Lara Logan wants you to remember that there's still a war in Iraq and also in Afghanistan
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
I just remembered that I had intended to put this up last week when I first saw it, but typing up Project Longshot to Alpha Centauri got in the way. This is quite a good interview with CBS's chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan which shows well the frustration when a reporter has spent as much time as she and others do (and also risking their lives at the same time) to come up with a really informative/crucial story, only to have it get driven to the side by something much less important (movie star y or singer z back in rehab, etc.).
Jon Stewart is an excellent interviewer as always. Here's the video:
2 comments:
The reason that American TV interviewers suck is that they all have so much need to promote their images, so when they interview someone their first priority is to do so in a way that reifies that image. Bill O'Reilly is a blustery straighttalker, Anderson Cooper is a sensitive nice guy, etc. Who or what the interview subject is doesn't matter; it's really just a tool for them to promote themselves.
So Jon Stewart is the best American interviewer because he has the rest of the Daily Show on which to build his image. So in the interview he can afford to ask real questions and be a human being, but other TV personalities whose shows are interview-only can't afford to do that.
Ok, I take that back a little. There is also Charlie Rose, who does an interview-only show without bending everything to his image, but he's on PBS and nobody watches him so it doesn't count.
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