MMMM # 79 - And what questions will you ask?

     When I visited Germany for a RIAS Fellowship in 1999, I was amazed to find the officials I interviewed expected a list of my questions in advance. Huh? That was the last thing I would do in the U.S.

     In a Montgomery Advertiser story earlier this month, business writer Cosby Woodruff freely admitted agreeing to that condition in an interview he did with the then-new heads of Colonial Bank. The interview happened after founder Bobby Lowder resigned. He wrote:

There were conditions, such as submitting questions in writing in advance so that lawyers could review them, but nothing that was a deal-break­er.

     If that's not a dealbreaker for an interview, what it? Turns out, as his story about the interview explains, the interview material was never published because the Colonial collapse and takeover by the FDIC made the information irrelevant. But still...questions in advance? Would that have precluded follow-up questions?
     If I'm interviewing someone for a feature story (as opposed to a hard news interview), I may try to make them more comfortable by telling them to treat it as a conversation, and to define the subjects of that conversation. But with a hard-news interview there are no such restrictions or assurances.
     I'll be moderating a forum with the candidates for Governor tomorrow here in Montgomery. The School Superintendents of Alabama Association has informed the campaigns about the subject matters of the questions, but certainly not the questions themselves.
     Is there ever an instance, at least in the U.S., in which providing interview questions in advance would be acceptable? If so, I hope that fact would be prominently disclosed, allowing folks to judge the validity of the information.

[PLUS: This morning in the NY Times ---newspapers still originate most news.]
[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of this blog.]