The Media Interview

The Today Show’s Matt Lauer, talking with Larry King about the most fascinating person he’s ever interviewed:
LAUER: You know I’m one of these people who tends to think that the ordinary people are more fascinating than the celebrities and even the politicians. Celebrities and politicians are practiced, you know. I mean they’ve been asked these [...]

It’s easy for journalists to get caught up in the quest for more information and to lose sight of what people might be going through during a crisis. But a Virginia Tech student made it clear where his priorities lay, as he spoke with Larry King last night about the campus shootings:
VOLTMER: Yes, we [...]

Tonight was to be the first of CNN’s week long celebration of Larry King’s 50th year in broadcasting. One of the hallmarks of his Larry King Live TV interviews has been timeliness, so it was fitting that everything was cancelled so he could provide coverage of the Virginia Tech massacre.

I provoke them [interview subjects] because I get involved, because my interviews are never cold, because I fall in love with the person who is in front of me, even if I hate him or her. An interview is a love story for me. It’s a fight. It’s a coitus.
- Oriana Fallaci
from an interview transcript [...]

Love this story about Ernest Hemingway being interviewed by George Plimpton, as told by Philip Gourevitch, the current editor of the Paris Review, who was interviewed on Powells.com by Dave Weich.
Gourevitch: A few days ago I was in L.A., and I was talking about the book [The Paris Review Interviews, Vol I] with Stephen Gaghan, [...]

Finally got to watch the second half of the Barbara Walters special 30 Mistakes in 30 Years. Like the first half of this prime-time special it was first and foremost an entertainment show, but there were useful tidbits throughout.
Walters directly addressed the issue of crying in this part of the special, acknowledging that “I have [...]

Happened upon a Barbara Walters special last night: 30 Mistakes in 30 Years. She calls it a “record of regrets” - some hers, some her guests - and I was hoping for some candid talk about the interview process. But being a prime time special, this first of two shows was really [...]

Dick Cavett has one of the most unusual interviewing styles you’ll ever see. Don’t know if you caught Sunday night’s airing of a brand new interview with Mel Brooks on TCM, but the old style was still very much in evidence: the digressions, the stumbling for words, the sometimes long story-telling leading to [...]

I’ve spoken before on this blog about the work of John Sawatsky and the influence he’s had on the interviewing skills of many journalists. Well, his Technorati score is way up this week after a big story about him on the popular NPR show All Things Considered. He’s reaching guru status.
The Art of [...]