This sketch from last night’s Saturday Night Live captures precisely the sorry state of affairs in the US, both in terms of the people who are elected to office, the people who work for them, and the people who are responsible for covering the news.
These hosts don’t seem to realize that viewers don’t care what they think, they want to hear from the guests. When I see interviewers talking much more than the interviewees, and this is so, so common, I long for the return of Bob Edwards, former host of NPR’s Morning Edition, who was one of the best interviewers I have heard. He would ask very short but pointed questions that went right to the heart of the issue being discussed and allow the speakers to explain themselves.
SNL followed up with a funny Weekend Update segment where Michael Che gave Trump a brief history lesson on colonialism.
the people who are responsible for covering the news.
That’s the problem: they’re not. They’re entertainers, pretending to cover the news.
And I don’t mean the SNL people. They’re entertainers, too, but at least they understand it.
The late great Robin Day, one of the most feared interviewers on the BBC, said his most valuable and reliable interview technique was to ask a question, listen to the (rehearsed) answer, and then when the interviewee stopped talking to simply look at them with a slight tilt of the head as if to say “And…?” It was then, he said, that they would hang themselves. Modern interviewers either lack the self discipline to appl this, or like the sound of their own voices too much.