Karan Thapar… the Quibbler !

I used to think highly of Mr Karan Thapar and his interviewing style at first. But having seen about 5 interviews and read some interview transcripts, I’ve concluded that he’s nothing great. At best, a Quibbler.

His strengths are his strong communication skill and composure while dealing with high profile personalities. In most interviews, he starts by bringing up an issue of importance, then wording out the interviewee’s stand on it, and then he starts ranting and quibbling. He likes twisting phrases, drawing poor conclusions, framing absurd answers and putting words

in the mouth of his interviewees.

Now dont get me wrong. On one hand, I do admire his ability to make such important people look foolish. But on the other, I feel that more often than not, he looses track of the crux of the topic rather focussing his attempts to bring out the a few shortcomings of his interviewees. Sometimes, he does manage to stumble upon a powerful personality who is ignorant or ill-minded. But on the whole, his interview skills merely aim to frustrate his guests.

However, faced with an equally good communicator, Mr Thapar’s weakness is blatant. His background

research seems dodgy and logic flawed. A good example would be his interview with India’s current Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

I may not be the best judge of an interviewer, but in my humble opinion, Mr Thapar doesn’t cut class with the best.

Those with reasoning skills as good as his, would now conclude that I hold utmost hatred for this man and the work he does. Wrong. I used to think ‘highly’ of him. Now I think he’s just a decent interviewer getting his way along. Dont be surprised to see future posts regarding him!