The internet was a buzz Monday following Bode Miller’s transparent and emotional interview following his bronze medal Sunday in the super-G competition.
Miller was asked a few questions by NBC’s Christin Cooper following the bronze win, some of them dealing with the loss of Miller’s brother last year. If you watch and listen to the interview closely, you see however that Miller started to get emotional and made certain remarks to Cooper in regards to his brother before the emotional lapse took place.
At the bottom of the page is the only online footage I could find that has the interview in its entirety. But before you watch, please keep the following in mind:
Cooper starts with a very open question, asking what the win means to him. In his answer he says he “had a lot of emotion riding on it.” Cooper doesn’t dig, but instead asks a follow up question in regards to this medal stacking against all his others. Miller then states this one is different… why?….
Bombshell — he says, “because of his brother passing away.”
That’s right, Miller brought it up. Not Cooper.
Miller is a smart dude who’s been doing this for years. He knows he didn’t have to bring up his brother if he didn’t want to talk about him. At this point, it would be a disservice if Cooper didn’t follow up with the right question pertaining to his brother’s death. That’s simply good journalism — being an active listener.
In fact, in Miller’s response when he talks about his brother, he starts to become teary eyed. Cooper’s question back is, again, very open, simply asking, “what’s going through your mind?”
Once Miller has a chance to answer her it’s obvious he’s starting to get more emotional, yet he isn’t walking away from the camera. It’s at this point where Cooper simply asks about what’s on Miller’s mind — his brother.
As a reporter, it’s Cooper’s job to tell a story — and sometime’s that simply means asking the right questions. It also means sometimes letting the story tell itself. She did both here.
Notice that after Miller gets emotional, she simply goes silent as well, letting the moment happen. In my opinion a very beautiful moment.
Finally, the most important reason this interview is more than okay — Bode Miller said it was. “Please be gentle w christin cooper, it was crazy emotional and not all her fault,” he tweeted.
Yup.
Josh Helmuth is the editor of CraveOnline Sports. You can follow him @JHelmuth or “like” CraveOnline Sports on Facebook.
Photo Credit: Getty
