The Media Interview

Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin simply got up and left in the middle of an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row program, leaving presenter John Wilson and the band’s drummer Will Champion to carry on:

Wilson: Do you start with that idea, Chris… [sound in background] did you start with the song Viva La Vida, and the idea within that song of the deposed dictator looking back on his life… [voice in background] is that… could I just ask you just to move back in to the mike [garbled]

Martin: [off mike] ….I’m not really enjoying this…

Wilson: Aren’t you?…

Martin: [off mike] Yeah…

Wilson: Why?…

Martin: [off mike] [garbled] two minutes…

Wilson: Sure.. yeah… You feeling a bit under pressure?

Martin: [off mike] No. Yeah. I just don’t really like having to talk about things.

Wilson: Really? [long pause with muffled sounds and voices in back] Have I upset him?

Champion: I don’t think so.

Wilson: [slightly off mike] …I don’t think I said anything conscious[garbled]…

Champion: No, no, I don’t think so…

Wilson: Well, let me ask you [the interview continues on]

Then at the very end of the interview, Chris Martin returns for one last question:

Wilson: Chris, can I just attempt to.. to begin bringing you back by… reminding you of a couple of things you said in the… [Martin: uh huh] before the album was released, you said the process was about letting the garden grow unkempt, letting the bloodhound off the leash [Martin: uh huh] uh, so you were… consciously trying to… find new musical territory then…

Martin: Um… [clears throat] yes, yes, yes… exactly [pause]

Wilson: [Closing show] Reluctant pop star Chris Martin…

My transcription of parts of the full interview which you can listen to online.

Wilson had made some comments during the early part of the interview about Coldplay’s newest album being morbid, and Martin had disagreed with that, but it wasn’t entirely clear why Martin got up and left.

What’s interesting here is that this was not a live interview; the BBC deliberately left in the sequence I’ve transcribed above. I’ve noticed more and more mainstream media doing that - leaving in things from an interview which would have been removed in the past.

I wonder if it’s partly a response to the more free-wheeling podcasting of the internet and also the ability of bands (or anyone) to post the full transcripts of interviews to try and counter what they see as mainstream media taking things out of context.

76 year-old country music star George Jones in an interview with the Wichita Falls Times Record News:

Q: You don’t grant many interviews. Why not?

A: I don’t do as many interviews as I used to because, frankly, what else is there to know about me?

This is a follow up to my original posting about NBC reportedly offering $1 million dollars for Paris Hilton’s first post-jail TV interview - some information I missed at the time.

According to a June 21, 2007 report in the NY Post, “NBC Universal boss Jeff Zucker personally called Hilton’s father Rick and made the pitch.”

In a video interview with Financial Times managing editor Chrystia Freeland five days later, Zucker denied any personal involvement:

ZUCKER: …I think our news division was interested in doing an interview with her. There were some demands placed on what it would take to secure that interview–

FREELAND: Financial demands?

ZUCKER: There were some, at certain points. And I think at the end of the day, our folks did not feel comfortable with what was being asked, and so the decision was made to move on.

FREELAND: Does that include you? Were you uncomfortable?

ZUCKER: You know, I wasn’t involved in this. The news division kept me apprised of what they were doing, but ultimately it was their decision. I support their decision.

This transcript is from MediaBistro, where I found the Post and FT links.

Karrine Steffans achieved notoriety with her 2005 book, Confessions of a Video Vixen, a tell-all about her sexual encounters with the rich and famous. One of her lovers had a pet name for her - superhead - and the name stuck. Now she’s out peddling her new book, another tell-all called The Vixen Diaries.

What’s puzzling in all of this is that Steffans claims that she was a different person nine years ago, the time covered by her books. If she’s past all that and admits that much about her lifestyle was negative, why promote it all through the books, and why be surprised when everyone wants to focus on the gory details instead of her “new self”?

Listen to these two interviews in which Steffans tries to live down her Supahead image:

Interview on WJLB Detroit

The Ricky Smiley Morning Show - more from Ricky Smiley here.

The way NPR’s Bryant Park Project tells it, the Icelandic band Sigur Ros was at fault for what it calls “possibly the worst interview in the history of electronic media”.

Seriously.

It was that bad.

We’re not sure if they were tired, or if it was a language thing, or what… but wow.

Whereas most shows would just bury an interview like that, we’ve decided to actually show it to you. It certainly made us laugh. We hope you’ll enjoy it too.

And to repeat, we love this band. We are going to be the first people to buy their new album “Hvarf / Heima” when it comes out this November. And the concert documentary is beautiful — please go see it if it comes to your town.

Just never invite them on your radio show.

It certainly was awkward - the total number of words spoken wasn’t much more than the 4 musicians in the studio. Watch the video of the interview and see what you think.

While many commenters agreed with the show hosts about the band’s poor performance, others picked up on the fact that the interviewer - Luke Burbank - wasn’t much better:

ease up on the band. the interviewer was terrible. there is no continuity in the questions, and there is little attempt at being personable to the band which creates an awkward atmosphere. how else could you respond?

Sent by ros | 3:16 AM ET | 10-11-2007

Yes, terrible. But I think the main problem was the interviewer who asked questions leading nowhere…

“How dou you create music, do you just sit down and play?” - “……..u, yes”.

