Interviewing tips

Over at Rhetorica.net, Andrew Cline has a good post dissecting the problems with the questions reporters asked at the March 6, 2003, White House news conference about Iraq and weapons of mass destruction.

It carries lessons far beyond that, however, in how to (and not to) structure questions so that you get solid, verifiable information. As he concludes, Eitorializing questions that spring from opinion and ask for opinion may certainly be uncomfortable. But they are hardly tough, probing, or useful.

Worth a read as well as Cline's 14-slide PowerPoint presentation on interviewing.