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Originally Posted by BigBen931
"Did the plane intentionally run off the runway?"
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In other words, "did the pilot decide that if he did not run off the runway something worse would happen?"
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"Could the pilot have prevented this from happening?"
"Could you tell us more about this 'Ravine' the plane came to rest in?"
"Could vehicle traffic on the 401 contributed to the cause?"
At every answer, the head of the airport stated over and over:
"I can't speculate on that, all I can tell you is what has already been stated."
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Sure, sounds stupid to you, but what they were really doing was trying to get info. I've lost count of how many times I've gotten the "i can't speculate" answer, but about 10 questions in the guy suddenly says something important.
Would you prefer that journalists say "well gee the nice man at the front of the room said he wasn't going to say anything else about it so I guess I'll take him at his word and hope he's not bullshitting me?"
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Are the reporters simply morons, who when faced with asking questions on their own come up with real stupid ones?
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See it's questions like these that start to annoy journalists. We ask questions like that to try and get information. I'll even let you in on a little interview secret. We TRY to appear to be morons. We'll ask you really stupid questions. The other day I asked a cop why it's important for kids to avoid smoking crack. And I know what he was thinking. "What kind of fucking moron is this. Who doesn't know why kids shouldn't smoke crack?" But then he gave me a soundbyte that I ended up using in my story that night. We're not stupid. Most of the time we already know the answer to the question we're asking you. But our job is to show people what YOU know, not what we know. What's the point of driving all the way out to somewhere to talk to an expert if the expert doesn't say anything?
In this case, the journalists probably had a pretty good idea what happened. It's a huge storm. Plane goes off the runway. Probably something to do with the weather. But we don't KNOW that, and we can't run with what we THINK might have happened. And when you clam up, it's our job to pepper you with questions to see if you'll crack and give us some info.
The public wants the journalists to get information, but then they criticize the way in which we go about doing it. I would humbly suggest that the public learn a few interview techniques before they get angry at the techniques of the people who do this for a living
I'm not saying all reporters are fabulous, and there are some really bad questions out there. "Your mom was just shot by gangmembers. How do you feel?" being one of my pet peeves. But this was not such an example.