Let Me Upbraid You: An Unsettling Journalistic Tendency
Earlier this month, journalist Laura Leu interviewed actor Joaquin Phoenix for Time Out New York. The Q&A, which was picked up by a number of outlets, including Page Six, and generated a good deal of press for that Time Out New York issue, was a painful read thanks to Leu's contentious (and cheesy) line of questioning. Here are some examples:
You've been called awkward, uncomfortable and nervous during interviews. Am I right to expect the worst?
Wait--one more question: As a vegan and an animal-rights activist, would you be offended if I told you I just ate a hot dog wrapped in bacon, while wearing a fur coat?
After Leu posed the former question, Phoenix rightly hung up. It seems Leu had confused reportage for mindless provocation. It's one thing to be thorough and persistent, it's another to be surly. And I'm not too fond of the journalist, even the A&E journalist, as comedian and certainly not the overly familiar unfunny citizen comic. "Hot dog wrapped in bacon?" That's dumb and unworthy of response.
This inclination to rile is not unique to Leu. In fact, a KING magazine interview with Will.i.am went there as well. After the Black Eyed Peas frontman was probed about his tastes in women (short, nonblack, and topheavy), journalist Rodney Dugue hit him hard with his duo:
What do you say to people who call you the fake Wyclef?
We can be rough, at times. Where's the sense in your fashion sense? Do you just wake up every morning and say I'm gonna dress as weird as I can?
So while these questions are a bit less egregious than Leu's, they're still unnecessarily abusive. Dugue, whose feature caught the attention of Black gossip site, Bossip, should have ended the second question at "fashion sense." That last bit is attention getting and might be to some entertaining but it only serves to insult the subject. Why?
I've never sought to play a subject although I have a cringed a few times when transcribing my own interviews and been checked by one artist for making a false supposition. We live and we learn and we hopefully grow. I'm not going to cower to a interviewee's interest or lob softballs but I'm also going to attempt to ask a thoughtful question. I don't think that's too much to ask.
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Comments
1.
RD says:
JB
It's RD, aka the subject (or would that be the object? lol) of this blog post. I hear you, the question definitely skated away from any idea of delicacy, hell I'll even go as far to say common decency. But, I think your gripe with the Wyclef question is slightly mis-tuned. I'm not the first person (or the last, in that regard) to consider Will.i.am a fradulent Wyclef imposter. In fact, that question was recycled from a previous insight that I came across in one of those rap-oriented chatrooms. Additionally, I didn't pose the question with any biased or discretionary edge (for example: is it true that you're the fake wyclef, Will....or some incidenary thing like that) I probably should have annotated the "fashion" question or as you suggested clipped off the second half.
In all fairness, my error was far more respectable and even understandable than that of Leu.
Unrelated: I really dig this blog and the other one, sherealcool,btw. And no, that's not a way to ingratiate myself, either. I really do like it lol.
10/31/2007 at 2:50 PM
2.
jalylah says:
"they just seek the rush and validation of whatever form of attention they can get"
true. it's cliche in an 'almost famous' kind of way but without cameron crowes character's enthusiasm, earnestness or genuine fandom. and re: bloggers the recent NY mag story on gawker comes to mind: http://nymag.com/nymag/features/39319/
10/30/2007 at 10:24 AM
3.
jay smooth says:
Not to mention her jokey joke snark about wanting to "get good drug stories out of you" when she is talking to someone whose brother legendarily died (in his arms!) of a drug overdose! wtf?!?!?
Her comment "I think people clapping at every stupid thing I say sounds awesome!" is the most telling.. too many people with public voices nowadays have no interest in a genuine relationship with their audience, they just seek the rush and validation of whatever form of attention they can get..
and (especially for bloggers who fit this mold) if they can bait a famous person into acknowledging their existence by getting mad at them, that's the ultimate validation.. "a famous person was talking about me! ME!"
10/29/2007 at 10:25 PM