The most famous interview in the world so far, has been British TV personality David Frost’s interview with America’s disgraced ex-president Richard Nixon in which he confessed that Watergate was a mistake. Frost has the art to somehow relax the interviewees so much that they end up lowering their guards and trust the interviewer. The interview done years after Nixon resigned was so good, that it was turned into a very successful movie in which the interview was presented almost like a boxing match, with each side preparing for one-up-man-ship.
America’s version of Frost is Barbara Walters, a feisty, unflappable TV journalist. She is more famous for her scoop interviews and personality journalism, than as a tough reporter who helped establish women in America’s network TV news as equals to their male counterparts. Her interviews with some of the world’s most famous personality including slain Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and pop star Michael Jackson were always provocative.
She uses her charm, husky voice and Boston accent to make many celebrities lower their guards and say something on national television that they didn’t plan to tell anyone. And not only that, she is also credited with getting the most coveted interviews, which every American TV journalist wanted to get but couldn’t. And although she came across as a charming and soft interviewer, she’d usually ask her toughest, blunt questions towards the end of the interview.
During her interview with the Cuban leader Fidel Castro in 1977, she pointedly said to him, “You allow no dissent. Your newspapers, radio, television, motions picture are under state control.” To this he replied, “Barbara, our concept of freedom of the press is not like yours.” She concluded the broadcast of the interview by remarking, “What we disagreed on most profoundly is the meaning of freedom—and that is what truly separates us.” In 1999, her interview with Monica Lewinsky, the White House intern who got sexually involved with then President Bill Clinton, was seen by a record 74 million viewers.
Walters asked Lewinsky, “What will you tell your children when you have them?” Lewinsky replied, “Mommy made a big mistake.” Walters brought the program to a dramatic conclusion, turning to the viewers and saying, “And that is the understatement of the year.”
Walters’ 1981 interview with the actress Katharine Hepburn was lampooned because of her odd question: “What kind of a tree are you? If you think you are a tree.” Hepburn’s witty reposte: “I hope I’m not an elm, with Dutch elm disease.” Walters later agreed that it was a mistake to ask her such an irrelevant question, but that did not discourage her and she kept on surprising her subjects by asking them some inane question like that. If the person being interviewed was prepared for the question, then his or her answer wouldn’t be all that surprising or unexpected.
On the other hand, if that person was somehow caught off-guard, well, the resulting answer could be quite interesting and oftentimes very revealing of the interviewee’s personality and character. This technique was quickly, and perhaps not all that unexpectedly, perceived to be so “cute” and different from the typical, mainstream approach, that soon it was even adopted by some professionals conducting job interviews.
In 2009, Walters discussed her interview techniques as a panelist at The Newhouse School of Public Communications of Syracuse University. I note some of her rules and observations: Knowledge: “Know the interviewee better than they know themselves, and know where you are going with him or her in the interview.”
Preparation: “Before the interview do your homework and do not depend on questions that others may write for you.” The Worst Interview: “The worst interview I ever did was with Warren Beatty. I asked him ‘how are you?’ There was interminable dead silence. Finally he said, ‘Fine.’”
To quote Walters, “When I interview, I know what I want to ask, but I also know what I want the subject to answer.” “I don’t put words in their mouth, but there are certain nuggets of information and insight that I’ve determined are critical to the story I’m telling and I frame my questions in such a way as to yield those”. She also says it is very significant how ultimately you edit the interview before it is aired.
I end this article with one of her most famous quotes: “An interview isn’t a friendly chat, it’s a spelunking expedition and you better come equipped with your GPS.” That is exactly what Frost did when he confronted Nixon, who was brilliant enough to derail him a number of times during the interview. But Frost always had his GPS and ultimately got Nixon to say that Watergate was his mistake.
(Author/analyst Ravi M Khanna worked with VOA as South Asia bureau chief and desk editor in New Delhi and Washington for over 24 years)
Feedback: ravimohankhanna@gmail.com
