A major component of journalism is asking questions. We want to know. We have a source or an authority or a witness in front of us, and we need information from that person to improve our stories, or even to make them possible.
Generally, journalists are in a hurry. Often, their time is limited. The source also probably has limited time and interest in being quizzed.
Why, then, are journalists becoming increasingly inept at the art of the succinct question?
A few years ago, you would have to take my word for this: As a group, journalists have turned into surprisingly awful posers of questions.
But now you can see and hear this for yourself. Just stay with the postgame coverage of any of the NBA Finals games, and wait for the press conferences involving athletes and coaches. Practically all the group sessions are now shown on live television, if you know where to look. (Generally, ESPN.)
And listen to the questions.
Nearly all of which are meandering.
“Kobe? Over here. Yes. On your right. Sorry, your left. My right. Kobe? You guys were up 10, 15 points in the first quarter, and then the Magic had that run and got close in the second quarter, and you had that dunk over Rashard Lewis, and that seemed to spark your team. Could you talk about that moment, and what it means going forward in the series?”
Yes. I made up that question. (As I will make up the subsequent questions here.) But credentialed journalists, some of them veterans of the profession, are asking meandering queries just like that one.
The better question: “Kobe, that dunk over Rashard Lewis in the second quarter seemed to change the game. What is your view of that?
Far, far too many questions can be answered with a yes or no. The athlete/coach generally knows he is expected to reply in several sentences, but if a guy is in a lousy mood, and you ask him a “yes or no” question… sometimes that’s what you get. Yes. Or no. And awkward silence. When did journalists forget this basic lesson?
Some questions are nonsensical or wrong, which reflects badly on the questioner. But it’s amusing how many of these the guy behind the microphone will go ahead and try to answer.
“Phil, rebounding seems like a big issue. You have been outrebounded in three games but won them all. How does that impact your substitution pattern and the energy inside the arena?”
Yeah. What?
My biggest single complaint is the “question plus answer and another answer or two.” I am astonished at how many of these I hear these days. A couple of credentialed journalists posed two of these question-with-answers in succession to George Karl last week, and he actually said, “Sounds like you guys already have answers for me.”
A fictional example:
“Lamar, it seems like you guys were never sharp. Was that about too much rest and a little bit of rust? Was it about the sight of Marv Albert sitting at courtside? Or was it more about Orlando?”
It is awful. It is horrible. And you sometimes don’t recognize it until you play this stuff back on tape and hear precious seconds being lost … sources being offered possible lines of reply, often boring and cliche lines or replay and then happily taking one of those lines … and feeling embarrassment for the journalist who clearly did not prepare the question before asking it.
Now, I have never claimed to be good with questions. I often find myself playing back a tape and wondering, “Why the heck didn’t I just shut up?” Or “Why did I feel obliged to try to insert a clever aside while the other guy was talking?” And I do this fairly regularly — still — even when I’m trying not to.
Also, as bad as American journos have become about asking questions, we still are better at this than our Latin counterparts, for whom a question is just a forum for “A Statement,” maybe a full minute of preamble, followed by observation, deduction and maybe, just maybe, something vaguely resembling a question — or an invitation to agree with the interlocuter — at the very end.
I have suffered through lots of these at international events. And it drives me crazy. Ronaldo is going to be in the interview room for five minutes, and we lose a minute of it to a guy who is recapitulating the match in the guise of a question. American journalists still don’t do that. Thank goodness.
But we could be better. We should be better. We at least should try.
For starters, print guys should consider their radio brethren. Not the TV guys, because as far as they’re concerned they’re as big a part of the interview as is the coach or athlete. But the radio guys.
I have found, again and again, over decades, that the best quotes often come in response to a radio guy’s question. Because, I believe, radio guys actually think before they open their mouths. They generally ask short questions. Pointed, almost-edgy but-not-quite-offputting questions. That can’t be answered with a yes or no. That elicit analysis or opinion and never, ever “lead” the source.
One of the best at this currently working is a guy named Steve Futterman. Been around forever. Works for CBS. Worked for NBC before that. Started as a sports guy, now does some of everything, but generally comes back for big sports events.
Futterman asks 10-15 word questions. And sources reply in paragraphs.
Futterman’s most famous moment, I’m fairly certain, came at the end of the Gulf War in 1991. It was Futterman who somehow got over to Saudi Arabia and asked U.S. Army General Norman Schwarzkopf something along the lines of “How would you evaluate Saddam Hussein as a general and military tactician?”
It elicited the most-repeated quote of the war.
