Wrong number? Trump’s TV telephone interviews in spotlight
NEW YORK – In television news, a telephone interview is typically frowned upon. Donald Trump’s fondness for them is changing habits and causing consternation in newsrooms.
Two organizations are circulating petitions to encourage Sunday morning political shows to hang up. Some prominent holdouts, like Fox’s Chris Wallace, refuse to do on-air phoners. Others argue a phone interview is better than no interview at all.
It’s easy to see why Trump likes them. There’s no travel or TV makeup involved; if he wishes to, Trump can talk to Matt Lauer without changing out of his pajamas. They often put an interviewer at a disadvantage, since it’s harder to interrupt or ask follow-up questions.
Face-to-face interviews let viewers see a candidate physically react to a tough question, said Chris Licht, executive producer of “CBS This Morning.” Sometimes that’s as important as what is being said.
Trump tends to take over phone interviews, Wallace said.
“The Sunday show, in the broadcast landscape, I feel is a gold standard for probing interviews,” said Wallace, host of “Fox News Sunday.” “The idea that you would do a phone interview, not face-to-face or not by satellite, with a presidential candidate – I’d never seen it before, and I was quite frankly shocked that my competitors were doing it.”
There appear to be no network policies on phoning in. Licht has turned Trump down for phoners on CBS but concedes there may be exceptions for breaking news. “CBS This Morning” aired Trump commenting by phone following Tuesday’s attack in Belgium.
Since the campaign began, Trump has appeared for 29 phone interviews on the five Sunday political panel shows, according to the liberal watchdog Media Matters for America. Through last Sunday, ABC’s “This Week” has done it 10 times, CBS’ “Face the Nation” seven, and six times each on “Meet the Press” and CNN’s “State of the Union.”
None of these shows has done phoners with Ted Cruz, John Kasich, Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, said Media Matters.
The activist group MomsRising said the disparity “sends the message that some candidates can play by different rules, without consequences, and that’s just un-American.” A study by mediaQuant and the New York Times estimated Trump has received the equivalent of $1.9 billion in free advertising.