What's your true crime interview dream team?
the true crime that's worth your time
A day after writing up yesterday’s bummer of an issue, laden with interviews between alleged bad men and their enablers, I awoke to the bleak news that one of those problematic folks just scored a new TV deal. As I said to Sarah via Slack this morning, 🤮.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. There’s genuine appreciation for real, feet-to-the-fire interviews, and those conversations are the ones that stand the test of time. As I’ve mentioned in these pages before, the way Oprah elicited confessions of wrongdoing from Lance Armstrong was a master class in the subject…though it hardly makes up for her softball conversation with alleged child molester Michael Jackson.
Then there’s Barbara Walters’ 1999 interview with Clinton impeachment figure Monica Lewinsky, which made a remarkable abuse of power and position feel relatable, as the former intern described a workplace atmosphere familiar to many women with a boundary-violating boss. That said, I did want more from Walters’ John and Patsy Ramsay chat.
All this to say that there’s two sides to this equation: a masterful interviewer and a subject with whom they just click. Other folks wouldn’t have been as good at helping Lewinsky express her plight, but other folks would have done a better job at getting answers from Jackson.
Now it’s your turn: What interview team-ups do you wish for or dream of? Who would you like to see interrogating whom? Feel free to include folks who are no longer with us — Sarah, for example, wishes late media reporter (and director Erin Lee’s dad) David Carr could sit down with alleged abuser Billy Jensen. For my part, I’d love to see (in my opinion, and I think friend of BE reader Elon green would agree) uncleared case scapegoat Samuel Little answer questions from data analyst Steve Kornacki to determine how many of this confessions were bullshit. Let’s hear your ideal pairings in the comments. — EB