2 Responses to Comment is superfluous:

  1. MattLondon says:
    August 30, 2007 at 8:31 pm

    I’m noticing more and more the way that interviewers seem more concerned to corner interviewees into an embarrassing soundbite than to extract information.

    Two recent examples, both Today, I think, were an interview with David Milliband where he was being cornered into saying that we would pull out of Iraq when it suited us, whatever the USA thought, and with a US spokesman (didn’t catch who) on Afghanistan where the interviewer repeatedly tried to make him say that the US wanted to spary herbicide on Afghan poppy crops (ah, 60s memories of Agent Orange and Vietnam!) but were only stopped by their coalition partners. The agenda – seeking an embarrassing soundbite – is so obvious that only an idiot would fall for it – but so much time is wasted in the attempt!

    Do Today interviewers ever consider that even if interviewees view don’t interest them they might interest us!

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  2. gordon-bennett says:
    August 30, 2007 at 11:20 pm

    Here are a couple of well worn beeb techniques for undermining the Conservatives.

    1. At the last election the Conservatives held only one press conference (IIRC) on Immigration. However, journalists kept asking about immigration at other press conferences and so the beeb felt able to report that the Conservatives were obsessed with immigration.
    [Here’s an example describing this:

    http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/election2005/archives/2005/04/19/conservatives_on_crime.html

    Scroll down to the Comments.]

    2. The beeb issues very few invitations to Conservative spokesman to comment on Government policy. This enables the beeboids to ask (in a rather theatrical tone of wonderment) “Where’s the Opposition?” and describe the Conservatives as invisible.

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