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Richard Nixon’s Secretary of State Henry Kissinger used to begin his news conferences by asking, “Does anyone have any questions for my answers?”

And that’s the point; anyone who has ever participated in a television interview recognizes it’s a lot tougher to answer questions than it is to ask them.

The question is: how in the world can an interviewee be expected to know the questions he or she will be asked in an interview without somehow getting into the mind of the interviewer asking them?

The answer herein lies in the PR writer preparing the main message talking points. First, anticipate what likely areas an interviewer might probe. Second, prepare answers that serve the organization’s best interests.

These answers are what media trainers — those who counsel executives on how to deal with TV interviews — call “MAPs,” or Must Air Points. These are the answers that simply must be conveyed, regardless of the questions asked, the three or four primary message points that an interviewee wants to get across in behalf of the organization. It’s your job to create an interviewee’s MAPS and determine ways to weave them into an interview.

For example, let’s say you’re the public affairs chief for Barack Obama’s Secretary of State, John Kerry, who’s to be interviewed about the threat from the Islamic State, which has just posted a video warning of attacks to the homeland.

The MAPs that the Secretary of State would want to convey might include the following:

• We have no credible, specific threats to the U.S. homeland from IS, but …
• ISIS poses a clear and present danger to our way of life and must be stopped.
• Stopping ISIS will require the assistance of our allies around the globe, whose way of life is also threatened.
• We have no immediate plans to put American troops on the ground to fight ISIS.

Now, how might the Secretary of State incorporate these MAPs into an interview? Perhaps in this manner:

Interviewer: “What is the State Department’s response to this threat from ISIS?”

JK: “We have received no credible, specific threats from ISIS, despite their claims in this video.”

Interviewer: “How will the U.S. respond?”

JK: “We will do whatever it takes to bring these cowards to justice. Stopping ISIS will require the assistance of our partners around the world, whose way of life is also threatened.”

Interviewer: “Does that mean sending American troops over to fight them?”

JK: “We have no immediate plans to put American troops on the ground to fight ISIS.

Interviewer: “So you’ve ruled out ever sending American troops?”

JK: “We have no immediate plans to put American troops on the ground to fight ISIS.”

Interviewer: “In the past the President has called ISIS a ‘junior varsity’ terrorist organization. Do you agree?”

JK: “In recent months, ISIS has acquired greater resources and attracted more jihadists. Today, the Islamic State poses a clear and present danger to our way of life and must be stopped.”

In this way, an interviewee’s MAPs serve as just that — a road map for the interviewee to follow as he or she handles all manner of questions, including those that are challenging. An interviewee must recognize that the interviewer isn’t there to be nice; rather, the interviewer is interested in one thing — a provocative, newsworthy interview.

So the questions the interviewer poses may well sound cynical in tone. No matter. MAPs present a “safe harbor” for the interviewee to return to if bullied on air. Your challenge, as writer and orchestrator and coach, is to make sure your interviewee doesn’t fall for the bait and instead follows his or her MAPs.