Feedback: Political Interviews
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09:03, Monday, 8 October 2012
This week on Feedback I talked to that most thoughtful of political correspondents, Steve Richards of the Independent, about the state of the political interview. Our discussion followed a particularly rowdy interview on the Today programme by Evan Davis with the Labour leader Ed Miliband.
They frequently talked over each other and several of our correspondents switched off.
Interviewers tend to feel that politicians arrive with sound bites they are determined to utter regardless of the questions being asked, and politicians seem to believe that those questioning them have their own agenda and are just trying to trip them up to get a news story.
Whatever the truth, the audience is not well served when it is impossible to hear what each party to an interview is saying.
Are things getting worse?
Looking back over 40 years it seems to me that political interviewing has become more difficult.
In the 70s and 80s the parties were openly split on major issues and few made any attempt to hide their differences with colleagues.
This provided an opportunity for expert interviewers like Sir Robin Day to utilise their considerable forensic skills to explore both policies and personalities.
Then, under the tutelage of Sir Gordon Rees, the conservative party became more concerned with presentation and impression. Margaret Thatcher was given a new hair style, taught how to lower her voice and was made more easily available to Terry Wogan and Jimmy Young than to Sir Robin.
New Labour soon followed suit. Tony Blair had seen how former leader Neil Kinnock had been treated by the right wing tabloid press, and was determined to suppress internal dissension. He brought in Alastair Campbell, who with Peter Mandelson, succeeding for some time in controlling the political agenda in their favour.
The sound bite ruled and everyone had to be on message.
Today that ought to be more difficult , given the proliferation of media outlets and the rise of social media.
Yet there are many politicians, producers and listeners who are increasingly frustrated with the present state of political interviewing.
Here is Feedback's treatment of the issue.
It will be interesting to hear the tone adopted by whichever Today interview talks to David Cameron and George Osborne. If the interview is a gentle one there will be calls of bias, but if it is as rowdy as that between Evan Davis and Ed Miliband, then many listeners may well switch off.
I'll be listening.
Roger Bolton
Roger Bolton presents Feedback on Radio 4.
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