Yesterday, Steven Hedley, the assistant general secretary of RMT had his interview on LBC abruptly ended following a bizarre rant where he repeatedly asked host Nick Ferrari 'Have you stopped beating your wife?'
It’s a renowned question in communications circles – and one of the most infuriating. Setting aside the clearly inflammatory and offensive nature of the question it’s designed to demonstrate a “dammed if you do/damned don’t if you don’t” question. One that will land you in trouble however you answer it.
Just ask Nick Ferrari. When the LBC host asked Hedley whether a Northern Line tube driver had failed a breath test or not, Hedley refused to answer the question and started to make a point about the driver having diabetes.
When Ferrari asked again for a yes or no answer about the breath test result, rather than answer Hedley started to ask his interviewer repeatedly: “Have you stopped beating your wife?” After this question was put to him several times, during which Ferrari replied, “I’m a divorced man,” the LBC host simply brought the interview to an end.
It would seem that Hedley began to put this apparently irrelevant question to Ferrari because he felt that he was being repeatedly asked a loaded question, something that is so firmly based on a negative premise that he would be in trouble whatever his answer – as is the case with the notorious wife beating enquiry.
“Your vile and abusive stance means I never wish to speak to you again,” a clearly very angry Nick Ferrari told the union boss. “And in my eyes, you have diminished the case of your colleague immeasurably.”
Who came off best and who came off worst during this heated exchange probably depends on your political stance, but one thing is for certain – it was great radio. An element of conflict or disagreement is almost always good when it comes to a media interview.
Presumably Hedley was asking Ferrari whether he had stopped beating his wife because it’s the perfect example of a question that will land you in trouble however you answer it. Many spokespeople from all kinds of organisations have found themselves faced with this type of question.
So what should an interviewee do in such a situation? In some cases – especially when it comes to politicians – the temptation is simply to ignore the question and go on blithely to say what they want to say. Take this approach and although you may avoid getting caught out, you might also look shifty and the audience may well infer the worst anyway.
During our media training courses, we would explain that a better way to handle this kind of question – and it comes up in various formats – is simply to challenge the premise. Being polite but firm and saying something such as “I don’t accept the terms of your question, but here’s my thinking…” or “There isn’t a simple yes or no answer to this question but what I can say is…,” will then allow you to take charge and give the answer that you want to give rather than being drawn onto the journalist’s territory, territory that could well be very risky for you.
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