Terry Gross

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Terry Gross


Terry Gross at the Georgia Tech FERST Center for the Arts, in Atlanta, November 2006.
Born 1951
Show Fresh Air
Station(s) WHYY, NPR
Country U.S.
Website Official Website

Terry Gross (born 1951) is the host and co-executive producer of Fresh Air, an interview format radio show produced by WHYY-FM in Philadelphia and distributed throughout the United States by National Public Radio. Gross has won praise over the years for her low-key and friendly yet often probing interview style and for the diversity of her guests. She has a reputation for researching her guests' entire lives and asking them about lesser known aspects of their early careers.[1]

Contents

[edit] Biography

Gross grew up in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, New York. She earned a Bachelor's degree in English and a M.Ed. in communications from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo. She began a teaching career, but said that she was "totally unequipped" for the job, and was fired after only six weeks.[2] She began her radio career in 1973 at WBFO, a public radio station in Buffalo, New York, where she had been volunteering. In 1975 she moved to WHYY-FM in Philadelphia to host and produce Fresh Air, which was a local interview program at the time. In 1985, Fresh Air with Terry Gross went national, being distributed weekly by NPR. It became a daily program two years later.

Gross is married to Francis Davis, jazz critic of the Village Voice. The couple have no children. In an interview with B.D. Wong, Gross said this is a deliberate choice on their part.[citation needed] Because of her short haircut and the number of guests from arts and entertainment (some of whom are gay), Gross said in the introduction to All I Did Was Ask: Conversations With Writers, Actors, Musicians, and Artists that she is sometimes asked whether she is gay, including one memorable instance where a guest at a social occasion informed her mother-in-law of such a speculation.[3] In her interview with Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, she mentioned that at one time she lived in a commune.

[edit] Interview style

The San Francisco Chronicle wrote that Gross's interviews are "a remarkable blend of empathy, warmth, genuine curiosity, and sharp intelligence."[4] Gross prides herself on preparation. Prior to interviewing guests, she reads their books, watches their movies, and/or listens to their CDs. Her interviewing skills get mixed reviews. The Boston Phoenix opined that "Terry Gross…is almost certainly the best cultural interviewer in America, and one of the best all-around interviewers, period. Her smart, thoughtful questioning pushes her guests in unlikely directions. Her interviews are revelatory in a way other people's seldom are."[2] On the other hand, in a famous essay [5], Illinois State University professor Curtis White trenchantly criticized Gross and her show as the "prime example" of a certain type of cultural and intellectual rot in American culture.


Gross treats different guests differently, depending on a variety of factors. She is often more challenging with political figures than with people in the arts, who may be less prepared for such interviews and less prone to expressing themselves in canned "sound-bites."[1] A number of commentators have noted her tendency to question liberal guests more gently than conservative ones. As is the case for many radio programs, virtually all of Gross's interviews are taped and edited, and guests are often not present in the studio.

[edit] Clashes with guests

Gross has drawn added public attention following some rare occasions when she has clashed with her guests, including these:

  • A February 4, 2002, interview with rock star Gene Simmons, who at one point said, "If you want to welcome me with open arms, I'm afraid you're also going to have to welcome me with open legs," to which Gross replied, "That's a really obnoxious thing to say." Unlike most Fresh Air guests, Simmons refused to grant permission for the interview to be made available online. However, the interview appears in All I Did Was Ask, and unauthorized transcripts and audio of the complete original exist.[6][7][8]
  • An October 8, 2003, interview with Fox News television host Bill O'Reilly, who walked out of the interview because of what he considered her biased questions, creating a media controversy fed by the ongoing presidential campaign. Toward the end of the interview, O'Reilly asked Gross if she had been as tough on Al Franken, who had appeared on the program two weeks before O'Reilly, as she had been with O'Reilly. Gross responded, "No, I wasn't…we had a different interview."[9] Gross was later criticised by then NPR ombudsman Jeffrey Dvorkin for "an interview that was, in the end, unfair to O'Reilly."[10] Dvorkin described Gross's interviewing tactic of reading a critical quote of O'Reilly after he had walked out of the room as "unethical and unfair."[11] Gross was later supported by an NPR colleague, Mike Pesca, who contended that O'Reilly did, in fact, have the opportunity to respond to a criticism that Gross read to O'Reilly leveled by People Magazine but that he defaulted by prematurely abandoning the interview.[11] On September 24, 2004, Gross and O'Reilly met again on O'Reilly's television show in which Gross assured O'Reilly "that no matter what you ask me, I'm staying for the entire interview."[12]
  • A February 9, 2005, interview of Lynne Cheney, conservative author and wife of vice president Dick Cheney. The initial focus of the interview was on Cheney's latest history book, but Gross moved on to questions about Cheney's lesbian daughter Mary and her opinion of the Bush administration's opposition to gay marriage.[13] Cheney declined to comment on her daughter's sexuality, but repeatedly stated her opposition to a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, which was being endorsed by President Bush. Cheney declined to discuss the matter further. Later, when Gross brought the interview back to issues of gay rights, Cheney again refused to comment. According to producers, Cheney had been warned that she would be asked about politics and current events.[14]

