi Goldberg's reply "The more you use it the less power it has"

11) When challenged by reporter that certain prominent people disbelieve in one's words retort with "If they do not believe us, that does not mean they speak the truth".

12) When asked whether one regrets certain actions which were clearly wrong with hindsight, maintain a stance of no regrets as the decision was deemed best under those circumstances.

Not sure whether the above can be applied when grilled by one's boss. However I guess you can use tactic no.2 (ie. focus on remedial actions or good things already in place)when you still need your pay packet. However if you do not need the pay packet so badly you may try tactic no.1 (telling him he may be irrelevant) or better still tactic no.6 (telling him he reserves the right to his own opinion and anyway once upon a time people did think the world is flat). That is when your resignation letter is already in your drawer.