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lancearmstrong_oprah.jpg
Oprah Winfrey, right, interviews Lance Armstrong during taping for the show "Oprah and Lance Armstrong: The Worldwide Exclusive" in Austin, Texas. Armstrong confessed to using performance-enhancing drugs to win the Tour de France cycling during the interview that aired Thursday, Jan. 17, reversing more than a decade of denial. (AP Photo/Courtesy of Harpo Studios, Inc., George Burns, File)

How did Oprah do as an interviewer with big Armstrong get?

BY Tom Tangney  on January 18, 2013 @ 12:08 pm (Updated: 12:30 pm - 1/18/13 )

We've been hearing about how Lance Armstrong did in his interview with Oprah Winfrey. But how did Oprah do as interviewer?

There may not be two bigger egos than Lance Armstrong's and Oprah Winfrey's but I thought Oprah did a good job of keeping hers in check to get the most out of Lance.

Her line of questioning rarely brought attention to herself - she kept the focus squarely on Armstrong, as it should have been. She didn't badger him like she did with disgraced writer James Frey. She gently prodded Armstrong instead.

And Armstrong ended up revealing a lot about himself - not so much in what he said as in how he said it. I've rarely seen a more tightly wound individual - someone described him as looking like a passenger on a plane that was about to crash - every word that came out of his mouth seemed a struggle, like he was grimly determined to get through this with the fewest number of words possible.

He not only did not seem comfortable with himself, the human race even seemed a bit foreign to him. He came off as bloodless.

And this was only accentuated by the maternal, warm-blooded Oprah Winfrey seated right next to him. The contrast was striking - the natural easy-going conversationalist versus the cyborg.

But it wasn't just about her very presence - her line of questioning, for the most part, was sharp. About an hour into the interview, Oprah started to ask Armstrong about how he "felt" about what he was doing (primarily, I assume, because he seemed to lack all emotion). His evasiveness is illuminating.

Oprah: Was it a big deal to you, did it feel wrong?
Lance: At the time, no.
Oprah: It did not even feel wrong?
Lance: No. It's scary.
Oprah: Did you feel bad about it?
Lance: No, even scarier.
Oprah: Did you feel in any way that you were cheating?
Lance: No, the scariest.
Oprah: You did not feel like you were cheating taking banned drugs.
Lance: At the time, no.

She got a lot out of him, but the fact that he doesn't feel I think is the real answer. Then the way he explained it with, I didn't feel like it was wrong, I didn't feel like it was cheating. That is really crucial. I think that was the mindset of Lance Armstrong. It felt like he was pumping up his tires, pumping up his veins with dope blood. That was the idea.

Tom Tangney, KIRO Radio Host
Tom Tangney is co-host of KIRO Radio's Seattle's Morning News and resident enthusiast of...everything. He loves books, movies, TV, art, pop culture, politic, sports, and Husky football.
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Comments (5)


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  • HLC wrote...
    If she could only be that hard.
    January 18, 2013 2:02 pm
    On Obozo. No straight forward questions for him. He gets confused to easy without the teleprompter.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • spuddog wrote...
    Tom...
    January 19, 2013 6:46 am
    I agree with you that Winfrey kept the focus on Lance, but I do think she could have pressured him more with follow-up questions to some of his answers. He often seemed to be seeking our sympathy and when he would do that, Winfrey would nod affirmatively and say, Uh huh, uh huh. I'd like someone to count the number of times he'd sort of admit to something but then, by way of justifying or rationalizing, the next word out of his mouth was "but". You note that "every word that came out of his mouth seemed like a struggle" and I agree. This reason is, I think, that everything he said was so measured and so rehearsed. There was no flow of consciousness or normal conversational flow. He had to be very careful. I was an Armstrong supporter. I've read his books and I believed him even though that was difficult at times. I defended him a number of times. I'd say my biggest disappointment of 2012 was hearing that he'd confessed to being such a shameless liar.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Ted Bundi wrote...
    Ho humm, I gotta go put out the garbage can now...
    January 19, 2013 7:19 am
    ... and check if the lawn needs some fertilizer.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • spuddog wrote...
    Good idea Ted...
    January 19, 2013 7:40 am
    why don't you do that.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • sprachfuzzi wrote...
    Headline
    January 20, 2013 7:46 am
    What does that headline mean?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }