Letters to the Editor
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@Ondelette
I'm trying to contribute something based on my experience, and when I refer to on-air techniques and practices, I'm drawing on my own on-air work to help. I hope.
People who work on the air have to fill the time.
Commercial air time is very tightly managed. Air talent has to work their stuff in between commercial breaks. There used to be a bit more flexibility. But with digital cueing, if you don't know how to "wrap" a segment for the next break, you'll be cut off. So within the phony drama - and it is often a faux dramatic thing - talent has to "watch the clock" as if with a third eye.
Public broadcast is looser but still the hosts try do the "executive summary" version.
The example you cite, with Oates, is telling perhaps because I'll bet you picked up her irritation at being steered, and so she decided not to be steered. That's hard to do without coming across as rude. Under the rules, the guest is supposed to defer to the host, if "push comes to shove."
But to me, with this very interesting flap about Matthews, this all means we have to demand more from our public media. It's well past time. These extremely short segments aren't sufficient any more (I was always frustrated having to write to thirty seconds. It's kind of fun but it doesn't go anywhere.).
Here we have the Internet, and we can do any damn thing we want: text, image, sound, combinations.
And, unless Rupert Murdoch takes it all over, we can do what we want as intelligent free agents.