Planted question
Arranging for a question to be asked in a public forum by a confederate, so that the speaker can deliver a prepared answer while appearing to respond spontaneously to the public.
An answer to a hostile question is a defense; an answer to a friendly one is a speech. The device supplies the friendly question and disguises its source. At a press conference, a town hall, a shareholders' meeting, or a broadcast phone-in, a confederate is called on to ask the question the speaker wanted, in the words the speaker wanted, and the audience sees a leader thinking on their feet. The unscripted format lends its credibility to a scripted exchange.
It is the theatrical form of message discipline, and it has a long history in political staging: McGinniss described the screened "citizen panels" of 1968, and every staged event since has needed its questioners. Exploits Authority Bias and the audience's trust in spontaneity.
Historical examples
McGinniss's account of the Nixon campaign describes the televised "man in the arena" programs in which the candidate took questions from panels of citizens selected by the campaign, with hostile questioners screened out and the format presented as unrehearsed. The book made the staging public; the format survived it.
McGinniss, Joe. The Selling of the President 1968. New York: Trident Press, 1969.
During the California wildfires of October 2007, the Federal Emergency Management Agency held a televised press conference at which the questions were asked by FEMA staff posing as reporters, after real reporters had been given fifteen minutes' notice and a listen-only line. The agency's head of external affairs left after the episode became public.
"FEMA Official Resigns Over Staged Press Conference," The Washington Post, 30 October 2007; U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office of Inspector General, report on the FEMA press conference, 2008.
In advertising and commerce
Annual general meetings and product launches routinely feature questions from shareholders or attendees who turn out to be employees or arranged supporters, so that the executive can deliver the prepared message in answer. Investor-relations guides recommend "seeding" the question period; governance codes increasingly require that questioners be identified.
Bok, Sissela. Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life. New York: Pantheon, 1978, on staged sincerity; McGinniss, The Selling of the President 1968 (1969), on screened questioners.
Watch a public question-and-answer session. Who chose the questioners? Which questions got the most fluent answers? Try to find out who the questioners were.
In the wild
Short examples of the technique at work, each with what to notice. The same examples are questions in the quiz, where the answer is not given away.
At the town hall, the first questioner asked, "How will your excellent plan help hardworking families like mine?" and was later identified as a campaign volunteer.
What to notice. A confederate delivers the speaker's own framing as a question from the public.
The company's press conference took four questions, all from "reporters" who turned out to be staff.
What to notice. The unscripted format is faked outright; the exchange is a speech in disguise.
The radio phone-in's callers were pre-screened by the guest's press office, which supplied the producer with names.
What to notice. Public questioning arranged by the questioned, presented as open.
Sources
- McGinniss, Joe. The Selling of the President 1968. New York: Trident Press, 1969. ISBN 978-0140112467
- U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office of Inspector General. FEMA's Press Conference of October 23, 2007. Washington, 2008.
- Jamieson, Kathleen Hall. Packaging the Presidency. 3rd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. ISBN 978-0195089424