This week, Jonathan Swan’s interview with Trump bucked the traditions of deference and White House control that tend to accompany presidential interviews. But should that level of persistence and preparation be so unusual? In the UK, political interviews are not only more combative than in the US, but also more impartial. And more revelatory.
Stephen Sackur, host of BBC News’s HARDtalk, has interviewed hundreds of presidents, prime ministers, dictators, and policymakers. On this week’s Kicker, he joins Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, to discuss objectivity and the freedom it gives foreign journalists.
SHOW NOTES
Taking Trump at his word, Jon Allsop, CJR
HARDtalk, BBC World News
Amanda Darrach is a contributor to CJR and a visiting scholar at the University of St Andrews School of International Relations. Follow her on Twitter @thedarrach.