Is it okay to say “I don’t know” in a media interview?

Is it okay to say you don't know the answer in a media interview? Well, the short answer is yes, but it doesn't happen very often.

Rather than saying, I don't know, it's usually a good idea just to bridge onto something you do want to discuss. So you might say, that's a good question, I don't have an answer right now. But what I can tell you is (my key messages).

This way, you're playing the interview game. Interviews are pretend conversations where a casual chat happens in front of tens of thousands or millions of people on air.

Saying you don't know breaks that pretence and can feel like you're the wrong guest or wasting everyone's time.

Saying you "don't know" during a media interview can feel quiet honest

So, to get to the point of this podcast when people do say "I don't know" the answer during an interview it's always a bit of a surprise which sometimes can feel quite honest and refreshing.

Rules as they say are there to be broken. Now do you feel an example coming on?

An example of someone saying they don't know the answer in a media interview

This is Jess Phillips, a British Member of Parliament on Sky News in the UK. I'm presuming she was invited on to discuss safeguarding for women and girls, which is her ministerial brief at the time I recorded this.

Presenters will sometimes throw in an off-topic question during an interview about something completely different and this is what's happened in this example.

Jess Phillips is asked about the Elgin marbles. They are a set of priceless Greek antiquities in the British Museum and Greece has been wanting them back for donkey's years.

Pres: What are we going to do about the Elgin Marbles?

Jess: Gosh, do you know what Kay, I don't know what we are going to do about the Elgin Marbles.

Pres: What would you like to happen do you think we should keep them here?

Jess: Oh, gosh this is like a raging debate in my house with my husband.

Pres: The Greek prime minister and our prime minister are meeting today they want them back, we pinched them a long time ago, what should we do?

Jess: (Says she's not going to pre-empt any discussion between heads of state and says she's rarely asked about the issue.)