Bad TV Interview

Nat and I watched an interview with a couple of guys who knew Robert Hawkins, the guy who shot several people at a mall in Omaha. It was one of the hardest things I've sat through on TV in quite a while. I can't even think of a comparison. The two guys struggled to say that they had no idea Robbie had this in him. He had a messed up child hood. Yet, they didn't wont to let it look like they condoned or his actions or were trying to make excuses.

Of course no one saw this coming. Sure the guy had made threats to kill his step mother. Who hasn't?  He was smart and capable, yet working at McDonald's. Ah, I'm smelling the loner genus underachiever complex coming.

The TV news program flashed the two guys faces up on the screen for a second to announce the interview was coming. Nat said without skipping a beat that they didn't look like they wanted to be there. She wondered if the lady who helped Robbie put them up to doing the interview. Boy, did Nat call it. Those guys were the most uncomfortable guests in history. They should use this as a training video for people doing interviews on how to spot people who don't want to be there.

I want to know the step mom's side of the story. I want to know why Robbie was out of the house. I want to know what the circumstances were for the death threat. Were they in an interview where the step mom was trying to have an, oh lets say eleven year old step son committed or taken out of the only home he ever knew? Did he just walk up one day out of the blue and say "Your ass is grass woman!!!" What about his dad?

I wont to know what outlets he did and didn't have access too. I want to know who's gun that was. I want to know if any one ever seriously suggested metal detectors at the mall. I want to know how he got to the mall with a rifle. Was it in the back window of his truck. Did he ride a bike there? What kind of music did he like? What were his favorite movies? Did he have a MySpace page?

Where is the girlfriend? Where is the boss who fired him? Why did he get fired? Where else did he work? Did he get in trouble in school? Did he finish school? Did he ever try collage? What were his dreams? What made him afraid, or made him wake up late in the night?

Did he ever travel? Did he want to travel? Did he play computer games? Did he talk to people online? Did he buy his glasses online? Did he play Dungeons and Dragons or one of the other roll playing games out there?

Did he have pets? Did he hunt or fish or walk in the woods? Did he camp? Did he have a faire to attend?

Did he hate the rain? Did he have to scrape snow off the windshield that morning? What did the sweatshirt say that he used to rap the AK?

He had a phone. Did he ware a watch? Die he ware steel toe boots or hiking boots, or sneakers? Did he like motorcycles or snow mobiles? What did he think of horseback riding? Did he want a big truck? Did he ever sky dive or bujy jump? Did any one ever ask him?

What did he do very well? What did he love to do or make happen? Did he dream of better days? Did he know another language. Did he know how to sign? Is his blood mom alive? Did he drink, smoke, pull the wings off flies? Did he ever talk about having kids someday?

Why did he want to go out in style? I could speculate that he thought is life was a boar or a waist or something along those lines. Thus, he wanted to make a splash on the way out. He might have just thought of this. He may have been planning it his whole life.

The guys being interviews could have answered any of these or a hundred other questions that I just can't think of right now. Most of them would have seemed in very poor taste. The two guys on the spot were not well prepared. I do not expect someone in that situation to be prepared to do an interview. Neither was the interviewer. She just sat there and let them flounder in front of a national audience. Her, I expect to be prepared.  I expect her to walk the people being interviewed through the questions and answers. And, for goodness sake, don't put them on the spot to defend their admission that they didn't see this coming. If they had, they would have done something. Maybe told somebody, something.

I've never conducted an interview and I know that the person being interviewed should walk away from the interview feeling like they accomplished telling the story. A hostile interview is to deliberately embarrass or inflame someone. An interrogation is to extract information. There are different names for different types of knowledge transfer. I would call this one 'lame interview'.

Did I mention that I learned nothing in this interview? Worst interview ever.