I Can’t Tell You What This Article Is About…

People often say that politicians never ‘tell it like it is’. This is an important part of what draws people so strongly to populists like Trump. They take pride in the fact that they do not let themselves be muzzled by ‘political correctness’, as opposed to the aloof, carefully weighted discourse employed by professional politicians.

But is it true that politicians always keep their cards as close to their chests as possible? According to several researchers in the field, it is.

British communication expert Peter Bull has been studying the communication habits of British politicians for decades, a job that obliges him to watch political interviews for hours on end.

Through patient tallying and categorisation, he has come to distinguish between at least thirty-five (35!) techniques that politicians use to evade questions posed by journalists, a practice that he has dubbed ‘equivocation’. The closest definition of this term would probably be ‘a refusal to commit’.

For those of you who are interested: there are twelve main categories, which can be subdivided as follows:

Thirty-five ways to avoid answering interview questions

1. Ignoring the question
2. Acknowledging the question without answering it
3. Questioning the question
   • Requesting more explanation
   • Bouncing the question back: ‘You tell me’
4. Attacking the question
   • The question does not address the key topic under discussion
   • The question is hypothetical or speculative
   • The question is based on a faulty premise
   • The question is not accurate in terms of facts
   • The question contains an erroneous quote
   • The question contains a quote that has been taken out of context
   • The question is offensive
   • The question is based on a wrong choice
5. Attacking the interviewer
6. Refusing to answer
   • Because you cannot answer
   • Because you do not want to answer
   • ‘I can’t speak for someone else’
   • Delaying the answer (‘You will have to wait and see’)
   • Claiming ignorance
7. Making a political point
   • Attacking an external group (the opposition or rival groups)
   • Referring to policy
   • Defending policy
   • Reassuring
   • Appealing to nationalism
   • Presenting a political analysis
   • Self-justification
   • Defending your own party or opinion
8. Providing an incomplete answer
   • Starting an answer but not finishing it (interrupting yourself)
   • Providing a negative answer: the politician says what is not going to happen instead of what is going to happen
   • Giving a partial answer
   • Answering only half of the question
   • Giving only a fraction of an answer
9. Repeating the answer to the previous question
10. Saying or implying that the question has already been answered
11. ‘Excusing’ yourself: (‘Excuse me, but…’)
12. Taking the question literally

It cannot be denied that this is an impressive list indeed. For the sake of completeness, Bull also identified the most popular evasion technique among these 35. The one that came out on top was, without a doubt: ‘Attacking the question’.

Continue reading…

From FINN, here.