Many of you have probably seen TV interviews recently, on various channels, with different opinions. I read this post from Garr over at PresentationZen, and it got me thinking more about the settings TV studios force us to watch.
Fox isn’t the most neutral network in the world, in fact I think it’s republican, conservative and tend to attack anything that isn’t American. I think that even during the recent Virginia Tech shooting, Fox quickly jumped and argued that the assailant was of an Eastern origin, and maybe the attack itself was politically-based.. where’s Al Qaeda when you need them?!
Anyhow, I watched this 5 min interview at The O’reilly Factor, with Atheist Richard Dawkins, an Oxford professor who recently published The God Delusion. I’m not familiar with specific rules of interviewing, but I would think that if you bring someone, you want him to do the talking. At least some of it. Not on Bill’s watch. Especially not an Atheist.. Fine, it’s Fox, I would expect that. If you get invited to The Oreilly Factor, to talk about a book denouncing God, don’t expect to get a lot of talk time… But, it seems Fox didn’t stop there, with the talk time. Notice the background of both people – the viewer connects to a simpler setting, calmer, when less is better. Now watch the interview – which frame is the clearer? where do you feel more comfortable watching? in Bill’s? in Richard’s?
Next time you’re watching an interview on TV, look closely – who’s getting the clearer setting? the interviewer or the interviewee? which of the 2 does the network favors?
