A handful of specific habits reliably cause more damage than the actual substance of an answer. “No comment” reads as guilt regardless of the reason behind it. Repeating an accusation back before denying it — “am I saying we defrauded anyone? Absolutely not” — hands an editor the accusation in your own voice, cut cleanly away from your denial. Speculating about something you don’t actually know gets reported as if you did know it. And answering the question you wish you’d been asked, instead of the one you were, is usually visible to anyone paying attention.
Try this now. Read back through the answers you drafted in earlier lessons and check each one against these four habits specifically: does it ever say “no comment,” repeat an accusation before denying it, speculate on anything ambiguous, or dodge the actual question asked. Rewrite any that do.
None of this is about being evasive. It’s avoiding a small number of specific, well-known ways that an honest answer can still produce a damaging clip.
