Responding to Media Requests and Securing an Interview

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We should return inquiries from the Press promptly. Reporters are often working against deadlines. However, do not let this sense of urgency pressure you into an interview before you are prepared. Remember, you need two years of abstinence to be interviewed. Members outside your area can be made available if no one in your area meets the abstinence requirement. Ask members who have varied stories and backgrounds to participate in the interview.

1. FA members who are asked to speak to the media should contact the WSI PI Committee prior to the interview for additional tips and support. Contact the committee via email: pi@foodaddicts.org.
2. If the interviewer pushes to have a name and face associated with the interview, offer suggestions on how they can protect your anonymity while still telling a compelling story, i.e., blurring faces in photography, pixilation, using “fake names,” silhouette lighting, or shooting from the neck down or from the back.
3. Only changed names are acceptable, i.e. you may use a pseudonym or your middle name.
4. Anonymity can make a reporter uncomfortable or suspicious if they are unfamiliar with FA or other 12 Twelve Step programs. If they will only run a story using full names or faces, then the article wasn’t meant to be. You can also refer them to the Anonymity Letter to the Media and other articles where anonymity has been protected.
5. Provide support for yourself!  Take two members to the interview, because this gives one member an opportunity for reflection while the other member is being interviewed.  It also gives you both an opportunity to support each other.  It can make the interview a little more relaxed.
6. If the media will only allow one person to be interviewed or if there is only one eligible person available, one person may participate in the interview after discussing it with the WSI PI Committee at pi@foodaddicts.org.
7. Members speaking with the media should have a minimum of two years of continuous FA abstinence, have completed an FA AWOL, and should currently be sponsored by an FA member.