The Media Interview

A common tactic by interviewers is to find a quote from the past which contradicts what the person now says. Catching out someone making a u-turn is generally perceived as a “gotcha” moment, but I thought it was interesting that famed British TV interviewer Jeremy Paxman – known for some gotcha moments of his own [...]

ABC News posted a promo for an interview with Sarah Palin and the headline makes quite a leap from what’s in even the limited transcript released by ABC. The headline says Palin “vows to remain player in 2012″ although in the partial transcript, when asked if the criticism she’s received makes her want to go [...]

The website Media Matters says CNN “deceptively cropped” the June 29th Face the Nation interview with retired General Wesley Clark during a report on its American Morning show June 30th. Here’s the Media Matters transcript of the CNN video clip: CLARK [video clip]: That large squadron in the Air — in the Navy that he [...]

Freelance writer Hrag Vartanian blogs about being misquoted: I was interviewed by Steve Malanga for a recent profile of Bushwick, Brooklyn for City Journal and found this paragraph that proved to me (yet again) that you should always be cautious about giving interviews, even to nice guys–which Steve obviously is: Some early arrivals claim that [...]

During a meeting with the Sioux Falls Argus-Leader’s editorial board on May 23, 2008, which was streamed live over the internet, Hillary Clinton mentioned the assassination of Robert Kennedy in a passing comment about nomination campaigns historically lasting into June. That mention became the centre of a firestorm. Here’s the headline from the newspaper that [...]

And we thought the idea of airing an interview with OJ Simpson about hypothetical murder was bad. German TV network has just aired the first TV interview with a convicted cannibal. All we can hope for is extremely low ratings.

I heard a headline on CNN the other day that made me curious. New York Rep. Peter King allegedly said there were too many mosques in the United States, but he claimed he was being taken out of context. The remarks were said to be in an interview with Politico.com, so I immediately brought it [...]

I’ve posted before about the fact that publishing things on a blog is akin to having an interview published in a magazine or aired on radio or TV – be prepared to have yourself quoted by others. Now it’s common practice for journalists to write stories quoting someone from a variety of other sources, but [...]

I just posted about the controversy surrounding the demand by Angelina Jolie’s lawyers that journalists sign a contract outlining the scope and rules of any interview with the star at the premiere of her latest movie A Mighty Heart. There’s another story here, though, about the way the media works. I cited a number of [...]

Angelina Jolie is being called a hypocrite by some media (for instance, here, here, and here) after she imposed strict limits on interviews during the June 13th premiere of A Mighty Heart, in which she plays the widow of murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Roger Friedman of Fox News blasted Jolie for what [...]