Is it just me, or are the interviews you see on television getting worse and worse?  There are exceptionally good interviewers, of course (such as Bill Moyers).  Bad interviews are the norm, however.  This is a shame, because most bad interviews could be cured if only the interviewers would follow a few basic rules

Before I go further, I should make it clear that my frustration is with interviews that are serious attempts to discuss a topic with a guest in order to inform or entertain the audience.  I am excluding from this critique interviews on comedy shows (such as Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert), where the interviewer is expected to interject his or her personality with more gusto or even to toy with the guest. 

Without further ado, here are 10 basic rules for conducting effective interviews:

1.  The interviewer needs to shut up and let the guest talk.  How often is it that an interviewer just can’t hold back and ends up dominating the interview, failing to allow the guest a fair chance to talk?  I’ve often watched interviews by Charlie Rose that remind me of this point.  Although Charlie books some terrific guests and does some excellent work, he is one of those interviewers who is often incapable of staying out of the way.  Many interviews end up being “about Charlie.”  In the legal field, the trick to effective direct examination of a witness is to ask brief questions that allow the witness to “bloom” in front …