Brian Williams  On Reporting


INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING

I think a lot of what we do is finding out. I think one of the things, whether it's the kind of small, government waste stories we do, or we're doing something about various celebrities, we are trying to find out what's going on. I think some of the reporters we have are the best investigative reporters in the country without question. I think they start with the assumption that you can find anything out. And I think, once again, my experience with the majority of reporters is that that's not the way most reporters start out. I hear too often, "Well, no one would tell me that." Well, of course no one would tell you that. That's the starting point of good reporting.

INTERVIEW ADVICE

Well, in an adversarial interview, it's an adversarial interview only in your mind. If you present it as an adversarial interview, then you have a problem. I think, and the way I work, is it's a collaborative effort between you and me. If I'm interviewing you, it's how can we do this. And I have to be on your side at some point. Unless I have such devastating information that I can really railroad you. And even if I had that I'm much better off holding back and sitting with you and letting you relax and tell me the story. Most people will tell the truth. And they, I think as collaborative you can get with someone, and I think there's a couple of simple things that reporters should do, one is be in control. And that's as simple as being prepared for the obvious answers. Now let's use your examples of the football coach who has some kind of scandal on campus. First of all, if you lead with that, that's the end of your discussion. So there needs to be some warm-up in terms of easier questions to answer, letting that person get to know you, and then, I think, knowing that when you asked your big money questions, you need to know what you're gonna do next and what you're gonna ask next and where you're gonna go next and be that many questions ahead. So when he says, "Well, there is no problem," and not stopping and saying, "Well, wait a second," and move on from that point. And I think that's the key thing. And making sure that, and I think control is often as simple as continuing to have questions and be in control that way. Reporters who are easily intimidated are intimidated because of a difference in age or power or stature or whatever. The language itself works very nicely. As long as I'm asking the question, then I'm in control. You may be richer than me or stronger than me or more powerful than I am, but I'm still conversationally, linguistically, I'm in charge. And once I give that up, then I'm gone. Then every status bit of power you have is back, and me, I'm out of it, I walk out of there with my head between my legs, and going, "I should've asked this."

OBJECTIVITY

I think that it's almost a scientific method in terms of reporting. You start out with a premise, and you try to prove that premise. And in the process of doing that, if you're doing it honestly, then that premise may change. But whatever premise you have, whatever hypothesis you're working on, you work through that. I can't be objective, I don't know anyone that can. I can be truthful, I can be honest, and I think that's the criteria I want to hold myself to. When I start a story I start from believing something, otherwise I can't put any energy in it. It's naïve. It's like sending someone out to find out what the weather is, that's not what I want to do.

I think there is a responsibility to be fair, and to be truthful. I think that's important.

ADVICE

I don't know what journalism school teaches or doesn't teach, but I have an answer for you — that's not a problem. In my mind, the one thing that any reporter, but certainly a new reporter, needs to know is that somebody knows what you want to know. And that somebody will tell someone. And it's up to you to find that link and to find out what that is. And if you don't get it, you fail. Simple as can be. And not to be stopped by the ordinary kinds of obstacles. And if you don't want to do that, in my estimation, you're not a reporter.

What obstacles? The ordinary obstacle, the absolute obstacle is someone doesn't want to tell you. Any piece of information worth knowing, someone doesn't want to tell you.

QUOTATIONS

We let, as much as possible, we let the people talk for themselves. We're really big on quotations. I personally think the closest thing to us is 60 Minutes. If you take an Enquirer piece and you take a 60 Minutes piece and you look at them, it's very simple. It's a very simple set-up, and really you're letting people tell their own stories. And you're letting them tell as much as possible, what's going on.Very rarely does the, except for the interaction on 60 Minutes where they're doing something, very rarely does that reporter get in the way of what's going on. That person, they want to hang people in their own words. They want to tell a story in their own words. And that's basically what we do. We want the person talking to tell the story, not us.