How to deal with the repeated question

Posted by Kate Betts on 25th April 2025

One of the questions that came up in a media training session recently was, if a journalist keeps asking the same question, why can’t I just tell them to move on?

And it’s not the first time I’ve heard that asked, or even seen it as advice! As a former journalist I just point out that if you had done that to me, I would have been so annoyed with you, I would persist even more with the question and turn the screws even more in the interview.

You need to engage with the question. You need to look like you are playing the game. And let’s face it, a media interview is a bit of a game. There are questions that frankly do deserve an answer, and in your preparation you should have worked out what they are.

Then there are questions that will take you down a route you don’t want to go down. It might be for confidential reasons or because you want to keep out of detail or away from contentious areas; but you will need to work out a method for dealing with those.

Most interviewers can be placated with the ABC technique; where you acknowledge the question, that’s the A part; bridge to your answer, and then communicate one or more of your key messages. It sounds a bit trite, but it works. And it works well if the C part is so long, the interviewer (and listener, if it’s live) has forgotten what the question was!

But note the use of the word ‘bridge’. When we advise clients to move the conversation away by bridging, we don’t mean doing a massive ‘pivot’, which is what I have heard some politicians call it. Then the interviewer (and the listener) will notice you are just avoiding the question. And that is as annoying as telling me to ‘move on’.