The baleful influence of Paxman

[danalcapone]

I've been watching and listening to lots of news broadcasts lately, and it seems whilst it's arguable that the news is dumbing down (Radio 4 et al still seem to have be pretty solid to me, not sure how TV News matches), it's unarguably that the journalists are *ruder*. They can't seem to finish a bloody interview without trying to interrupt their

Comments

[notbbcnews24]

I think i disagree with you quite a bit here mr Capone - Interruption is entirely necessary part of the modern interview, otherwise the bastards get away with delivering the bland pre-prepared unsubstantive pap they have been handed by their press secretaries and PR people. Without interruption interviews become a game whereby all the interviewee has to do is to spew out opaque and downright irrelevant replies running down the clock of the interview as they go.

For my money the interviewer needs to have substantive questions and needs to be aiming to force the interviewee into answering those questions.

[danalcapone]

Good point, Rob. I'd totally agree with you IF I thought these journalistic tactics broke through the PR crap pap and lies - but most of the times I've seen it done lately, it has not seemed to do that. Rather, it took away from the story. The qustions asked often seem to me to foucs on BLAME or GUILT - WHOSE FAULT IS IT? WHY DIDN'T YOU KNOW? etc etc and make things very personal in a tabloidesque way. Reminds me of the emotive tone of Daily Mail headlines. Trying to follow complex issues stuff about the credit crunch - while I agree that politicans and bamkers both are deviouslying bastards - this type of shouting doesn't enhance my - or anyone else's - understanding of what's happened.

[danalcapone]

I guess I agree with you broadly, but it's the lack of "substantive questions", and attempts to reduce issues down to personalised responsibility, that bothers me.

[notbbcnews24]

Well with the credit crunch specifically I don't think it is the interviews that convey the story as much as the introduction before the interview. With some of the exotic financial products being discussed having been misunderstood even by most of the management of the companies responsible for them is it really a surprise that interviews are still not the best source of finding out what went wrong?