Lesson plan
No Comment
No comment or Comment-free is a phrase used as a response to journalistic inquiries which the respondent does not wish to answer. Public figures, such as celebrities and politicians, may decline to comment on issues they are questioned or have nothing to say about the issue at the time. No comment indicates that the speaker does not choose to say anything on the subject. It is not a request for the material to be considered off the record or otherwise kept confidential. If the speaker wishes to talk about the subject, but does not wish to be named as a source, they must obtain the journalist's explicit agreement in advance that the response is not to be used for attribution. In many English-speaking countries such as the UK and the U.S., this phrase is also a stock phrase, especially in popular culture, where a suspect or person being interviewed in a criminal investigation wishes to exercise their right to silence.
Article summary
No comment or Comment-free is a phrase used as a response to journalistic inquiries which the respondent does not wish to answer. Public figures, such as celebrities and politicians, may decline to comment on issues they are questioned or have nothing to say about the issue at the time. No comment indicates that the speaker does not choose to say anything on the subject. It is not a request for the material to be considered off the record or otherwise kept confidential. If the speaker wishes to talk about the subject, but does not wish to be named as a source, they must obtain the journalist's explicit agreement in advance that the response is not to be used for attribution. In many English-speaking countries such as the UK and the U.S., this phrase is also a stock phrase, especially in popular culture, where a suspect or person being interviewed in a criminal investigation wishes to exercise their right to silence.
Key claims
No claims recorded.
Discussion questions
- Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
- Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
- If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?
Bibliography
No sources recorded.
Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.