Why do Interviewers talk over Interviewees ?

They all want to be the next Paxman I think.

I always thought Michael Parkinson was guilty of this. Never understood his appeal.

You have answered your own question.
It is a tried and tested technique of the Today programme, and other BBC interviewers, to ask a question and then deliberately talk over the interviewee so that their answer is not heard and/or deliberately interrupted. Emma Barnett did exactly that on Woman's Hour; as far as she was concerned it was an audition for Today.

Nick Robinson, who considers himself the BBC's greatest asset, wrote in newspapers posing the same question to try to discover why listener numbers were falling without the slightest inking that he, and others of his ilk, were the problem.
We are not interested in the interviewer but they they are; making themselves the story is the biggest crime in journalism.

Naga Munchetty on BBC Breakfast is one of the worst. I can't stand her.

I think it must be a memory problem.
They have forgotten what their job description is.
Very irritating.

I suspect it might be a reaction to interviewees that are clearly not answering the question.

Fiona Bruce on Question Time does this all the time, particularly to Conservative panel members, or more right wing panel members. The Labour panel members are allowed to speak freely. I noticed last week that she was particularly bad with the Conservative politician. We want to hear all the points of view, even if we disagree with them.
I dislike her on Question Time and wish she would be removed and replaced with someone who would let all the panel members speak.

Marmin

I suspect it might be a reaction to interviewees that are clearly not answering the question.

Exactly this!

I think the problem is often because the interviewee wishes to get their agenda across , irrespective of the question asked . Politicians are , in my opinion , the worst offenders .

NotSpaghetti

Marmin

I suspect it might be a reaction to interviewees that are clearly not answering the question.

Exactly this!

Just so.

I heard the same interview on the radio NanKate - the "Today" programme- but interestingly just wished Kemi Badenoch would answer the flippin' question. She did keep repeating the same (rather ambiguous) words.

That's why I struggle with Question Time on BBC1. Fiona Bruce loves the sound of her own voice. She asks someone a question and before they can answer fully she has barged in and shouted over them.

Interviewers may well have an agenda, but on Question Time the idea is that a range of views is represented and expressed. Fiona Bruce has got too high an opinion of herself, she’s there to make sure that all the panel members get the same opportunity to speak so that the audience can hear all sides of the argument. She doesn’t do that.

YesSarnia, that’s exactly what she does. It’s really annoying.

It was some time ago so I can't remember who was being interviewed Sparklefizz, but as he was talking she said 'I don't mean to interrupt' and he responded with 'don't then'. Her face was a picture .

I like Camilla Tominey on GBNews very much. For the next few weeks she is sitting in for Nigel Farage. I wish it could be a permanent replacement. She’s intelligent, forensic and yet courteous at all times. She’s gives space to the interviewee to answer fully, without interrupting.

Mind you, yesterday morning (her usual Sunday slot) Yvette Cooper was hung by her own petard as Camilla asked her FOUR times about where school places would be found in September state schools for children whose parents have to remove them from private schools due to Labour’s policy of introducing VAT on school fees.

Ms Cooper just kept repeating the Labour line “fairness blah blah .. up to the private schools blah de blah”. An exasperated Camilla listened very politely for some considerable time, yet kept pressing Ms Cooper - to no avail. As she listened her face was a picture - incredulous and exasperated. In the end she had to say “well we are getting nowhere with this”.

It was illuminating in its lack of policy.

Nags Munchetty is so so rude to people speaking over them and her sidekick Charley State is no better.

I do agree that it’s very irritating, but it’s surely frequently down to the fact that the interviewee isn’t answering the question - either slithering around it like an oiled snake, or answering the question they would prefer to have been asked.

IIRC it was John Prescott who was almost impossible to interrupt - he could keep going like a verbal bulldozer, never apparently needing to pause to take a breath!

On the rare occasions the person being interviewed asks the interviewer to give them a chance to answer, they do appear to hold back somewhat.

NotSpaghetti I think you have misinterpreted what I said. I wanted MH to ask the first question then allow KB to answer without MH talking over her the whole time. There were so many other questions MH could have moved onto but it was all about the Birth Certificate. Neither of them came away with a proper balanced discussion. It was a wasted opportunity.

“I will beat you down and bamboozle you with my word salad”.

Smileless2012

It was some time ago so I can't remember who was being interviewed Sparklefizz, but as he was talking she said 'I don't mean to interrupt' and he responded with 'don't then'. Her face was a picture .

Love it!!
I missed that.

Who said that Urm? 😀

I listen to the Today programme every morning and am always amazed how the political interviewees in particular can get out of answering a direct question. You rarely hear a simple yes or no when that might be appropriate and politicians go off at a tangent and repeat the same twaddle like a broken record without addressing the actual question. Where do they learn this?
Given given time limits especially in a programme like Today they have to be interrupted to try to bring them back to the question. Trouble is time runs out and they are off the hook.

Only me (in my head about the question dodgers) NanKate!
🤣