The Media Interview

As I started to watch yesterday’s much talked about interview with Billy Bob Thornton and the Boxmasters on CBC Radio out of Toronto, I thought we were in for another Sigur Ros or Joaquin Phoenix stunt, when the interviewee simply clams up. Then, as host Jian Ghomeshi asked about Billy Bob’s musical influences growing up, [...]

I was blogging about the use of Skype to economically bring in anyone to a satellite interview. Then the question is, who do you bring in? Sadly, it’s being used right now to bring us yet another “voice of the people.” Instead of bringing in more and diverse experts, we’re Skyping anybody who’s got a [...]

The television industry has, over the years, developed an intricate network of satellite feeds and other means to create what we’ve taken for granted over the last decade or so: the satellite interview or discussion. Now Skype and other internet video technologies are making that intricate network almost obsolete, overnight. Take a look at this [...]

Dealing with the editing of media interviews is never an easy question. Take this post from a conservative blogger’s take on what happened to Alaskan governor Sarah Palin during the 2008 presidential race: Her campaign staff fumbled her introduction to the nation. Her initial interviews were cut by hostile editors in order to make her [...]

Missed this during CNN’s election coverage, but on November 4 they pulled off a television first – they brought someone into studio via hologram. Correspondent Jessica Yellin was in Chicago, but she was “beamed” into the Washington studio with Wolf Blitzer. As a tip of the hat to Star Trek (and good old fashioned show [...]

The LPGA has created quite a stir by announcing that starting in 2009 all golfers on the tour must demonstrate proficiency in English within two years of joining or face suspension. Part of the impetus behind the rule is to improve media interviews for non-English speaking players, according to Golf Week magazine: Betsy Clark, LPGA [...]

A comment by one of presidential candidate John McCain’s advisors, quoted in a Fortune magazine article, has created quite a stir and raises an interesting issue about the transparency of media interviews. Here’s part of the LA Times story on the comments by Charlie Black: Then, the longtime political pro got a bit too honest. [...]

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 [...]

The mother of a reality TV show winner in Britain has admitted to wrongly claiming income support and council tax benefits. Former pop star and TV presenter Kerry Katona was a season winner on I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! – a kind of Survivor for the famous. According to the Press [...]

Barbara Walters on one of the main reasons she stopped doing the TV newsmagazine 20/20 back in 2004: …it seemed that every celebrity, every murderer…had a lawyer or a press agent all interviewing the interviewer to determine where they could get the most airings for their clients, what kind of questions would be asked, and [...]