About Interviewing

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About Interviewing

Second only to spelling and syntax and the basic mechanics of writing, there is no tool in the journalist’s toolbox more important than the interview. The interview is where the reporter connects directly with the news, when the public cannot. What the reporter cultivates from the interview, and then what the writer does with that material, is critically important to the reader/viewer, the difference between an accurate reflection of news and information, and some skewed shadow of the truth. A good interview, artfully sculpted into the final story form, is a treasure. The difference between a good interview and just asking questions is like what Mark Twain said about finding the right word: “The difference between the right word and the almost right word,” Twain said, “is like the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.”

There is good advice on interviewing in the text (Harrower pp. 76-83), both from Harrower himself about the various phases of the interview process, from planning to writing, and from people he quotes in the margins.

Like this from William Zinsser, whose book On Writing Well is still one of the best, about the evolution of your interviewing skills: “Interviewing is one of those skills that you only get better at. You will never again feel so ill at ease as when you try for the first time, and probably you will never feel entirely comfortable prodding another person for answers that he or she may be too shy or to inarticulate to reveal.”

Or this from author Max Gunther, on the why of interviewing: “Your purpose in conducting an interview is partly to get facts, but you also want color; you want anecdotes; you want quotes; you want materials that will give readers an impression of the interviewee’s personality.”

And this on the essential importance of doing your homework, from Barbara Walters: “If you’re really going to do an in-depth interview, then you have to know an awful lot about the person, certainly enough to know when he or she isn’t telling the truth, isn’t telling the whole story.”

Another truth about interviewing that one learns only from doing them is this, from music writer Steve Pond: “It’s pretty common for me to be in the middle of an interview, hear something, and think, ‘Well, there’s my lead.’ If I walk out of an interview knowing my lead and my conclusion, I know I’m in pretty good shape.”

So let’s look at how to get yourself into the position to have that “Aha!” moment in interviews, when you know you‘ve just gotten your lead and the story that goes with it.

NewsHounds should review the resources on interviewing available on AskDrTed. First the basics, and then some examples and discussion from National Public Radio; make sure you click on the link to the NPR audio report and click on “Listen Now,” as well as on the various examples. It’s interesting that the NPR interviewing “expert,” John Sawatsky, thinks such luminaries of the journalistic interview as Larry King, Mike Wallace and Barbara Walters aren’t really very effective interviewers. Would you agree?

All of us learn how to interview in two ways: 1) trial and error, and 2) by stealing techniques from other people that suit our personality. Here are a random selection of interviews by various people on various topics. At your leisure, pick and choose among these and see what you can learn from them.

Note that TV and print interviews vary in ways relating to the entertainment aspects inherent in audio/video, and that some of these people, while adept interviewers, are also entertainers themselves (like Jon Stewart) or “fluffy” (like Barbara Walters). But just because they may look like they’re goofing off and having fun, remember that they have done the background work, the homework, the strategizing and groundwork to be able to lead, drive or cajole their subjects toward rather specific goals for the interview.

Jon Stewart, The Daily Show, Comedy Central
• Feb. 2, 2009: Dev Patel is the young unknown star of “Slumdog Millionaire.” Admittedly, this interview is by a celeb with a movie to publicize, but it also has content and good give&take with Stewart. See what you can learn about interviewing from this.

• Jan. 29, 2009: Doris Kearns Goodwin, a presidential historian, is interviewed the day after President George W. Bush’s final State of the Union address about Bush’s speech, in the context of other presidential addresses. Can you see yourself interviewing a history or political science professor on the same kind of topic—a reaction story to a news event? Watch this and think about how Jon Stewart prepared himself (and Goodwin) for this interview, and the kinds of knowledge his questions reveal.

• Feb. 12, 2009: Stewart interviews former U.S. Sen. John Sununu about the economic crisis and the GOP position on the government bailout. This is a more adversarial interview—give&take with Stewart trying to draw Sununu out/trip him up, and Sununu trying to defend GOP on fiscal policy.

Mike Wallace, CBS News & “60 Minutes”
• Wallace’s claim to fame is hard-nosed interviewing. A longtime (!) CBS News veteran, he was on the Edward R. Murrow team, had his own interview show from 1957-1960, and has been the hard-boiled core of “60 Minutes” since it began. Wallace is known as a tough, “gotcha” interviewer. For many example of Mike Wallace interviews, Google “Mike Wallace Interview,” or see his archives.

• 1959: Writer Ayn Rand

Morley Safer, “60 Minutes”
• January 1979: Watch Morley Safer’s conversational style of give&take with Katharine Hepburn. Listen to Safer’s questions, and see if you can figure out what he knows from his background research about Hepburn as he tries to go with the flow of the conversation. What techniques does he use? What can you learn? What do you like, or not?

Lesley Stahl, “60 Minutes”
• Feb. 22, 2009: This “60 Minutes” piece is an issue story about underaged drinking that uses interviews with many people to build the story. Watch not only how the various interviews work—different kinds of approaches and questions to get different kinds of responses—but also how the various pieces are put together to build the final story. Sure, this is broadcast, but the basic building blocks of the story are the same—facts, quotes, background, stats, etc.—whether the story is for broadcast or print. We call this kind of story a roundup, because many sources are used and their separate interviews are woven together to expand the conversation, to make it seem a bit as if the various pieces react and respond to each other.

Katie Couric, “60 Minutes”
• Feb. 5, 2009: Katie Couric interviews Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, the hero pilot who saved 155 lives when he landed his crippled airliner on the Hudson River. Watch Couric’s style, and intuit the background information she clearly has that drives her questions toward her objective (what is that?). Watch the interaction between Couric, who, however “perky” she may be is a tough interviewer, and Sullenberger, who is the definition of cool, calm and unflappable.

“The Art of the Interview”
• Feb. 17, 2009: Here’s a short, interesting (text) conversation including Barbara Walters and Steve Kroft (“60 Minutes”) on “The Art of the Interview.”

• Nov. 28, 2005: Here’s a transcript of a Larry King show with Barbara Walters—an interesting case of an interviewer interviewing an interviewer. Watch how the veterans work each other.

• Dec. 5, 2008: Barbara Walters interviews Rush Limbaugh (embedded in a Rush transcript). Check out the video.

• February(?) 2008: Larry King interviews Michelle Obama during the Democratic primary campaign. Larry King is famous for claiming that he never prepares for an interview, because he wants the conversation to be spontaneous. If that’s true, he’s pretty quick on his feet for an old guy. Watch how he constructs his conversation, and how his guest gets to develop her points.

• February 2009: Larry King interviews George Clooney in Clooney’s capacity as a special U.N. envoy on the genocide in Darfur.

If you find other good interviews or stuff about interviewing, let me know.