[edit] Awards


[edit] Bibliography

  • Gross, Terry (2004). All I Did Was Ask: Conversations with Writers, Actors, Musicians, and Artists. New York: Hyperion. ISBN 1401300103. 

[edit] Audio collections

  • (1998) Fresh Air: On Stage & Screen (cassette)
  • (2000) Fresh Air on Stage and Screen Vol 2 (CD)
  • (2004) Fresh Air Laughs with Terry Gross [UNABRIDGED] (CD)

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Lori Leibovich. "Turning the Tables on Terry Gross: Salon Gets Personal With NPR'S Maestro of Conversation", Salon, 22 June 1998. Retrieved on 2008-01-17. 
  2. ^ a b Terry Gross: Producer and Host of National Public Radio’s 'Fresh Air' - Biography. Seattle Arts and Lectures (2001). Retrieved on 2008-01-17.
  3. ^ Gross, Terry (2004). All I Did Was Ask: Conversations with Writers, Actors, Musicians, and Artists. New York: Hyperion. ISBN 1401300103. 
  4. ^ Inside WBUR: Terry Gross. WBUR (3 June 2007). Retrieved on 2008-01-17.
  5. ^ http://www.centerforbookculture.org/context/no9/white.html
  6. ^ Terry Gross (4 February 2002). Leader and Bassist of the Band Kiss, Gene Simmons. Fresh Air. NPR; WHYY. Retrieved on 2008-01-17.
  7. ^ Gene Simmons. Interview with Terry Gross. Fresh Air. NPR; WHYY. 4 February 2002. (Interview [Transcript]). Retrieved on 2008-01-17.
  8. ^ Gene Simmons. Interview with Terry Gross. Fresh Air. NPR; WHYY. 4 February 2002. (Interview [Audio]). Retrieved on 2008-01-17.
  9. ^ Bill O'Reilly. Interview with Terry Gross. Fresh Air. NPR; WHYY. 8 October 2003. (Interview [Audio]). Retrieved on 2008-01-17.
  10. ^ Jeffrey A. Dvorkin (15 October 2003). Gross vs. O'Reilly: Culture Clash on NPR. National Public Radio. Retrieved on 2008-01-17.
  11. ^ a b Jeffrey A. Dvorkin. Interview with Brooke Gladstone and Mike Pesca. On the Media. NPR; WNYC. 23 June 2006. (Interview [Audio/Transcript]). Retrieved on 2008-01-17.
  12. ^ Terry Gross. Interview with Bill O'Reilly. The O'Reilly Factor. Fox News. 24 September 2003. (Interview [TV]). Retrieved on 2008-03-19.
  13. ^ Lynne Cheney. Interview with Terry Gross. Fresh Air. NPR; WHYY. 9 February 2005. (Interview [Audio]). Retrieved on 2008-01-17.
  14. ^ Jeffrey A. Dvorkin (15 February 2005). A Week of Insults on NPR. NPR. Retrieved on 2008-01-17.
  15. ^ Corporation for Public Broadcasting (16 May 2003). "CPB Names Terry Gross 2003 Murrow Award Recipient". Press release. Retrieved on 2008-01-17.

[edit] External links

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