Said Schwarzkopf: “As far as Saddam Hussein being a great military strategist, he is neither a strategist, nor is he schooled in the operational art, nor is he a tactician, nor is he a general, nor is he a solider. Other than that, he is a great military man. I want you to know that.”
We need to ask more questions like the one Futterman asked. We need to think about our questions long before we ask them. We need to edit them inside our heads. We need to be quick about it, and simple, and we should never, ever offer possible answers. And remember, it is never about us or our opinion, it is about getting the source to open up.
We need to get better at this. The whole sports world is watching, just when we are losing our ability to pose a simple question.
10 responses so far ↓
1 Dennis Pope // Jun 6, 2009 at 8:18 PM
My least favorite lead-in to a question has to be: “So is it a case where…?” This drives me absolutely nuts and I can’t help but scoff aloud when a interlocuter begins in such a manner.
Most recently, I ran into this type of questioning at the AMA Motocross event at Glen Helen, where most of the “journalists” were industry people with MotoX magazine or some such crap. Almost all the questions that day weren’t really questions at all, actually. Most were of the form: “So you looked pretty good out there.” No question, just an opinion. I thought several times of helping the sad PR people re-phrase their statements into questions but decided it was more amusing to just make fun of them for their inability to prepare anything besides their lazy stream on consiousness.
2 David Lassen // Jun 6, 2009 at 9:50 PM
Boy, have I been aware of this during the NBA playoffs. I’m actually going to send along a private aside to you on this, but I do have a couple of thoughts for general consumption:
— Like you, I’m under no illusion that I’m particularly good at asking this, but I do try to ask questions that have a decent chance of generating responses longer than the question. At Friday’s NBA Finals interviews, Kobe Bryant was asked 18 questions. On 14 of them, his answer was shorter than the question. Part of that is because he was being a bit churlish; part is because of those long, tortured questions.
— I think the interview room brings out the worst of this, because you know you have the floor to yourself, and a.) you don’t want to ask a dumb question; b.) sometimes you have to suddenly come up with a new question, because the guy ahead of you asked what you were going to, and c.) you don’t have any fear of being interrupted. I think the questions in the locker-room scrums are often more succinct, because you have some pressure to be quick, and you’re competing to be heard.
3 Joseph D'Hippolito // Jun 8, 2009 at 10:15 AM
There are two problems. First, nobody knows how to ask a question anymore. Most sports reporters in interviews I’ve witnessed start of by saying, “Could you talk about….?” or “Talk about….” They expect the interview subject to carry the burden and cover for the reporters’ laziness (which is a problem in itself). Second, most reporters don’t want intelligent, substantive information; they’re there to “get quotes” (translation: get something out of the subject’s mouth, no matter how inane or obvious). Third, and most depressing, is the overall decline in journalists’ general intelligence.
4 George Alfano // Jun 9, 2009 at 6:30 AM
I don’t know that “Talk about” is that much different than “What did you think about”, but it sounds worse and it isn’t a question.
One limit is asking somebody who is tired and they give an immediate reaction. If you asked a player about a game two or three days after an event, they might have a second or third thought about what happened.
I don’t think the problem is so much a decline of journalists’ intelligence (maybe that is true, or maybe we weren’t as smart when we were younger) as it is a question of editors probing. When I had better editors who wanted something deeper than pablum, I started asking better questions.
5 Mike Rappaport // Jun 9, 2009 at 9:59 PM
Worst interview I ever heard was when I was working in Colorado. Dr. J was on his farewell tour and had already been through. On this night, the Celtics were in town.
The questioner was a one-man sports staff out on the plains in Sterling, Colo.
Check this with Larry Bird:
Q. Larry, Dr. J says he’s retiring. I don’t want him to retire. Can you talk him out of it?
LB: I would never try to tell another player whether he should retire or not. Dr. J has been a great player, but if he wants to retire, it’s his decision.
Q. Larry, are you and Dr. J friends?
LB: No, we’re not friends, but I have a lot of respect for him.
Q. Larry, I love Dr. J. Do you love him?
LB (getting annoyed): I told you I respect him as a player.
Q. Larry, can I have your autograph?
LB (angrily signs autograph, turns to look at rest of media waiting): If you guys want autographs, wait outside like the other fans.
Bird then went into the trainer’s room and none of us got to interview him.
I swear this actually happened.
6 David Lassen // Jun 9, 2009 at 10:45 PM
Mike, did the rest of you kill the guy right there, or wait until there were no witnesses? (And how’s that for a press-conference question?)
7 J.P. Hoornstra // Jun 10, 2009 at 1:17 AM
Awesome story, Mike Rappaport.
