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January 2001
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Larry King switches roles at UNC-CH One of the world's best-known interviewers became an interviewee during the first Earl Wynn Distinguished Lecture in October. The tables were turned on Larry King, host of CNN's "Larry King Live," after he delivered a keynote address before a roaring audience of UNC-CH students, faculty and staff members, and visitors. The group gathered in Memorial Hall on Oct. 30 in honor of former UNC-CH Professor Earl Wynn. King's anecdotes sparked hilarity in the hall, but his message became serious during the subsequent question-and-answer session. With some 40,000 interviews under his hat or suspenders, as the case may be King said he was born to do his job. "I love asking questions," he said. "It drops off into my social life. When I was a kid, I wanted to know everything. I asked the bus driver why he drove the bus." King added that the money he earned was only a nice bonus. "They pay me well for something I love to do. How could you possibly beat that?" He joked that all journalists are leeches who "just like a good story." But good interviewers always should keep their feelings to themselves, he said. "Sure, we all have our own feelings. But as media, we go out and get the story." King said even he had a hard time pushing aside his personal views when he interviewed former Alabama Gov. George Wallace, a politician who he said protested integration in Alabama's school's to earn more votes. Wallace was not a true racist, King said, but he portrayed himself as one because the politician knew that more Alabama voters were white people. "I got angry (the day of that interview)," King said. "I'm a professional; I try to keep that under control. We as journalists have an obligation, and that is to leave our feelings out of an interview." King also said he generally has "problems with politicians as an interview group. As interviewees, I like them the least because they answer questions with the audience's reaction in mind not with their real feelings." When asked whom he would interview if he had the choice, King said it would be God. "Can you imagine?" And in his best announcer's voice: "Live, Tuesday night. God!" He said his first question would be whether God had a son. "Can you just picture it? If he said 'no,' they'd have to hide the jewels in the Vatican and close the churches." The TV personality also shared some of the tricks of the trade with the group. "The secret of a good interview is that there's not secret," he said. "Just be yourself, and don't ever think that 'why' is a stupid question." Since its debut 15 years ago, "Larry King Live" consistently has been CNN's highest-rated show. Guests on the program have included a broad array of celebrities, from Yasser Arafat to Elizabeth Taylor, from Stephen Hawking to the Dali Lama. King is widely remembered for his coverage of the 1993 debate between Al Gore and Ross Perot, and he even got a kiss live on television from the one-and-only Marlon Brando. "I can't stop thinking about him," King joked. "I wake up in the middle of the night and yell, 'Stella!'" The lecture was held in honor of Earl Wynn, a former UNC-CH professor who pioneered the Department of Radio, Television and Motion Pictures. Wynn influenced the lives of many of today's most successful broadcast and film executives, writers, producers, and directors of film and television entertainment and news documentaries. He retired in 1976 after 38 years of service to the School. Nadia Watts is a first-year master's student in the research sequence. |