POOR INTERVIEWING HABITS (4-2003)

The news media, especially on TV, were voracious for 
anything related to Jessica Lynch, her capture, or her 
rescue. It was the biggest story of the day.

Lynch was the 19-year-old POW whose unit took a wrong turn 
in Iraq and ended up in enemy hands. She had a couple of 
broken bones at least, and perhaps a gunshot wound. But she 
was finally safe and sound, thanks to some CIA intelligence 
and a brave rescue unit that went in and got her.

It was admittedly a big news story. And if the TV 
commentators had stuck with reporting it, I would not be 
compelled to write this column. But the news anchors, as 
they often do in situations like this, turned Miss Lynch 
and her family into a sideshow.

Interviews with Lynch’s parents were broadcast on all the 
major networks. One or two even showed more than one 
interview as each network maneuvered to get exclusive 
coverage of the family.

I was embarrassed for the family members who had to put up 
with it, and for the networks themselves for coming up with 
some of the lamest questions one could imagine under such a 
circumstance.

“What were your feelings when you first heard about your 
daughter’s capture?” “What did you think when they told you 
she had been rescued?” “How did you feel when you found out 
your daughter had been rescued?” “Who told you she was 
rescued?” “When they called you, who answered the 
telephone?” “What are you going to do when she gets home?”

I had to turn the channel when Katie Couric of the Today 
Show was interviewing Lynch’s father. It just got far too 
embarrassing for me, knowing that Couric was embarrassing 
herself.

The behavior of TV news interviewers has often sunk to new 
levels of bleakness. Every time there is a disaster they 
come armed with the same old bag of trite questions: “How 
did it make you feel knowing that your home was destroyed 
by a tornado?”

To begin with, I personally don’t need to know the deep 
inner feelings of someone who has just undergone a tragedy 
or even someone who has just overcome one. I can imagine 
how I would feel and I can make the obvious assumption that 
those involved are feeling pretty much the same way. I 
don’t need a TV anchor person butting in on my behalf and 
asking the obvious.

And on a related note, even in the absence of tragedy, it 
remains a favorite game of TV anchors to interview the “man 
in the street.” Whether the subject is high gasoline prices 
(“How do you feel about having to pay $1.85 per gallon for 
gas?”), or a story on someone who has gone to war (“If you 
could tell your friend who is on the front line as we speak 
anything at all, what would it be?”), the relevance to me 
is almost nil.

After all, I know how I would feel about spending $1.85 for 
a gallon of gasoline, so I don’t need some Bozo reporter 
asking a stranger what he thinks of the deal. And if I had 
a friend on the front line, my personal thoughts for him 
would be just that – personal.

If TV news shows don’t have enough hard news to report, 
perhaps they shouldn’t be on the air for 24 hours a day. I 
tune in to hear and see the latest real news, not to listen 
to interviewers toss hackneyed questions at some poor soul 
who has just undergone some tragic event.