Re: "Fresh Air" show on MLK Day
You guys are talking about "ground rules" like there's some "News Cop" standing in the corner to enforce "the rules". A guest can tell and interviewer anything they want before the show, and vice versa. It's entirely up to the guest to decide whether to stay on the interview and answer the questions (or duck them). The interviewer is under ZERO obligation to honor any wishes of the guest beyond that if they ask questions the guest doesn't like, the guest may leave. Thus creating an awkward situation of an interview show with no guest.
Of course, the balance against a guest having too thin a skin is that if the guest leaves, the interviewer can say anything and the guest can't respond to it. Dvorkin is correct in that it's the "empty chair" interview and that generally it's inappropriate. However, I personally would argue that it's occasionally necessary...especially with known-troublesome guests...so that they know that if they walk away from you, then you'll rip them a new one on a national broadcast...so they better stay in that damn chair.
If the guest doesn't like that? Well, that's just too f**king bad now isn't it? Don't like the heat? Don't go in the kitchen! Nobody's MAKING you do that interview, after all. You're doing to promote yourself and, usually, your product. In exchange for that FREE ADVERTISING the price you pay is that maybe you have to answer some uncomfortable questions? Gimme a break.
By the way, O'Reilly's supposed "temper" and "prickliness" is all an act. He can turn it on and off at will; he just knows that a 6'4" white man screaming at people, and having a reputation as a bully, is an exceedingly effective tool to get people to do what he wants...both on and off the camera. Remember: his goal in that interview was to sell books. The people who will buy his book are not, generally speaking, NPR listeners. However, the notoriety he gets from "telling the liberal media/NPR to go shove it" will sit nicely with the people who, generally speaking, WILL be the kind of folks who might buy his book.
You guys are talking about "ground rules" like there's some "News Cop" standing in the corner to enforce "the rules". A guest can tell and interviewer anything they want before the show, and vice versa. It's entirely up to the guest to decide whether to stay on the interview and answer the questions (or duck them). The interviewer is under ZERO obligation to honor any wishes of the guest beyond that if they ask questions the guest doesn't like, the guest may leave. Thus creating an awkward situation of an interview show with no guest.
Of course, the balance against a guest having too thin a skin is that if the guest leaves, the interviewer can say anything and the guest can't respond to it. Dvorkin is correct in that it's the "empty chair" interview and that generally it's inappropriate. However, I personally would argue that it's occasionally necessary...especially with known-troublesome guests...so that they know that if they walk away from you, then you'll rip them a new one on a national broadcast...so they better stay in that damn chair.
If the guest doesn't like that? Well, that's just too f**king bad now isn't it? Don't like the heat? Don't go in the kitchen! Nobody's MAKING you do that interview, after all. You're doing to promote yourself and, usually, your product. In exchange for that FREE ADVERTISING the price you pay is that maybe you have to answer some uncomfortable questions? Gimme a break.
By the way, O'Reilly's supposed "temper" and "prickliness" is all an act. He can turn it on and off at will; he just knows that a 6'4" white man screaming at people, and having a reputation as a bully, is an exceedingly effective tool to get people to do what he wants...both on and off the camera. Remember: his goal in that interview was to sell books. The people who will buy his book are not, generally speaking, NPR listeners. However, the notoriety he gets from "telling the liberal media/NPR to go shove it" will sit nicely with the people who, generally speaking, WILL be the kind of folks who might buy his book.