Interviewing reporters?

Great post. When I was asked to do a TV interview I immediately had my guard raised for the obvious reasons and proceeded slowly and both eyes wide open. I talked to the lady doing the story serveral times and most of it was me interviewing her. I can't say I really had a set list of questions but rather I was trying to get pick up on her "feelings" towards things like hunting in general. Once I got the warm and fuzzy's there, I slowly moved the conversation towards hog dogging but that started out as a conversation about working dogs and their different uses. She jumped in half way and started telling me about growing up on a ranch, how her dad and brothers hunted everything all of the time, and her experiences with cow dogs. Its became pretty obvious to me that this wasn't a trap. Had she been more stand-offish or tried to poker face me, I was willing to pull the plug.

I think it is also important to understand why you have been asked for an interview. In my case, the city I am doing removal for has received bad press in the past because of the damage hogs have done so this piece was to be a follow up on that story showing how proactive the city was in dealing with the problem for the residents and the recent success we have had.

When doing the interview, I brought only my dogs that are really sweet, aren't all scared up, and gave them all baths beforehand. When answering the questions I tried to avoid words like kill and stick, and used works like harvest or remove.