Interupting TV hosts, especially O'Reilly

[SHARK]

It's always a pleasure to hear your opinions and comments. Thanks for confronting O'Reilly as we normal folks point out his over bearing habit but he only makes excuses to verify his rudeness. I wonder why he has any guests at all. What he realyl needs is to spout his opinions. He tells you that he must interupt to correct the guest. BS, he can hardly wait to shut the other person up to expound on his need to always be the one who is"right". Me thinks that he suffers for egomainia with an inferiority complex. Unfortunately, O'Reilly is not the only host with the problem.
Chris Matthews founded the university of "Interuptus Maximus" and O'Reilly soon became a member of the faculty!

When you are next with O'Reilly, I beg you to dare him to put up a poll on his Pinheads & Patriots web site so that we can all vote. The subject title being: Are the loyal fans of the Factor sick and tired of the interupting? Yes or No!

If he won't do that, ask him to have one pre announced show where he will let each guest finish each sentence before he responds.
Alright, call me a dreamer as I'm sure his over blown ego will never have the guts or consideration to comply.

He will say that he must keep the program moving. Well then have fewer guests who will add more revelent input when given the chance.

Alas, he will remind you that his show is number one and that will be the end of the convesation.

Thanks for letting me blow off some steam. I guess my alternative is to try another station. I'd gladly switch to your program if it were on at the same time.

[robin in fl]

when i watch o'reilly anymore it's just to hear what mr godberg has to say on monday or when dennis miller does his take on things.i find bernie well spoken and polite even if i may not agree with everything he may say,and i find miller a funny guy with a sense of humor on his take on things,whether i agree with it all or not also.

the interupting host thing seems to be the 'norm',it's done ALL the time.they throw questions out and the guest gets about 3 words out before they get run over like a freight train going at full speed.i think it's the american way now and is suppose to be exceptable.the louder and faster one speaks,and throw a few 'big' words in and don't let a person answer a question or if they do ,just twist the words around to sound like NOTHING they( the guest) just said...yea right.

that's the reason i could no longer sit through an hour of any Msnbc show...perhaps mr bill should take a few lessons from greta van susteren on interviweing a guest.

i guess one can hope Mr Goldberg had a show of his own.

[Jeffreydan]

Mostly because airtime is really valuable, I am in favor of interrupting, but with conditions.
For open-ended questions, if the guest doesn't directly answer, BOR should allow about 15 seconds or so before interrupting. Guests obviously should be allowed time to speak, as long as they remember that questions are supposed to be answered.
For yes/no questions, if they tend to go off-point, and never start their answers with a yes or no, guests should be interrupted in the same time-frame.
Most guests definitely deserve as much time as possible without interruption, but politicians aren't most guests. Pols, especially democrats, give long answers for a reason: it prevents the host from asking more questions.

A talk show is a 2-way street: by and large, the host's main goal is to get answers & high ratings, the guest's main goal is to advance a cause or sell something. Both might just improve the viewing experience if they keep each other's goal in mind.