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Ed Gordon
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Ed Gordon is the host of National Public Radio’s “News and Notes with Ed Gordon.” He is an on-air contributor to “60 Minutes Wednesday” on CBS, and has also appeared on NBC and MSNBC. Gordon was formerly the host of “BET Tonight” and anchor of “BET News.” He has interviewed a number of high profile guests, including Bill Clinton, Louis Farrakhan, John Kerry, Oprah Winfrey, Trent Lott, Nelson Mandela, and George H. W. Bush.
Brian Montopoli: I remember seeing your interview with [Republican Sen.] Trent Lott back in December of 2002, when Lott was coming under fire for some racially charged comments. It was one of those seminal moments for a lot of people — Trent Lott, seen by many as a symbol of the old South, apologizing and answering questions on Black Entertainment Television. What was that experience like? Was it the most memorable moment you’ve had in journalism?
Ed Gordon: Last part first — no. I think the most memorable moment for me in journalism was the day I was able to interview Nelson Mandela in his home in South Africa. As far as interviews go, I’ve had the pleasure to be involved in a lot of high profile interviews — Lott was one, obviously O.J. Simpson being another. I honestly did not see [the Lott interview] going in as the moment that it became. I thought, Lott’s been in the news, I’m going to go to talk to him, and I’ll move on to the next interview. So I must say, I did not see that one coming.
BM: When you’re going into these big interviews, is there a tremendous amount of pressure? Do you think, I don’t want to screw this up? Do you just go in and have a conversation?
EG: I think the latter tends to be my style. I try to have a conversation with people rather than interview them, first and foremost. In terms of pressure, no, I don’t feel pressure. I try to prepare the same way whether I’m talking to the President of the United States or the president of the local school board. I think I owe both of them my best in terms of, I’ve done my homework, I come in ready. The one thing I can say, though, in interviews like that, is as far as we’ve come in this nation in terms of race and opportunity, I know that African-Americans still have to “represent” each other. And so, when I’m in those moments, and I know there’s going to be a lot of scrutiny, I don’t feel pressure, I frankly, particularly when it goes well, feel pride in knowing that many African-Americans will take a deep breath and push their chest out with pride in knowing that one of our own did it and did it well.
BM: What’s it like doing a black-oriented show on public radio, which isn’t really seen as a destination for black listeners? How does your approach differ from what you did at BET and the networks?
EG: I try to do the best show I can do, so for me, it’s not a question on a day to day basis of how you do a show from a black perspective. A black perspective is simply that, unlike most shows, we have an African-American host, and a great deal of the staff here are African-Americans, including those who make the major decisions about what is going to be on this show and what is going to be of import to our listeners. I think too often we throw about the idea of an African-American perspective. Do we say that the “CBS Evening News” is brought to you by a white male perspective? What’s the difference there? Our goal is to give you a good program in the hope that anyone who tunes in will find it interesting, and that’s always been my goal.
BM: I just feel like at NPR it’s sort of the default assumption that it’s brought, if not by white males, than certainly by whites. When I think of NPR or public radio, I generally think of that Linda Wertheimer sound.
EG: Sure. I think that NPR is faced with a situation that many media outlets are faced with today. And that’s that they built a tradition, and in this case a sound, and they know that as America changes, they too should change. And part of that change should be to bring different sounds, textures and voices to the air. And that’s what we’re trying to do.
BM: The Bush administration has become known for an adversarial relationship with the press. It also took the country to war on what turned out to be false pretenses, something the press was slow to recognize. Do you think the administration’s actions and attitude have fundamentally changed the way the press corps operates?
EG: I think that the press has changed over the years in terms of how it fundamentally operates, and that probably happened and morphed prior to this administration. I think generationally we’ve seen the change of the modern-day press, in some corners good, in some corners bad. I don’t know that I’m going to give the Bush administration that much credit for changing it.
BM: So how exactly do you think it has changed?
EG: Certainly, for the good, we have far more outlets now. You are not bound to believe the three or four major networks only, and believe that there are only two or three venerable newspapers in the United States that tell the truth. With the advent of the Internet and diversity in magazines and newspapers, you have a broader sense of what to think and believe today.
The downside of that is, with all of that, white males still basically run the press, and therefore most of what we hear is still from that perspective. And in general I think the press has too often become cozy with those they cover. Political reporters with politicians. Entertainment reporters with entertainers. Sports reporters with athletes. I think that we’ve all become a little bit too cozy.
BM: What mistakes do journalists make when interviewing prominent figures?
EG: I think the big mistake most journalists make in interviews is not listening. Often they come with a set of ten questions, and they’re going to ask those ten questions no matter what, and they’re going to ask them often in the order they have them on their sheet of paper. And I think a good interviewer listens to what is said after each question and goes with each answer, and not necessarily the order you’ve put your questions in on your little cheat sheet.
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