Fine Art of the Political Interview

Tom Plate

Description

For decades veteran journalist Tom Plate, the author of the 'Giants of Asia' series, has been engineering headline-making interviews with presidents to prime ministers to mob figures. Some were easy to deal with; others were complicated challenges.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Memoir

Informations

• Publié par: Marshall Cavendish International
• Date de parution: 20 juillet 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9789814677578
• Langue: English

Extrait

2015 Thomas Gordon Plate
Published by Marshall Cavendish Editions
An imprint of Marshall Cavendish International
1 New Industrial Road, Singapore 536196
All interviews by Tom Plate are and originally were the copyright of Thomas Gordon Plate, or of the Pacific Perspectives Media Center, Professor Plate s nonprofit in Los Angeles. Any other fragmentary usage, in prose or in generic pictures, is asserted via Creative Commons License and Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License. All excerpts from Personal Impressions , the collection of essays of Sir Isaiah Berlin, are from the 1980 Viking Press edition edited by Henry Hardy, with an introduction by Noel Annan. The original book copyright was 1949. The added Introduction copyright 1980 by Noel Annan. All fragments used from this book are permitted under Creative Commons License and Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License.
Cover photo of Tom Plate by Jon Rou/Loyola Marymount University.
Back cover photo by Ashley Plate.
All rights reserved
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National Library Board Singapore Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Plate, Tom, author.
The fine art of the political interview : and the inside stories behind the Giants of Asia conversations / Tom Plate. - Singapore : Marshall Cavendish Editions, 2015
pages cm
Includes index.
eISBN: 978 981 4677 57 8
Interviewing in journalism. 2. Politicians - Asia - Interviews. I. Title.
II. Plate, Tom. Giants of Asia.
PN4784.I6
070.43 - dc23 OCN906658103
Printed in Singapore by Fabulous Printers Pte Ltd
To all my journalistic counterparts in Asia, trying their best to bring to their own people, and to those of us looking in from far away, the truest and most important stories of their era and their lands and their citizens.
CONTENTS
A Selection of Critical Praise for Tom Plate s Books
Author s Notes
1 IN PRAISE OF CONVERSATIONS BETWEEN CONSENTING ADULTS
Wise men speak because they have something to say.
2 ON THE NATURE OF THE POLITICAL INTERVIEW
When the President does it, that means it is not illegal.
3 ON SURVIVING THE CELEBRITY INTERVIEW
Don t just stand there looking skinny!
4 ON WHY SOME INTERVIEWS ARE TOUGHER THAN OTHERS
Hope you won t do to our Tony what you did to their John!
5 ON KEEPING YOUR INTERVIEW CLOSE TO YOUR INSTINCTS
We finish tonight.
6 ON THE NEED FOR A KILLER QUESTION IN YOUR BACK POCKET
So now that you are the PM, will you legalize Viagra?
7 ON WHY THEY WANT TO TALK BUT FIND IT HARD TO SAY MUCH
Any South Korean foreign minister would have the credentials.
8 ON HIT AND RUN INTERVIEWS - AND SMART LADIES WHO LUNCH
Bray it again, Sam!
9 ON QUESTIONS YOU WISHED YOU HAD NEVER ASKED
These are for the CIA, right?
10 ON INTERVIEWING THE LONELY POLITICAL EXILE
When will you be leaving?
11 ON WHAT TO SAY WHEN THEY SAY THEY DIDN T SAY THAT
We act as if nothing happened
12 ON WHAT TO DO WHEN THE TABLES ARE TURNED
Whom do you like better, Mahathir or Lee Kuan Yew?
CONCLUSION
ON THE NEAR-PERFECT INTERVIEWER
I m ready for my close up.
Giving Thanks
Index
About the Author
A SELECTION OF CRITICAL PRAISE FOR TOM PLATE S BOOKS
Confessions of an American Media Man (2006)
If Tom tells all in his journalism classes in the same Front Page style, half of UCLA should be auditing Professor Plate.
- James Brady in FORBES
Conversations with Lee Kuan Yew (2010)
I don t agree with all of it, but that is to be expected given the Western journalist s exaggeration of eccentricity. But on the whole, he got my point of view across.
- Lee Kuan Yew at the book s official launch party
There are two types of courage among journalists. Some might risk their lives crossing paths with an IED on an arid back road in Afghanistan. Many fewer risk their reputation by going against the herd of conventional opinion. Tom Plate, America s only syndicated columnist who focuses on Asia and a former editorial director of the Los Angeles Times , has taken the second risk in his Conversations with Lee Kuan Yew . And it has been a risk well worth taking.
