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Sunday, Nov 20, 1988
Interviews with Interviewers
To discover the truth about interviewing, Skip Blumberg goes directly to the lair of the beast. In this lair await several sage practitioners of the inquisitional form, among them Barbara Walters of "20/20," Mike Wallace of "60 Minutes," Susan Stamberg of NPR's "All Things Considered" and Studs Terkel. In a slick role reversal, Blumberg transforms them into talking heads. These stellar interrogators are given a dose of their own medicine as they alternately evade questions and ooze with sincerity. Blumberg's confrontation is exciting, but not bloodletting. Unlike his yammering quarry, he lacks that lust for the concealed detail, the startling revelation, the tacky anecdote. Interviews with Interviewers reveals that word-pulling is a form of entrapment where the prevailing skill is one of sub-rosa sweet talk. But you get the feeling that these pros, the Wallaces and Walters, tell us what we want to hear, the obvious. Further challenging the interview form, Blumberg remains off-camera, relinquishing, for our vicarious pleasure, the point of view of the questioner. Thus, the viewer ostensibly is positioned in the seat of power, staring down the t?te-a-t?te. But, as with every recorded work, we are left mimicking control in the past, not the present. Steve Seid
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