I heard Elizabeth Smart on Fresh Air the other day. My first impression was that she is not the sharpest tool in the shed. But listening to her a while, I thought maybe I was wrong. She just talks like she is much younger, like 16. She also has that speech thing like the polygamists on Sister Wives. They leave certain consonants off words and substitute a glottal stop. That makes them sound younger too. It's here,if anyone is intersted:

http://www.npr.org/2013/10/08/230204193/elizabeth-smart-says-kidnapper-was-a-master-at-manipulation

The language? First of all: This is not about age. It's a typical Utah accent. Grown men and women speak much the same way in many cases. That is one reason I know when I've reached Utah when I've dialed a number.

Also: She sounds much like her family and dozens more that I know from Utah, especially if they have generations of family there.

In addition: She has been beat down when she was a young girl. I'm amazed that she is doing so well!

I'm with SuzieQ#1 on this--and Dogzilla on an earlier thread. I think it is amazing Elizabeth is doing as well as she is, and I think her parents deserve some of the credit for that. As for Elizabeth's intelligence, I don't see any reason to believe she'd be much smarter than the average college-educated Mormon. And she is clearly more intelligent than her accent and slow cadence leads one to believe. I was impressed with her.

The other interesting thing about the interview, though, was the extent to which they avoided talking about Mormonism. That had to have been negotiated beforehand. Gross is a pretty aggressive interviewer, and I'd expected her to ask about polygamy, LDS doctrine, the possibility that that doctrine played a role both in Mitchell's delusional thinking and in Smart's willingness to go along with him. But they steered clear of these questions almost entirely; I doubt the word "Mormon" was used six times in the entire conversation.

That intentional censorship was, I thought, worthy noting.

Yes Wrote:
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> She is doing amazing things! Her ability to carry on her life and keep going and doing the kind of work she has carved out for herself is an incredible feat. She is very intelligent, poised, and charming. She carries herself well, and holds her own. That is because of her support system and her inner strengths.

People often forget that there are many, many accents, in how American-English language is spoken. There are differences even in states, for instance. That is not an indication of their intelligence.

Interviewers often must submit their questions ahead of time. They are told what certain subjects are off-limits and will result in the interview being terminated. It's just business!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/12/2013 08:17PM by SusieQ#1.

The pre-screening of questions is not that common. Look back on Gross's interview of Bill O'Reilly or politicians or even John Le Carre, who finally got annoyed at her for persisting in a line of questioning that he didn't like. At the very least, Gross forces the interviewee to state live that he or she does not want to go into a particular topic.

The Smart interview was very, very unusual. I've never heard Gross avoid an obvious topic so assiduously.

I know that not all interviews have pre-approved questions.

I'm going to make a guess here. I think the Interviewer was showing respect for Elizabeth and her horrific experiences. The last thing he wanted to do was blow the interview!

Susie,

The interviewer was Terry Gross, a woman based at WHYY in Philadelphia. That's why I used her as an example. She is an aggressive interviewer who doesn't cut her guests much slack. I remember 20 years ago when she interviewed Mikkal Gilmore about his excellent book on his brother, Gary Gilmore. It was a wonderful interview, and they went deep into Mormonism. She's also done deep conversations about Mormonism in the context of Prop 8, etc. She can be very combatative, like when she tried to take Bill Reilly apart and got censured by NPR for being too aggressive.

So this particular interview was very unusual for her. I'm sure she did want to be gentle with Elizabeth, but Terry's usual style is to ask the guest if they can go into a particular topic. That way the audience knows why Gross is steering clear of a subject. For her to interview Elizabeth and stay almost completely clear of Mormonism without Elizabeth asking for that favor was highly unusual.

The negotiations before that interview were NOT normal for Fresh Air. The Smarts must really be trying to stop the kidnapping from influencing the church's PR efforts.

Interesting conversation. Something that struck me was the admission that Elizabeth has not had any nightmares or dreams regarding her kidnapping. In my experience, dreams were a processing and healing part of my teen years and seems like a necessary process. Is healing through dreams not universal?