Get an opinion

Watching interviews from the 60s and 70s, is an odd experience. I saw some with John Lennon on YouTube the other day, in which he wasn’t being a grinning media-trained robot. He was joking about, with his style of surrealist humour, and generally being relaxed. If someone did that now, there would be stories all over the place saying they gave an ‘erratic’ interview. Watch several interviews and you realise he was doing something that nowadays seems far too terrifying to us – he was being himself.

An interviewee being honest amazed me. I actually got a sense of what the man was like in real life, not a feeling I usually get when watching most interviews, with a few exceptions. I get a feeling that the subject becomes a caricature of themselves.

So, have you ever watched a video of an interview? You have? Good, that will make it all a bit easier. There’s something you may have noticed when watching; the interviewee rarely actually answers the question, unless it’s an extremely irreverent question. If it’s a politician then you get the sense that the mere thought of giving a direct answer makes them sweat harder than an Imperial head of Faculty hooked up to a lie detector. So they waffle for a bit, until you forget what the question even was.

A politician’s answer is a good name for this phenomenon, as politicians manage to do it with frightening ease. That would be fine, but now everyone is getting in on the act. It may have started with politicians, but everyone seems to have decided to start doing it.

As you know, politicians are so admired that others want to use their secrets to gain some of their popularity. So from politicians to pop stars to footballers, nobody is willing to give a useful interview as they don’t want to alienate anyone.

I think the best way to describe this is with an example. I’m sure you’ll recognise an exchange like this:

Interviewer: What’s your favourite band? Interviewee: Well, that’s an interesting question. I really love music. I think it’s hard to say exactly which band is my favourite, as I have so many. I mean, what’s really important is to remember …(5 minutes later)… So as I said I have a lot of bands that I like, and it’s impossible to pick a favourite.

Instead of what should have happened, which is this:

Interviewer: What is your favourite band? Interviewee: The Beatles.

An actual answer to the question, and a rather fantastic answer if you ask me.

A big part of it is that people are afraid of offending someone, or saying something that someone doesn’t like. Frankly, I’m tired of it. It means that interviews are just becoming pointless. The interview should instead be written in big capital letters saying: THIS PERSON IS A VERY NICE MAN AND LOVES YOU ALL. PLEASE LIKE HIM.

I’m also blaming the media. They take the approach that Silvio Berlusconi takes to women; they are ready to pounce on anything, leading to everyone having some form of media coaching. This training seems to consist of: 1. Grinning like they are trying to win first place in a ‘grin like an irritating moron’ contest and 2. Never actually giving any opinions, just generic words of praise for everyone.

The people who conduct the interviews are also to blame, especially on political subjects. They have become so argumentative and angry that it’s not a surprise that people don’t say anything of any merit. They know the second they give an opinion they will be destroyed by the media.

That’s politicians and the media, but the blame can be spread even more. Back in the day people would disagree with what others say. But no one would know about it. Now, with the internet, everyone is a critic with a loud enough voice to be heard, which people in the spotlight have interpreted as meaning they can’t say anything for fear of offending people. I think everyone needs to just remember that sometimes people say stuff that they don’t like, and that is not the worst thing in the world. If you don’t like The Beatles that’s fine – although I wonder how you managed to read this copy of Felix as you must have had a lobotomy.