FOX NEWS SHOW, "THE STORY", MARTHA MACCALLUM LACKS SUBSTANCE.

THE KUHNS REPORT

LAS VEGAS - Hello America, and how is the world treating you?

Fox News program"The  Story", with host Martha MacCallum, is  one of the saddest excuses for a TV program on their network. She surely lacks the art of interviewing guests. Big Example: On August 18, 2020 she  "tried" to interview  a Black Lives Matter (BLM) leader. From the start she lost control of the interview, allowing the anarchist to filibuster about his organization. She meekly backed off of taking control of the interview and failed  insist that if he doesn't want to answer the question put to him she would cut his microphone off and cease the interview. She tried to talk over  the BLM leader and he continued to talk over her and the result was a  batch of mish-mosh no viewer to could put up with. If the Fox control room didn't cut off the interview I just wonder how long MacCallum would have let this ranting and raving go on?

Note: Fox News should advise guests prior to appearing on the show not to interrupt other guests being interviewed during the same segment. The guest should also be advised that if they want to just filibuster and refuse to answer questions or continue to talk or shout over the host, their microphone will be cut off and the interview ended.

To top it off during the BLM person rant he turned the tables and asked MacCallum a question and she answered "no," confirming his stance on his ravings. Folks, the idea of a host interviewing any guest is to have them  ANSWER the questions, not have the guest throw out questions to the interviewer. MacCallum let this guy take over the valuable air time as she sat there and appeared frightened to offend him by laying down rules and protocol for the interview. She should have, after her first attempt to get him to stop raving and failing to respond to her question, shut his microphone off and end the interview, instead she sat there very passive allowing him to  blather on, and on. It appears only after someone in the control room was wise enough to signal into  her ear mic, they were going to cut this clown off, and they did. FINALLY! MacCallum has SLOPPY, SLOPPY  interviews.

It appears she cares less about what a guest is saying during an interview, she's fails to wait for the guests acknowledgement after her introduction. Instead, MacCallum immediately begins to read one of her questions from her notes while the guest sits there with egg on their face. while trying to say "thank you," or "it's nice to be here." MacCallum is constantly looking down at her tablet, phone, or notes to move into a video clip she has has queued up to insert in the conversation. And, then she has the habit of her voice fading off as she talks to the guests, while looking at her notes. She appears to show a lack of interest in the replies the guest are offering up and shows a rush to get to her next video clip she wants to squeeze in and get to the "five minute cycle of commercials."

All in all, this show is a dud. You could train any 3rd grader to say  such things as: "I have a clip I want to show you," or, "I want you to see this," and then have the station move into  a commercial block of five long, long minutes.

As I said before, the only decent informative show on Fox News is the "Tucker Carlson Show." This particular show presents the issues, Carlson comments on them and if he has a guest on, it is usually one guest per segment, and usually, Carlson lets the guest talk without interruption. The rest of Fox opinion shows should take a page from the Tucker Carlson  programming format.

A hint for the other Fox shows:
1. Don't have 3 or 4 guests on  a 5 minute segment.  The guest only gets about one minute to speak, especially when the host gives a sermon or dissertation leading into a question they intend to ask.

2. Stop interrupting the guests. You supposedly have them on to present their view. Well, ask the guest the a question without a long drawn out sermon AND LET THE GUEST reply.

And, that's my opinion. I suggest you loo at the situation and come to your own conclusions. You decide.

BRADLEY W. KUHNS, Ph.D., O.M.D.
Dr. Kuhns can be reached by email at:
bradleykuhns@gmail.com