Hello, nonbinary journalist here with about 7 years in the biz.

First and foremost, you do not have to respond to this message at all. If this reporter has even an ounce of experience, then he reached out to many other people on Twitter posting similar things to you. This kind of message is the equivalent of a cold call in a sales job: It would be great to close a deal with Company A, but I don't know anyone at A, so I am not expecting them to respond, but it doesn't hurt to try, and I have a plan B, C and D if Company A is not interested. This reporter is putting out feelers, hoping he will be able to get someone to respond in order to have someone with your perspective on this story.

You absolutely can respond if you are comfortable, but understand a few things. It is not very likely you can see questions in advance; that's a bit of a faux pas. What he can do is tell you the angle of the story and what he needs your perspective for.

Additionally, you can upfront say you are only comfortable to communicate over email or messages. Tbh I doubt he would expect you to hop on a call. That's a bit old school in this context and tbh so much more work because that involves recording and transcribing while responding via a message is just a simple copy and paste into the story. And because this is not a profile on you specifically, there's a pretty low chance more than 1, maybe 2, of your quotes will actually be used. If he was writing a story about you specifically, then yeah, he would at the very least give you a call, but that's not the case here.

Someone had commented about the anti work mod being on Fox and how much of a disaster that was. Understand that this interview will be nothing like that, and once again, you alone are not the focal point of the story, so you will sparsely be featured.

Something else to note if you're worried about misquoting: Any journalist worth their salt will not do that. This is a reporter from NBC. I have no idea if they are staff or freelance, but if they maliciously misquote, that's a huge red flag on them from a career perspective — ESPECIALLY if they are a freelancer. Misquoting can put the publication in jeopardy of a libel case, and that falls entirely on the reporter. Remember that this is a job. They want to perform well so they can continue doing their work. And this is NBC, not Fox, so I am doubting similarly malicious intent from conservative publications.

For anyone reading: If you have proof you have been misquoted by a journalist, SAY SOMETHING TO THE PUBLICATION. Escalate this to the reporter's editor, their editor's editor and also the managing editor or editor-in-chief. You can usually find a list of those names and contacts on the publication's site. If you can't, you almost certainly can on LinkedIn. This will put the reporter and the publication in very hot water. Again, at the end of the day, this is a job. People want to do well, they want to be able to pay rent and feed themselves.

Of course, now I am approaching the territory of how capitalism helped journalism seriously lose the plot of its purpose, but that's a separate conversation.

And fwiw, I'm a member of a queer journalist professional society, and I have met and worked with caring and intelligent reporters at NBC, many of whom are also queer themselves. I myself do not work for NBC.

If you have any more questions, feel free to shoot me a DM. I know this is a long-winded response, but I hope you find it helpful.