Thanks to reader Bill Kalish for passing on this blogger's take on Bob Woodward's "oops!" moment. Good background on the story can be found in the Times and the Post today, stating the obvious that Mr. Woodward has come a long way from the seat-of-the-pants journalism he practiced during Watergate. Now he posts transcripts of taped interviews with top sources on government websites.
Once upon a time, the very use of tape recorders was considered suspect; the machine was said to add an unnatural external element to the interview, obstructing natural conversation and leading people to "talk to the tape." Now "star reporters" submit 18 pages of questions in advance, show up with a tape recorder, and consider that "investigative journalism."
The great Truman Capote not only refused to use tape recorders; he'd often not even bring a pencil. He told George Plimpton about this in a 1966 interview:
You never used a tape-recorder?
Twelve years ago I began to train myself, for the purpose of this sort of book, to transcribe conversation without using a tape-recorder. I did it by having a friend read passages from a book, and then later I'd write them down to see how close I could come to the original. I had a natural facility for it, but after doing these exercises for a year and a half, for a couple of hours a day, I could get within 95 percent of absolute accuracy, which is as close as you need. I felt it was essential. Even note-taking artificializes the atmosphere of an interview, or a scene-in- progress; it interferes with the communication between author and subject--the latter is usually self-conscious or an untrusting wariness is induced. Certainly, a tape-recorder does so. Not long ago, a French literary critic turned up with a tape-recorder. I don't like them, as I say, but I agreed to its use. In the middle of the interview it broke down. The French literary critic was desperately unhappy. He didn't know what to do. I said, "Well, let's just go on as if nothing had happened." He said, "It's not the same. I'm not accustomed to listen to what you're saying."
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