Asking to ask

In a recent column one television critic for Toronto's The Globe and Mail bemoans the loss of "aggressive interviewing in Canadian television." He points out that "At their best, good television interviewers...have an edge and persistence that makes some subjects quirm and sweat. For viewers there is always the chance something revealing or unexpected will occur and it is this element of surprise that is altogether too rare in the painfully polite and well-behaved studios of both the state broadcaster (CBC) and the private networks." In her discussion of political interviews on Israeli television, Blum-Kulka (1983) likens such interviews to a game between speakers which "when the game is well played by all interactants, is drama" (146). "The goal of the interviewers," she states, "is not necessarily to corner the politician but to get him to state his opinions and analysis of political issues, in a manner that is quotable" (146). Blum-Kulka points out that political interviews represent a distinct genre or register wherein speakers adhere to Grice's Cooperative Principle and engage in supportive or non-supportive moves largely determined by reinforcement or non-reinforcement of presuppositions represented in the questions posed by interviewers. In the data which I examine, which consist of 23 interviews done by four interviewers, two female, two male, three Canadian, one American, and which range from political to topical interviews on both television and radio, interviewers employ an extensive repertoire of speech acts which includes requests for information, assertions, requests for confirmation, rhetorical questions, socratic questions, clarifications, and comments or evaluations. As one would expect, requests for information are the principal speech act employed by interviewers. Moreover, most requests for information employed by interviewers are direct requests. Nonetheless, a significant percentage of requests for information are indirect. Interviewers, in effect, ask to ask. For example, interviewers can state directly "Tell me about downsizing and your views on it, because it's certainly the buzzword on the current economy," using an imperative, but they can also employ a range of indirect forms such as