American Soldier In Iraq Interview: We Weren't Coached

In his blog, he says they only did what anyone would -- think about their answers beforehand and practice with the microphone so they wouldn't choke on TV.

All of this is stupid. If the men were "coached" in the sense that they were told to say things they didn't believe, that's a major embarassment and an ill-using of our soldiers.

On the other hand, if this was just a pre-interview sort of thing -- for crying out loud, most people pre-interview. Even on my own dinky little webcast show, I pre-interview and say stuff like "Make sure you say that in the interview, and if I forget to prompt you, bring it up yourself. That's good stuff." And sometimes something interesting will be said during the commercial break, and I'll say "Okay, I don't want to waste that. I'll ask you that again during the show."

The media has been doing exactly this for 60 years and now acts shocked, shocked! to find out that interviews are frequently practiced beforehand and are not purely spontaneous. And that the questions and answers aren't exactly a surprise for either the interviewer or interviewee.

I mean, it's not like editors at the New York Times were caught inserting/suggesting their own words into an essayists personal testimonial or anything.

posted by Ace at 02:49 PM

| Access Comments