Respecting expertise in the interview

Being respectful of sources means more than just trying to find an interview slot that is convenient for all. Sources can be risking pain and fatigue to talk to you because they feel talking to you is important. But respect is about more than time and effort; respecting their expertise means:

• being both professional and efficient as a journalist
• valuing the source’s knowledge and expertise
• giving their perspectives due weight

Do you need to go over someone’s entire medical history and all instances of prejudice or stigma they’ve ever experienced to do just one interview or to quote one emotional sentence? Do not ask someone to go over years of trauma with you and then reduce their input to a poignant quote about how lonely it is to be disabled rather than the implications of a new policy direction. Push back against editors who ask you to do this. On the other hand, editors can encourage reporters to go deeper and to find the right sources rather than the easy ones.

 
If someone is clearly more familiar with relevant policy than you are, you should be thanking them for sharing their knowledge and crediting them in the piece. Don’t use the knowledge they give you in interviews and fail to credit them while giving them one line or sound bite. Too often, we see text like the following:

• “I’m so sad,” says self-advocate Teary McSadface [who is actually the director of a respected non-profit foundation and not only a “self-advocate”]. “I hope things will be different one day.” In the meantime, McSadface will just have to wait for [a cure/a policy change they and the foundation are actively working for].

Along with that text, we might be shown McSadface staring pensively out a window (because her disability means she’s held apart from society, get it? Get it?). However, often the rest of Ms. McSadface’s interview — the parts that didn’t make it into the final piece — contains details of policy analysis and timelines, what the source plans to accomplish and how, the foundation’s goals and specific actions.