The BBC isn’t the only broadcasting arena that can propel one to the off-switch with that special, panic-propelled urgency.
The word ‘James O’Brien’ triggers such a response; faster than a missile from a catapult. But as he himself puts it, ‘Even a stopped clock is right once, nay, twice a day.”
Now, there’s something very disturbing about James’s mannerisms and tics. He must have chewed the inside of his mouth to ribbons during that conversation, but on this occasion, the clock has stopped at just the right point.
This little example shows that listening to an interviewee and letting the speaker set out and develop his case can benefit the listener, the interviewee and ultimately, the interviewer himself. By not interrupting, not trying to score some sort of Twitter-friendly gotcha, the audience gets to learn something, and the BBC could learn something too.
I doubt that I’ll be an O’Brien convert from now on, but as time ticks on, you never know. That rigid old clock might coincide with events once again.
Sorry, I developed an allergy to James O'Brien during his Newsnight tenure when full exposure to his squinting, gurning parody of inquiry (all the time nursing his 20 or more cry-baby prejudices) created an adverse reaction...so I actually can't go through that vid however hard I try! :) Perhaps you could summarise the rare example of his time-telling exactitude!
ReplyDeleteI thought I did!
DeleteJ O'B was uncharacteristically acquiescent and respectful.
However awful someone is, it still surprises me how different things can look when a despised windbag suddenly appears to be on 'your side'.