Chris Vlahos blog 7

JOURNALISM REFLECTION
This week I saw a number of stories that interested me, but the one I found most intriguing was Matt Lauer’s sit down interview with Olympian Michael Phelps. This is the fist interview Phelps has done since his infamous bong picture was published. I have been fortunate enough to interview a number of athletes and sports broadcasters in my short career and I enjoy watching other broadcasters conduct interviews in order to see if I can learn something from watching them. As far as sports is concerned I find Jim Rome and Dan Patrick to be two of the best interviewers I’ve seen because they are not afraid to ask the tough questions, but they do it in such a way that it doesn’t come off as disrespectful. Ed Bradley was one of my favorite news interviewers, but I also think Barbara Walters still does a great job when interviewing different subjects.
This particular interview with Phelps reminded me of the Peter Gammons/Alex Rodriguez interview from a month ago, in the sense that it involved a superstar athlete giving his opinion on controversial news about himself. However, unlike the Gammons interview, Lauer doesn’t lob softball questions to Phelps. Instead he persists with a difficult line of questioning about how long did Phelps know about the photo. What went through Phelps’ mind when he committed the act in question. Lauer cues video from an interview he did with Phelps in 2004 when Phelps apologized for DUI. Lauer wanted to know if Phelps was giving him lip service once again. What I liked most was Lauer actually drew a parallel between the A-Rod story and Phelps’ situation. Then Lauer humanized the story and asked Phelps what he would say to the young boy or girl that idolizes Phelps.
From a broadcasters point of view, the interview seemed like it was edited a little too closely though because sometimes Lauer didn’t even pause to ask his next question. The interview used three different camera angles, a two shot of Lauer and Phelps, a one shot of Lauer and a one shot of Phelps. I liked the location of the interview. Phelps is an Olympian swimmer, which is why a pool is the perfect backdrop. Alex Rodriguez conducted his interview at his house, maybe it should have been at a pharmacy……no probably a baseball field.