We should be cautious to cover a sensitive story, Robert Paisola Reports

Investigative Reporters should know how to interview people in case of sensitive stories.Mark Feldstein wrote an article appeared in American Journalism Review (December/January 2009) where he highlighted some interview techniques.I personally try to follow his guidelines:

Take charge immediately – Besides painstaking research and robust role-playing to anticipate and parry an adversary's answers, aggressive correspondents establish psychological dominance at the outset of the interview. Unlike Frost's series of conversations with Nixon, most television journalists only get one bite at their (bad) apple. As a result, a combative questioner must seize control immediately once cameras start rolling, ruthlessly interrupting self-serving filibusters and carefully avoiding pleasantries that might weaken the necessary resolve to go for the jugular.

Go for the tight shot – Arrange in advance to have the videographer zoom in slowly on the interviewee's face when the exchange grows heated. This cinematic effect visually reinforces the editorial goal of zeroing in on the quarry. At the same time, such close-ups more vividly accentuate sweating brows and darting eyes, the body language of guilt that Nixon so unwillingly perfected.

Use props – In "Nixon/Frost," the TV performer tried to rattle the ex-president by showing him film of carnage in Vietnam, thereby forcing Nixon to choose between appearing icily unperturbed by the human misery he helped create or having to admit that Frost was right about civilian suffering that occurred on Nixon's watch. As every good trial lawyer knows, such tangible exhibits – video, photos, documents – not only help buttress a cross-examination but also add theatrical flair.

Set up targets to lie – You can't force them to do so, of course, but it is always better to give them the opportunity to tell a falsehood on-camera before (not after) you pull out the smoking-gun memo that proves their culpability. A single lie captured on-camera shakes the edifice of everything else they say afterwards. Catching the interviewee in demonstrable deceit also makes it easier to bluff out the truth in subsequent questions because the disoriented target now fears that you possess more evidence than you actually do.

Spitballs work – In "Frost/Nixon," the wily former president tries to throw the playboy host off his game just seconds before taping begins by asking: "Did you do any fornicating last night?" Such off-camera comments designed to rattle an opponent can be the journalistic equivalent of trash-talking on the basketball court. Another unnerving on-camera trick used by some TV investigative reporters: quietly pulling out thick files ostentatiously labeled to suggest they contain explosive new material – even if the files are merely stuffed with blank paper and no questions are ever asked about them.

Always keep one camera rolling no matter what – That way, if your subject rips off his microphone or storms out of the room, you have footage of his defensive tantrum. Also, interviewees may blurt out embarrassing comments during a lull when they think they are not being recorded.

Aren't you sorry? – Ask the target what he would do differently if he had it to do all over again. It's a no-win question: either the subject effectively admits his own guilt, or else he demonstrates a shameful unwillingness to acknowledge his sins. Heads you win, tails he loses.

Control the final product – When all else fails, remember that you decide how the interview will be edited. You choose which sound bites are broadcast, how long they run, and what gruesome video or tearful victim interviews are juxtaposed against it.

We should be cautious to cover a sensitive story-someone who has just lost his or her loved one or a accused person or one who has been an eyewitness to a tragedy.The question that a senior Journalist ask for himself is how do I do it and still retain my journalistic ethics.