Following up Andrew Grumet's post on Gross's interview of Bill O'Reilly.

There are lots of things I admire about Bill O'Reilly, the Fox News talk show host. But he's incapable of taking the same kind of interview he dishes out. Go on his show if you want to be interrupted, verbally abused, have your facts and opinions twisted and spun to fit Bill's world view, your thoughts interrupted, your words taken out of context.

Terry Gross, his Fresh Air interviewer, tossed Bill easy lobs so he could set the record straight, a prelude to exploring the man and his vision. He never let Terry get where she was going. He started calling her names, invoking grand conspiracies of public radio and the liberal left, and refused to be responsive or accountable for his own statements and accusations. In his eyes, anyone with the temerity to question his record is a liar out to get him. He walked off the show.

He may be a hard hitting host but he has a glass jaw. When he doesn't control the venue and he isn't surrounded by sycophants, he's just not up for the job. I'm with Andrew in hoping to learn more about the guy, but he's his own worst enemy.

Again, being interviewed is a different skill than interviewing. Maybe Bill and I can take the same class.

[a klog apart]

Rick Klau writes about our Department of Homeland Isolation in response to a thread on Joi Ito's blog. Amen, brother.

I sometimes talk with Europeans about their generation-long fight to reduce border controls. They're not sloppy. They realize that border controls are a customer service and visitors are "the customer" as much as the citizens.

 Failing to take the pain out of the average visitor's experience changes the customs and immigration process from one of "Welcome to our country! Enjoy your stay" to one of suspicion, hostility, and ill will. This is a numbers game; say one in a thousand people are offending in a material way. Do we need to expose all thousand to a cavity search? Clearly not. So this is about throttling down intrusion and ratcheting up smiles and helpful conduct.

Free traders should be all over this, advocating for markedly less painful visitor experiences. Disney and the entire tourism industry should be up in arms. Universities should be launching student and faculty protests over heavy-handed security that interferes with vital research, quality education, academic freedom, and creating America-friendly elites around the world.

I no longer tie my shoelaces when leaving for the airport. I'm just going to have to take them off at the screening, even for flying within California. We don't perform searches in the US without cause, so it stands to reason that I must be under suspicion, at least a little bit. Maybe I should buy the Suspected Terrorist button inspired by John Gilmore? Or join FreeToTravel.org? What can I do?

Is this coming up at DigitalIDWorld?

Steve Kirks is nuts. Very nice, a strong blogger and an effective interviewer, but with misplaced values. Otherwise, why would he interview me? Here's our interview  from the BloggerCon reception. I'm in exceptional company. Steve interviewed Social Dynamx' Stephen Dulaney about the blogging user experience , Blogware's Ross Rader about wholesale blogs , Scott Johnson about Feedster , and Adam Curry about about syndication and Dutch blogging . 

Interviewing and being interviewed require different skills from blogging. Things to learn...

[a klog apart]

Put it on your calendar:

WHAT: Ed Blogger 2003

WHEN: Saturday and Sunday, 22-23 November 2003

WHERE: San Francisco. Places under discussion.

WHO: People interested in weblogs as a tool for education.

Somewhere along the way I want to see blogging as fodder for academic research. Let the grad students develop a theory for the medium. Integrate blogging into existing theories of learning, behavior, and motivation.