The Art of the Interview, ESPN-Style
By David Folkenflik
For years, John Sawatsky was one of Canada’s leading investigative reporters. He unmasked a spy and exposed explosive stories about rampant police abuses. He later became a journalism professor at Ottawa’s Carleton University.
He says the big-name reporters are failing to plan meticulously how to extract information from their sources, calling their process "haphazard."
"You are hoping that the person being interviewed is a good talker," he says, "and knows how to do something with your inept question."
Sawatsky’s rules are simple, but he says they get broken all the time: Don’t ask yes-or-no questions, keep questions short and avoid charged words, which can distract people. In his seminar, Sawatsky points to Mike Wallace of CBS’ 60 Minutes and CNN’s Larry King as examples to avoid. In Sawatsky’s illustrative clips, King favors leading questions that generate curt answers, while Wallace’s rapid patter fails to get a subject to speak candidly.
Sawatsky says Wallace and the others are better at theatrics than journalism, and that they often trip up their own interviews — by thinking they should be the focus of attention.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5625218