The late, great journalist, Oriana Fallaci, used to say there are no questions that can't be asked. Journalists, she insisted, should be able to ask about anything. And I would add that this is especially true when it comes to grilling those in power.
If we journalists don't ask, don't probe, who is going to?
Our main function in society is to curb abuse of power, and our only weapon is the question.
By asking questions, 82 journalists were killed in 2006, according to the organization Reporters Without Borders. After Iraq, where 40 died, the next most dangerous place to be, for asking uncomfortable questions, is Mexico, with nine journalists killed last year.
Here are some such questions: Why did you do that? Where did you get the money? Who gave you the authority to do this? How much money do you earn? Who put you there? Who is you friend? Who is your enemy? Are you lying? Why are you contradicting yourself? What are you doing with our tax money? With whom did you have dinner? Why? Who gave you that? In return for what? What are you hiding? Can I check your bank account? ...
Experiment. Ask some of these questions to any politician, or a friend, and you are going to make him squirm. Few, very few, can give you an answer to all of the above.
Now that it is clear our function is to ask questions, let's examine two particular cases.
A few days ago, Vice President Dick Cheney refused to answer a question posed by CNN news anchor Wolf Blitzer. Blitzer had accurately discovered a contradiction made by the vice president and was seeking to clarify Cheney's position.
Dick Cheney's daughter, Mary, who is openly lesbian, has been living for 15 years with her partner and is pregnant. There have been no reports on how she became pregnant. By the way, Mary Cheney has every right to do whatever she wants with her life, her partner, and her baby. Period.
The contradiction, however, is Cheney's. He works for an administration _ President George W. Bush's _ that rejects any kind of same-sex legal union or marriage and has been pushing for a constitutional amendment barring such unions. The question, then, is legitimate. Who does Cheney support _ his daughter Mary or his boss, Bush?
Cheney, who has six grandchildren, told Blitzer he had gone "over the line" with that question _ about ultra conservative groups disapproving of pregnancies such as his daughter's _ and refused to answer it.
My position is as follows. If a private matter affects the public life of a country, then journalists have the right to inquire. So it is fair to question Cheney about same-sex unions.
His opinion counts and it has weight in the debate over gay marriage in the United States. Does Cheney oppose the idea that women like his daughter have all the protections and rights that the law grants to heterosexuals? Any response makes news. However, Cheney didn't want to answer, and suggested the journalist had entered forbidden territory.
Here's another example.
When Vicente Fox was president of Mexico, I asked him if he was taking anti-depressant medications. At that time _ September 2003 _ many Mexicans wondered about Fox's despondency, his lack of enthusiasm and the absence of any significant government proposals.
"No," he replied to my question about whether he was taking Prozac.
Before the interview, I wasn't sure if I could ask that question. Was I needlessly delving into Fox's private life? I decided to go ahead and ask anyway because his health affected the country, and I believed Mexicans had the right to be informed.
I do know Fox didn't like the question, but he answered: "You (journalists) have complete freedom to ask, and I have complete freedom to respond."
Who would have thought that Fox could give Cheney a lesson or two on how to respond to the press.
I also worry when journalists at press conferences are afraid to ask tough questions of Bush and (Venezuelan President) Hugo Chavez, to mention two very different examples. When was the last time you saw or read a hard-biting interview with Bush or Chavez?
Most politicians have learned to evade journalists' questions and make use of the Internet or their positions to lecture, pontificate and avoid exposing themselves to difficult questions. Why would Chavez run the risk of being interrogated in an interview about his new, almost dictatorial, powers if he can talk uninterrupted for hours on his program, "Alo Presidente"?
No, there's no such thing as a prohibited question. Nor is there a stupid one. When the occasion calls for it, a question has to be asked. Even if it is for the last time.