The latest tech squabble, between Wired and two blog-savvy pundits the magazine wanted to interview, is actually quite interesting. Here's the backstory: Fred Vogelstein, the Wired reporter whom Microsoft's public relations agency played so expertly earlier in the year, pinged Jason Calacanis and Dave Winer for interviews. Each, independently, said they'd reply in writing and, when Vogelstein pressed for a phone interview, went public, here and here, on their respective blogs, of course, about how they didn't trust that a phone interview would be accurately reported. For three reasons, the traditional journalistic insistence on phone interviews is misguided.

To be sure, it's quite reasonable for a reporter to want an interview on the phone. The subject may be more spontaneous. They're more likely to say something human, and quotable — and more likely to slip up, which is also quotable. But why should the interview subjects agree to those terms?

First, it's not "cowardly", as one Wired blogger has suggested, to turn down a phone interview; it may simply be wiser for an interviewee to post on a blog, or write an email, so there's a written record of what was said, and the context.

Second, let's not pretend these phone interviews are so spontaneous, and natural. As Fred Vogelstein knows, from the leaked memo about Microsoft's careful strategy in dealing with him, executives are given talking points before confronting a journalist's questions. These in-person or phone interviews, to which Wired and other print media organizations are so wedded, can be just as carefully scripted as an email exchange. In fact, I'd be willing to better that Vogelstein would get richer answers from Calacanis in email or on instant messenger than he would from a Microsoft executive in a one-hour interview.

Third, phone interviews with sought-after sources aren't just scripted; journalists often agree to quote approval. It's a subtle game. Reporter wants an interview. Answer is no. How about a chat, without quotation, or attribution of information? Okay. And, then, at the end of the interview, the reporter asks whether a certain innocuous quote can be put on the record. Compared with the manipulative professionals of public relations, the new blog pundits are a model of straightforwardness.

Anyway, here's a compromise suggestion: do the interview on instant messenger. That's pretty spontaneous. People tend to be more relaxed, and amusing, and forthright, in a communications medium with such instantaneous response. And the exchange is documented, in case there's any misunderstanding, later.

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