Important PSA: you are allowed to say no to journalists

as someone that talks to journos almost every day: talking to journos is generally zero sum. if they dont care about you, they will absolutely print quotes that make you look bad. if they really value you as a source they might try and work with you a bit, but random inbound from a journalist is always dangerous, because it's usually not an iterated game. they are playing by a different ruleset that's unknown to you, unless you were a journalist yourself or extremely well press trained. their rules don't conform to your assumptions of what is ethical or right. and half the time the journalist might seem like your friend but their editor will absolutely throw you under the bus with no qualms whatsoever. often times it's the editor that determines the shape or color of the reporting in the end, not the actual person you spoke to. so you can get screwed over that way. unless you are extremely disciplined, able to stay perfectly on message, able to never say anything that sounds bad out of context, and willing to abide by extremely unusual rules of discourse (laying out explicit conditions for on the record/on background/ off the record BEFORE saying anything), it's usually not worth it. but of course everyone likes to see their name in print so they do it anyway.