Epic fail?! New York Times "interviews" Seth MacFarlane

Lord knows I have been tough on Seth MacFarlane for some of his recent machinations around his animated sitcom Family Guy, but even I know how to conduct a proper interview. This Sunday's NYT magazine featured MacFarlane in its "Questions For" column, but it read more like "Inquistion Of" or "Dressing-Down For" than an interview. And imagine, this column is what the NYT's Deborah Solomon gets paid to do. If you think that CNN's Larry King Live is the most inane softball session ever, than reading this hit piece by Solomon on MacFarlane is the exact opposite. Wow. Just, wow. What a piece of crap. It's one thing to have him address criticism; it's quite another to (as a friend of the blog pointed out to me overnight) use more words telling people they are unfunny (and questioning their sexuality?!) than words they are given to defend themselves. At least the editors gave MacFarlane the last words: "Oh, boy, we're getting deep."

Comments

[Alex Steed]

Have you ever read one of D.S.'s Q&A's before? This is sort of her jam.

[Sean]

I am learning this about her. Did not realize that the venerable New York Times was paying someone to be, in effect, a heckler?!

[Sean]

And here's an article that Rachel Sklar wrote for HuffPo about Deborah Solomon's sketchy tactics back in 2007:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/10/03/new-york-press-raps-debor_n_66969.html

[Frank]

She's got some real pizzazz, that one!

[Matt Ruby]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/14/opinion/14pubed.html

Yeah, the Times' Public Editor has called her out on interview problems before: "There is a protocol, and 'Questions For' isn’t living up to it."