American Journalism Review

American Journalism Review: "After breaking down and rebuilding thousands of interviews, he saw patterns. 'Interviewing is about people. They're not chemical compounds, and they don't always act predictably. But there is a predictable part.' Ask a closed-ended question and sources 'will confirm or deny 98 percent of the time. That's the science.' The unpredictable part is what happens next. 'Socially, people are taught to add a postscript to a confirmation or a denial. As journalists, we hope the P.S. will describe or explain the issue we've raised. That's interviewing by accident. If you get somebody who doesn't want to play, you're in trouble.'
Most of the time, in friendly interviews, the source adds the P.S. 'out of charity. Because our social instincts tell us to be nice. Their charity--not the question--delivers the answer. We're relying on them to help us out. Relying on people's charity to get answers is not a good practice. The ones we need charity from the most are the least likely to give it--the people who stand to lose something.'
And certain people rarely give charity: 'People who go by the book--cops, bureaucrats, lawyers--people who take questions literally, people who are nervous. The last thing fearful people do is open up. They shut down.' Professional answer-givers, what Sawatsky calls sophisticated politicians and business executives, frequently defeat journalists by answering a closed-ended question with a curt 'No, not at all' or a disingenuous 'Gosh, I hope not!' before switching to a prepackaged 'message track,' their prepared response to uncomfortable questions. "