A survivor of The Boston Marathon Bombings is complaining that Meet The Press refused to promise the names of the bombers would not be used during a roundtable discussion, so she left the station in tears before the taping.
Most of the time we never find out about conditions laid down by interviewees, because, frankly, the extent broadcasters will go to to "get" an exclusive is embarrassing.
I think conditions should always be mentioned at the start of an interview. "Senator Smith insisted we not ask about his indictment as a condition of this interview", or "Representative Jones required us to provide red M&M's in the green room before he would agree to be our guest today."
OK, I'm kidding about that last one, but when someone wants a topic to be off limits, they should be informed that fact will be announced at the start of the interview (if it's live) or in the report when it is produced.
I once agreed not to ask a politician about his rumored divorce because I was sure callers would do it for me. They didn't, and I was left with egg on my face. Since I did NOT mention the condition, nobody except the politician realized it.
[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of TimLennox.com]
Most of the time we never find out about conditions laid down by interviewees, because, frankly, the extent broadcasters will go to to "get" an exclusive is embarrassing.
OK, I'm kidding about that last one, but when someone wants a topic to be off limits, they should be informed that fact will be announced at the start of the interview (if it's live) or in the report when it is produced.
I once agreed not to ask a politician about his rumored divorce because I was sure callers would do it for me. They didn't, and I was left with egg on my face. Since I did NOT mention the condition, nobody except the politician realized it.
[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of TimLennox.com]
The marathon survivor should not have agreed to the interview in the first place, if her conditions were not met.
ReplyDeleteHard to tell for sure, but I got the impression she did NOT do the interview because they could not agree to her requirement...not sure if she made that clear when she was booked or not.
ReplyDelete