David's World

September 25, 2006

No happy clappy TV: Clinton & interviewer on Fox News

Few people have the voice and the guts to be blunt on TV about the failure of the medium itself. Who criticizes their own interviewer? Former US president Bill Clinton has achieved a lot - he won't need to hide behind friendliness when asked seemingly one-sided questions by an interviewer on Fox News.

What sets off Clinton's tirade in a recent interview on Fox is the interviewer's critique-in-a-question. Indeed, it's almost offensive when Fox's Chris Wallace cites criticism that Clinton hadn't done enough during his term to kill Bin Laden. (Hindsight!)

A couple of years ago, when I worked as a radio journalist in Berlin, I actually used similar techniques. Sometimes you've simply got to present pointed criticism and ask questions that your interview partner disagrees with. That's when they come out of their shell. That's when you get footage that'll get your audience to listen up. The most boring interviews are the ones where interviewer and interviewee seem to play happy family, agreeing on what they're going to talk about. At least, Wallace doesn't need to pretend he's best buddies with the former president.

Clinton's central objection is valid, though: would Wallace ask the same questions to people from the Bush administration? I suspect not. Too bad Wallace doesn't deal with Clinton's response in the same way. He's smooth and trying to be friendly. Smile. Nothing to see here, move on, people. Next topic! His critical distance to the interviewee didn't last beyond coming up with some provocative questions.

Why am I mentioning this here? Fox News isn't something I'd normally watch or link to, and this whole topic seems very much drawn from US-American politics. But consider what's at stake. When the US army launches a campaign on, say, Iran, at some point next year, it'll have ramifications not just for the region. Instead, past US actions in Iraq seem to fuel global terrorism. So it's probably a good idea for us in Europe to listen to the Clintons, Rumsfelds, Chomskys.