- Columnist Nathan Gardels Huffington Post
This book is a fascinating read.... Lee Kuan Yew is a great teacher...
- Goh Chok Tong, former Singapore Prime Minister, 1990-2004
You have done a superb job of capturing the many faces of this extraordinary man, whom I have known and admired for some fifty years. That he is the first to be honored in the Giants of Asia series seems only right.
- Dr Henry A. Kissinger, former U.S. Secretary of State, 1973-77
a scintillating insight into the private - and brutally candid - beliefs and thoughts of the 86-year-old Minister Mentor on a wide range of topics, from his temper and children to various countries and his authoritarian ways. These are captured in a writing style that is fast-paced and conversational over 24 chapters that are peppered with Mr Plate s views.
- Zakir Hussain in The Straits Times ( of Singapore )
Conversations with Mahathir Mohamad (2011)
As with Prof. Tom Plate s first book on Lee Kuan Yew, do not expect a dull moment in this book.
- A reader s rave review (India)
Plate s books demonstrate a fascinating insight into political leaders thinking and offer some explanations for their policy-decisions which continue to affect the social, political and economic circumstances in these two neighboring Southeast Asian countries.
- Ishtiaq Hossain, International Islamic University, Malaysia
Conversations with Thaksin (2011)
Plate s Gee shucks, did they really say that about you? style has a huge upside. His subjects open up to him in a way they may not have intended to, and the insights the reader gains into their characters are considerable; to the point that Plate s books, for all their faults, will be incomparable tools for historians, biographers and anyone who ever wants to figure out what made these men, who do deserve to be called Giants of Asia , tick.
- Sholto Byrnes , The National ( Abu Dhabi )
The author is able to provide the layman reader with a broad context of Thaksin the man and politician while zooming in an historian/journalist approach to give depth to content. This book is easily accessible to readers using a clear journalistic style.
- Professor William J. Jones, Mahidol University International College, Thailand
Conversations with Ban Ki-moon (2011)
candid, free-flowing, probing, thorough Plate s biggest achievement lies in his ability to contextualize and humanize a larger-than-life figure - an accomplishment to which every biographer aspires
- Mia Warren in ASIAN REVIEW OF BOOKS
... This is a very readable book and, not surprisingly given the author, very well written.
- Former Fletcher School Dean Stephen Bosworth, former U.S. special envoy to North Korea and U.S. ambassador to South Korea
Since Ban became Secretary General in 2007, many books have been published but without interviews or consultations with him. But this book is solely based on exclusive conversations with Ban . It is full of inspiring quotes that reflect Ban s philosophical thoughts . The book elaborates on Plate s up close and personal observations and touches on important international issues. It allows readers to know his personal, human side through his words.
- Chung Ah-young , The Korea Times
I have known Ban Ki-moon since we were both foreign ministers. I feel that I understand him even more now after I have read this unique book. The book takes the readers deep inside the inner thoughts of a man who has described his job as the most impossible job in the world. It also offers a rare look at the inner workings of the United Nations. This combination makes the book a must read for students of multilateral diplomacy. This book is not a public relations exercise for anyone. Tom Plate is a tough and experienced interviewer, with a gentle touch.
- Kantathi Suphamongkhon, 39th Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand and Senior Fellow at the Burkle Center for International Relations at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA)
In the Middle of the Future (2013)
Tom Plate is the only one who has the intellectual capacity to not treat each nook and corner of that huge land mass we sometimes haphazardly call Asia as just one big chunk of landmass. He is the only one who has the insight to see all 50 shades of Asia. He is the only one who has the guts and wits to be nuanced and say it like it is. This is an important book - an indispensable one - that will take readers on a course of unlearning cerebral lethargy - all the cliches, and they all look alike shallowness popular cul