Morning shows all about host
Every university class I teach, we do a lesson on interviewing skills. No, not the kind that will get you the job, but the kind in which a journalist asks questions.
Because I teach writing and news gathering and video production, I always spend a few hours teaching students the basic rules: Be prepared, don’t read verbatim from a list of questions, listen to the answers so you can follow up, and keep yourself out of it.
That last one’s the most important, particularly for broadcast interviews. Ask the question and then close your mouth and listen to the answer.
It’s not about you.
I strongly believe in that principle of journalism. The journalist or reporter or host is a conduit for the topic, the facilitator of a conversation that will allow the answers to inform or educate or illuminate.
What a dinosaur I am.
Have you seen the morning shows lately? What were once a few mildly informative and watchable hours of news and entertainment became vanity chucklefests in which the hosts, themselves, think they’re the celebrities.
The morning programs always showcased the star power of their hosts. Bryant Gumbel was a household name during his time hosting “Today.” But he kept the focus on the news topics and guests because he knew that rule about interviewing: He asked the question and then shut up. He kept himself out of it.
Contrast that with the current team of “Today,” a bunch of preening celebrities who make sure to inject information about themselves – their habits, their interests, their problems, their babies – into most every interview, no matter the subject. The scene is the same on ABC’s “Good Morning America” and, to a lesser extent, on CBS, where there are some actual journalists in the mix, but where Gayle King can’t seem to ask a question of any guest without referencing something in her own life.
Of course, I know the old formats with true journalists serving as show hosts would tank in the ratings now. Our culture of celebrity and social media changed viewer tastes and expectations.
But come on. How can it be OK for “Today’s” Tamron Hall to read a story about another random shooting spree and the bloody beating of a college student, and then a few minutes later be talking about how she likes to lick peanut butter from a spoon – creamy, not crunchy. (FYI, Al Roker likes crunchy.)
It’s a sacred trust, this relationship between a journalist and audience. That’s what I tell my students. It gets more difficult all the time, though, trying to plug this hole in the dam, to keep the inane celebrity culture from busting through and flooding everything.
We’re almost there, of course. How quaint I must sound, saying “keep yourself out of it” to students who take and post selfies all day.
The morning show hosts take and post selfies during the show, too. And then that host will sit across from the parents of a murdered child and ask how they’re doing. Minutes later, the host will be back on set mugging into her cellphone again,
At this rate, the morning shows will not need to invite newsmakers for interviews. Let’s just make the morning shows sitcoms and forget the news and interview parts. The shows are all about the hosts, anyway.
Beth Dolinar can be reached at cootiej@aol.com.