I would actually advocate the “question” that begins with “Talk about…” — but only if the subsequent phrase ends quickly. All too often I hear colleagues ask athletes to “talk about” something, but by the time the interviewer is done talking, the athlete forgets what he was supposed to talk about.
In our own defense, I would also theorize that the coach-as-politician has forced us into wordier questions. Sometimes you have to cut through the coachspeak by asking a simple question in a specific way that requires more words. Not wasted words, not opinionated words, just more words.
8 Damian // Jun 10, 2009 at 11:18 AM
Best interview — Nick J with Rik Smits after a Pacers-Clippers game in which Rik told the deadline media/beat writers to wait because Nick had approached him pregame and Rik promised him postgame. Forget the game, let’s talk about Rik’s hobby of car collecting and refurbishing old cars. I wonder if Nick still has the tape, or if PaulO still has the paper in which the Q&A appeared.
OK, so maybe it’s not the best interview, but it was classic!
Having sat through many a press conference, scrum and 1-on-1 interview as a media member and the middle man on the other side, I’ve learned there are many reasons for bad questioning that can’t be covered here, but among the more common reasons:
— Many media have their own inflated egos and like to hear themselves talk, especially when the press conferences are broadcasted locally or nationally on TV. Some even believe that asking good questions on TV can lead to a better job if the right person hears a question and sees the reporter through their TV.
No, Anthony Carter of AC Star 1 News, you will not be advancing in this industry beyond your blog and podcast on your own web site that is visited by buddies, relatives and distant relatives. And what the heck is the California Crusader? Where can I buy your paper and read your compelling, insightful gamer/notebook/column?
— Many media are young pups who are inexperienced and intimidated by the occasion, the surroundings and the athletes they try to talk to, so they end up stumbling over their words or find it difficult to ask a clear, concise question.
— Many media try to ask open-ended questions — because far too many people ask bad, closed-ended questions that, in their wording, elicit a yes or no answer — but also want to steer the subject into saying something specific so it fits said reporter’s angle, column, etc. So the open-ended question eventually turns into a probing one, providing a subject with a lead to answer the question a certain way.
— Some media are so fearful of not getting enough words out of a player’s answer that they think if they talk longer, the player will talk back in greater lengths.
— Some media want a player to answer back with some personality, and feel that the longer they engage the subject with chatter, the more comfortable the subject will feel to answer back in length.
Did anyone hear the guy in the Game 3 postgame presser with Phil Jax last night, trying to get him to ride Bynum/Odom/Pau for their rebounding effort (“They had 4 and 3 and 2 rebounds, but Howard had 14?”)? Obviously, he failed to recognize that Orlando shot 63%, leaving few rebounds to be had, the Lakers were only outrebounded 29-27, Orlando only had 5 offensive boards and since Orlando is a perimeter team, outside shots tend to lead to long rebounds that are often had by guards and small forwards.
You just wish some media would have to go through an IQ test or some sort of screening before they are brandished with credentials.
People that have never played an organized or playground game in the sport they are covering, yet think they know it all and can break down and analyze a game to a tee, amuse me, then agitate me. Look, just because you’ve mastered the sport on your Xbox or PlayStation through all of the cheat codes you’ve accumlated, it doesn’t mean you’re ready to take on the real thing.
Sorry, too long. I know. No ego here. Just delivering observations and a take.
9 Mike Rappaport // Jun 11, 2009 at 9:58 AM
We wanted to kill him. Another short story about the same kid. He wasn’t real ambitious. He was from Sterling, and his goal in life was to work at his hometown paper.
In the press box at a Broncos-Patriots game in ’87 or ’88 — I forget which. Snap to Elway, he scrambles. Vance Johnson — one of the Three Amigos — is in the clear 20 yards behind the defense. Elway apparently doesn’t see him at first.
This kid — in the back row of the pressbox — jumps to his feet and screams, “Throw the damn ball!”
Elway did. Touchdown, Broncos.
The only guy I ever met who was as annoying as this kid was the guy we used to call “Bakersfield radio” at Rams games in the ’90s.
10 Char Ham // Jun 13, 2009 at 11:02 PM
The intent of asking questions during interviews is for the journalist to GATHER information to INFORM the reader or viewer. The questions posed are NOT to stroke the journalist’s ego. No wonder why the interviewees get annoyed!
In performing interviews on musicians or when I did concert/festival reviews, I made sure beforehand to do the homework. Learn about the musician, from listening (or relistening) to their work, reading about their background, etc. There were times when I was out at a festival and lo and behold, that musician(s) and I met and it ended up having that knowledge and being intelligent helped in him or her more luckily to engage in a conversation and sometimes even develop into a feature article!
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