Simulate a hostile-but-fair journalist interview about your company or announcement — the questions you fear, live follow-ups on every dodge, then the story they'd file. Use when asked to media-train me, simulate a press interview, prep me for a journalist call, or how will this announcement be covered. Produces the interview transcript with your likely stumbles, the article they would write from it, and a debrief with bridge lines and the quotes to prepare.
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Use the-journalist-call to simulate a fair, rigorous interview about [subject] for [outlet type], using [public record and uncomfortable truths], then provide the transcript, likely article, and media-training debrief.
Required inputs
[subject]
[outlet type]
[public record and uncomfortable truths]
User-approved starter prompt based on a pinned source version; check current skill requirements before running. Task evidence ↗
SKILL.md
name: the-journalist-calldescription: "Simulate a hostile-but-fair journalist interview about your company or announcement — the questions you fear, live follow-ups on every dodge, then the story they'd file. Use when asked to media-train me, simulate a press interview, prep me for a journalist call, or how will this announcement be covered. Produces the interview transcript with your likely stumbles, the article they would write from it, and a debrief with bridge lines and the quotes to prepare."
The Journalist Call Skill
A good journalist isn't hostile — they're prepared, and they follow up. Most spokespeople lose interviews not to gotchas but to their own third sentence. This skill runs the call: fair, sharp questions about your actual situation, follow-ups that punish evasion, then the article that call would produce — because seeing your "no comment" in print is the fastest media training there is.
What This Skill Produces
The transcript — a realistic 10–15 question interview with follow-ups on every dodge
The article — the piece a fair reporter files from that transcript, headline included
The debrief — where quotes were given away, bridge lines for the hard questions, and the three quotes to have ready
Required Inputs
Ask for these if not provided:
The subject — the announcement, incident, or company situation being covered
The uncomfortable truths — what's true that you'd rather not discuss (the simulation is only as useful as this honesty)
The outlet type — trade press, business daily, or investigative changes the register
Prior coverage or public record — journalists read; the simulation should know what they know
Framework
Prepared, not hostile: questions come from the public record + the announcement's own claims + the obvious follow-ups. No invented scandals — the fair-but-sharp standard.
The follow-up discipline: every evasive answer gets the natural follow-up ("that's not quite what I asked"). Dodges compound: the transcript shows how the third dodge becomes the story.
Quote mechanics: the simulated interviewee answers as the user likely would (from their materials' tone) — including the over-explanations and the accidental candor after the pause. Those become the article's pull-quotes, which is the lesson.
The article is the mirror: written fair — accurate quotes, both-sides structure — and still stinging wherever the answers were weak. The headline comes from the worst answer, as it does in life.
Debrief tools: bridge lines that acknowledge-then-redirect without sounding like training ("What I can tell you is—" is a tell; better bridges provided), the difference between off-the-record/background/on-record with the rule assume everything is on, and the three prepared quotes that would have changed the article.
Output Format
The Call: [outlet type] re: [subject]
Simulation — a plausible interview, not a prediction; no real journalist was harmed.
Transcript
[Q, A-as-you'd-likely-answer, follow-ups on the dodges — 10–15 rounds]
The Article They File
[Headline drawn from your weakest moment]
[500 words, fair and accurate, pull-quotes from the transcript]
Debrief — out of character
Moment
What happened
The better line
Your three prepared quotes: [the ones to have ready next time]
Bridge kit: [3–4 redirects that survive contact with a follow-up]
Quality Checks
Questions derive from the supplied record and claims — no invented scandal
Every dodge in the transcript received its follow-up
The article quotes the transcript accurately — the sting comes from the answers, not the writing
The headline traces to a specific weak answer
The debrief provides usable lines, not "be more confident"
Anti-Patterns
Do not simulate a hit job — unfair simulations teach persecution, not preparation
Do not let the interviewee answer better than their materials suggest they would — the stumbles are the training
Do not write the article kind — write it fair; fair is what stings usefully
Do not teach message-track robotics — bridges that sound trained become the story too