We told you earlier that Larry King is celebrating 50 years in broadcasting (there's even a DVD set coming of his best Larry King Live interviews), and now King has been interviewed in the Miami Herald about his years in the business. King (who's really name is Larry Zieger, something I didn't know) says he's not a big fan of people like Nancy Grace and Bill O'Reilly. On the former, he has this to say:
"Nancy Grace, I don't think she has an 'interviewing style.' She's a prosecutor. It's a prosecutorial style. Very accusatory, harpoonish. I don't think it's fair to the judicial system. I believe in the presumption of innocence. When I do a show, I make sure both sides are represented."
King was a janitor in Miami before he started on the radio, and honed his style by interviewing Bobby Darin. He says he likes his questions to "ring with curiosity rather than rehearsal." And that's a great style to shoot for, but I don't agree with him when he says he prefers not to read the book a guest has written or seen the movie that a guest has made. That smells of laziness and not "style."
[via TV Newser]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-15-2007 @ 1:11PM
TomB said...
That's odd. Nancy Grace was often a panel member and guest hosted on his show. I assume her appearances on his show had a lot to do with her getting her own gig on CNN HN.
I've always thought he was a lazy interviewer as well. Guess he just kind of shows up and relies heavily on his producers for his questions.
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1-15-2007 @ 1:57PM
Brent McKee said...
His deliberate refusal to read the books goes back to his late night radio show days and it's annoying. How can you speak intelligently about a book (or a movie) if you haven't read it? He says that it puts him in the same position as his listeners/viewers since they don't know what the book is about either so he can ask the sort of questions they would, but what it really means is that the author has to sell his book and also that King can't intelligently attack the writer on something that King disagrees with.
As far as Nancy Grace goes, there is a difference between being on a panel on an episode of Larry King and doing interviews on your own. I'm not impressed with her interview style either.
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1-15-2007 @ 2:15PM
Karen said...
"King (who's really name is Larry Zieger, something I didn't know)"
If you want to see another side of King I'm sure you wouldn't have known about, read the excellent "Tough Jews" by Rich Cohen. Cohen's father, King, and a few other friends all grew up together on the streets of Brooklyn, in the generation following that of the true Jewish crimelords--Arnold Rothstein, Dutch Schulz, etc.
I've never been a big fan of King's, but that book gave me a grudging affection for him.
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