Gotcha Journalism. You know what I'm talking about. It's rampant this political season. This isn't the debut of "Gotcha" Journalism either - it's been around a long time.Here's the look of "Gotcha Journalism." Charlie Gibsons "smirk" says it all.
On display for all to see is the journalist ready with the difficult to answer question. Then when the interview-ee stumbles - GOTCHA.
It's easy to play this game. It doesn't even take a real journalist to play. It takes a GAME SHOW HOST.
That's what the pre-Presidential election interviews are becoming....Jeopardy - or better still - "Who wants to be a Millionaire."
All the candidates are under fire.
Gotcha questions are difficult if not impossible to answer, especially under the constraints of a debate or a TV channel looking for a quick soundbite.
Sarah Palin is most in the cross hairs of GOTCHA JOURNALISM. I won't even attempt to defend her answers. The questions weren't designed to be answered. If she HAD answered then succinctly - the answer wouldn't be broadcast.
When she receives these questions over the next 30 days or so, I want her to respond - "What am I gonna win?"
I want her to ask Katie Couric next time they speak to explain what frequency WCBS-TV New York broadcasts on. Channel 4 is not the answer. Katie oughta know - after all she's the Networks Top Dog. She's been in Journalism over 30 years.
Katie will stammer. She's spent her whole professional life in Broadcasting - and knows so little about it. If by chance she has the right answer - make the follow-up, "Go into detail about Digital TV Bandwidth."
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1 comment:
Brian ... common. Seriously? Please tell me that you're joking.
Those interviews were hardly "gotcha journalism." They asked her simple questions. What newspapers and magazines do you read? Was that too hard to answer?
Doesn't anyone remember Tim Russert's interviews EVERY week on Meet the Press? No one ever called those "gotcha journalism" and he asked hard questions to politicans for years.
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