Not all things in the world of news work out for you. Here are two examples that started with good intentions but turned ugly. One involved me and one did not.

First my tale. In September of 1977, the Portuguese trawler Vasco d’Oray caught fire and burned in St. John’s harbour. There was loss of life, and it was a tragedy, so this story is not funny. Eventually with the fire still burning, she was towed away from the wharf in St. John’s and out through the harbour and into nearby Freshwater Bay. There had already been several explosions on board the stricken vessel and she was left to burn in a place where she could do no further harm.

Surviving crew members had left the ship in St. John’s and were being taken off at the wharf. I was there at the scene with an NTV cameraman, so I spoke with several members of the crew on the wharf. I didn’t speak Portuguese and the crew didn’t speak English, so the interview didn’t go well. Actually, it went off the rails. I asked a crew member where the explosion was centered and the first crewman I spoke with said “BOOM.” I replied with the word “BOOM” and the crewman nodded. The second crew member I spoke with seemed to be an officer. He was dressed better than the others on the wharf. “What happened on the ship?” I asked. The man paused for a second and then gave me the single word reply. ’’BOOM!’’ I blinked and replied with the word “BOOM.” Then I held up two fingers. I was trying to find out if there had been a second explosion. The crewman replied with two words. “BOOM BOOM! “I replied, “BOOM BOOM”? That ended the interview.

When I returned to the station and looked at the film after it was developed, we had shots of the Vasco d’Oray being towed away from the wharf still on fire. The rest of the film consisted of three men, of which I was one saying the word “BOOM!” back and forth. Specifically written it was. “BOOM” “BOOM”?” BOOM,” “BOOM”; and then the second crewman spoke “BOOM BOOM!”, “BOOM BOOM?” I replied.

“Boom Boom,” he said. That was the end of the interview.

The other interview gone bad that I recall was a “man in the street” interview done back in the mid-1970s by Carl Lake. “Man in the street” pieces where you interview a citizen on camera are difficult because they are unpredictable. You just do not know where they are going. I remember this interview was shot down on Duckworth Street in front of Johnny Simon’s jewelry store. I remember the name of the store because it had a clock in the front window that belonged to the previous owners of the store. That previous jeweler was named Brady and the clock which lit up spectacularly had the lovely commercial name of Brady of Duckworth on it. I remember it well.

As mentioned, it was Carl Lake doing the interview and he spoke to a group of gentlemen about the subject of inflation in St. John’s. Carl asked if it was a factor in their spending habits. That sounds simple enough except the problem is that all three men were new Canadians and were originally from China. They spoke only a few words of English. Carl did not know that.

With film rolling, Carl inquired of the first man if inflation was affecting his spending at all. The man’s reply was. “Wha?”

Carl repeated the question and the answer this time was. “Oh, Wha?”

Carl was determined to save the interview. It was on film not on videotape, so it was not just a matter of rewinding tape and film was expensive and not to be wasted. With camera still rolling, Carl moved on to another of the gentlemen and asked the same question. This man just looked at him and do not say a word. After a couple of seconds of silence Carl asked the man if he understood the question. The man’s response was classic. He spoke. “Wha?” Wha?

That ended the “streeter” and the lesson. That lesson is that you should speak with the people you are about to interview before you ask the first question. You need to know if you speak the same language as they do.

You can contact Jim Furlong at jfurlong@ntv.ca