Are All Interviews Honest?

Christiana Amanpour was born on January 12, 1958, in London, England. Some people say that she was born in Iran, but it can be because of her father being Iranian and she spent some time in Iran while growing up. She studied journalism in the University of Rhode Island. She worked as an electronic graphics designer, as a radio reporter and producer in WBRU and she worked for CNN. She first gained notice for her 1985 report on Iran, which won the DuPont Award. She has won nine Emmy Awards and countless other honors (Persian Women of the year, the Fourth Estate Award, Nymphe d’Honneur, Courage in Journalism Award, etc.) for her work. Her work for the news magazine garnered her two Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award.  She was criticized by Hones Reporting and the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) for her CNN report God’s Warriors. God’s warriors was a three-part CNN Presents documentary produced by Amanpour in which she compares the rise of religious fundamentalism as a political force in the world. In an interview on Fox News, Jonathan Morris commented on God’s of Warriors: “I think another thing that this documentary does in a very bad dishonest way is that it comes up with the very stale, I think, inappropriate accusation or insinuation that religion is the real cause for all the evil in this world.” Her response was that the documentary is not meant to compare religions, but rather to show “that each faith has their committed and fervent believers, and we’re showing how each of those are active in the political sphere in today’s world.” On October 9, 1994, Stephen Kinzer of the New York Times criticized her interpretation of the Bosnian War. Kinzer said that she reported while she was sitting in Belgrade when that marketplace massacre happened, and she went on the air to say that the Serbs had probably done it. There was no way she could have known that. She was assuming an omniscience, which no journalist has. I think Amanpour is a good journalist because she does her research before the interview (she knows where they will hesitate and she insists on it), she carries evidence and examples of other interviews to compress them, she asks what the world is afraid to ask (she has courageous questions), she has empathy (as Marc Pachter or Tim Russert) and she tells the truth to lead the person to expose him or herself. Her way of looking at journalism: “And I believe that good journalism, good television, can make our world a better place.” In interviews the interviewers point is to get interesting information and to get the person talk about his or herself. But, they are not always interested in exposing everything about themselves. For Marc Pachter to get a good interview, interviewer should have empathy, should ask the questions they have been waiting for their whole life and you have to make them feel like they have a story worth sharing. But, he thinks that the key point is empathy and I am agreeing on this with him, because everyone needs a person to talk, it’s not about being a stranger or not. Everybody needs someone and if it is the right time, why will not you evaluate the chance. It will help both of them: The interviewer will get what he wants and a new friend, the person will be happy because in the end they have got the question. A good interviewer should be smart enough to improvise while they are asking questions, because they have to find a way to in his/her mind, and the empathy makes it simpler.