“What is Hopelandic, does it mean anything, is it Icelandic?” - “…….u, no, it’s just gibberish”.

And up to three questions at a time:
“Do you do this, or that and then just that?” - “……uuu, B”.

You can’t really look good in an interview like this unless you’re an interview- and conversational whizard

Sent by Hildur | 5:32 AM ET | 10-11-2007

But I’ll leave the last word to this commenter:

hahaha.. have you guys never seen a interview with Sigur R??s before???

This is normal.. this is how they are.. and thats why we love them….

Sent by Vuni | 5:38 AM ET | 10-11-2007

I was reading Where Do You Stand’s piece on Dick Cheney’s wife promoting her new book on The Daily Show. Justin calls Lynne Cheney’s chat with Jon Stewart “one of the most awkward interviews I’ve ever witnessed”. Even Comedy Central promotes the clip as “an extremely uncomfortable interview.”

Now it’s Daily Show guests who often appear a bit awkward, but this time it was Stewart himself who didn’t quite know where to go with things. Part of it I’m sure was that he was trying to restrain himself from asking some truly embarrassing questions. There were enough slightly embarrassing questions, and Lynne Cheney was well prepared for stepping into the lion’s den - unlike Paris Hilton on David Letterman. Cheney threw in some of her own jokes without waiting for Stewart to make them, and she steered things away from potentially sticky points.

This is part two of the interview (part one is here), with some of the more awkward moments - see what you think.

Entertainment Wise says celebrity interviewer Martin Bashir is trying to set up an interview with Britney Spears and Kevin Federline:

A source tells The People, “As far as Martin is concerned it would be all of his Christmases come at once if he could secure a deal with both of them.

“He is really keen to do an interview that would blow the lid off their private lives. It would guarantee millions of viewers worldwide. In an ideal world, he would love to get them both in the same room.”

My Christmas wish? Higher aspirations for Martin Bashir and no more publicity for Britney.

In the rush to fill a 24 hour cable news channel, ABC News demonstrates the dangers of throwing interviewers still in their first month of broadcasting school straight onto the air…

Ok, the “first month of broadcasting school” may be a bit unfair to Merry Miller of ABC News Now, but I can certainly say that her bosses need to review their on-air selection process.

Thanks to Eric Deggans and his blog The Feed for tipping me off to this video.

And for interviewees - it’s just another example of the kinds of people you’re going to be interviewed by, and even at the national level - so be prepared to deal with them. Kindly in this case, I think.

A lot of people, including me, have mentioned that People magazine paid $300,000 for the first print interview with Paris Hilton after she got out of jail. I did say that the Hiltons had withdrawn all request for money, but I wasn’t very clear that this included People magazine.

Here’s an exchange between Anderson Cooper and Jess Cagle, who did the interview for People, that sets the record straight - it also addresses the issue of whether money was paid, not for the interview itself, but for photos/videos:

COOPER: CNN did not pay for this interview or for use of any pictures.

And, Jess, I know there are rumors on the Internet that “People” magazine paid, for your interview, $300,000. Is that true?

CAGLE: No, it’s absolutely not.

I mean, we — we made it — we have been approaching them since the time she got in trouble. We wanted to talk to her when she got out of jail. I mean, it’s — it never even — we don’t pay for interviews. So, it was never brought up.

There was — a couple of weeks ago, there were some discussions that I wasn’t having, instead of doing our own photo shoot, we might buy photos through an agency, but that certainly never came to pass. We — there was absolutely no money that changed hands…

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: So, just — just to be clear, were there — did any money change hands? You know, because some news organization will pay for pictures that the family provides. Did the magazine — did “People” magazine pay for pictures, like, personal photographs?

CAGLE: No, no, not at all.

COOPER: OK. So, no money from “People” magazine, to your knowledge, went to the Hilton family or — or Paris Hilton — or Paris to secure this interview?

CAGLE: No, absolutely not.

COOPER: OK.

In Cindy Adams column in the New York Post today, she quotes Barbara Walters on why, when Paris Hilton’s people withdrew demands for payment for the heiress’s first post-jail interview, Walters turned down a free interview. After all, ABC had originally offered $100,000 for the “get”:

Look, I’ve done prison interviews before, but people like the Menendez Brothers were really important news stories. This wasn’t. And even though I’d already written my questions, when all that pay-for-play stuff happened, I suddenly felt this was not up to my standard. It . . . felt . . . sort of . . . tawdry. The whole thing somehow was beneath me. Besides, it was a no-win. If I did a tough piece and her tears started to flow, it would be, ‘Oh, there’s Barbara Walters making people cry again.’ Too soft, and I’d be criticized.

If the context and accuracy of this quote are right, it seems that Walters is standing on some shaky ground:

1. The importance of the story didn’t change between the time of the ABC offer and Hilton’s decision to not seek any payment.

2. The no-win problem also didn’t change in that time frame.

3. How is the haggling over different offers any less “tawdry” than making an offer of $100,000 for an interview with a famous-only-for-being-famous celebrity?

I can perfectly well understand Walters coming to realize that she had been party to a struggle to perpetuate and cash in on the Hilton phenomenon, and wanting no part of it any longer (I could applaud that), but it would require a very different explanation than the one she’s apparently giving here.