Theoretical scenario: You are the embattled and controversial CEO of a struggling company with an activist hedge-fund investor breathing down your neck. You go onto CNBC and take questions about your financial health. How do you answer them?

Not-so-theoretical version from the Wall Street Journal:

Last month, E*Trade Financial Corp.'s investor-relations head called Dave Richards, an analyst at hedge fund Citadel Investment Group, to get his read on a recent television interview with the brokerage firm's new chief executive officer.

In the CNBC interview, E*Trade Chief Executive Donald Layton was less than clear about the amount of additional capital that the New York company might need to shore up its balance sheet. "If I told you that," Mr. Layton said, "I would have to kill you."

Nice lede. Somewhere out there a lonely PR consultant is banging his (or her) head against the wall.