Listen Up

"The best interview question is the one based on the previous answer." -- Chris Matthews, MSNBC

   People often hear what they're listening for, and reporters are sometimes too focused on their follow-up question to hear the answer to the first question.
   Flagrant examples happened today at a presidential press conference, where a reporter posed a question based on what former FBI Director James Comey testified at a Senate hearing. Comey testified under oath that President Donald Trump asked him to drop the investigation of the president's national security adviser, and asked for a pledge of loyalty.
   Trump's response at the news conference was, "I didn't say that." But the proper follow-up question should have been, "What did you say?" However, that didn't happen. Instead, news reports ran the president's extended comments on his first answer.
   Next, the president was asked if he would testify to his version of the conversation under oath.
   Trump replied, "100 percent," but "not under oath," adding, "I would be glad to tell (special counsel Robert Mueller) exactly what I just told you."
   In short, Trump evaded the question, making it sound like he would testify under oath, which is what journalists heard and reported. However, many news reports left out the phrase "not under oath." What the president said was that he would say to Mueller "what I just told you." That's not the same as promising to testify under oath.
   It remains, therefore, for Mueller to demand an oath for the interview, rather than hold a casual conversation.
   Meanwhile, it's important for journalists to listen carefully to what is said -- and not said -- in answer to questions, and to phrase the next question in the context of what may have been unsaid in the first.
   Otherwise, they are in danger of being used, misused, misled and manipulated. And those are basic skills for many salesmen.