Prolific journalist Larry King will be added to the Guinness Book of World Records on June 1, when CNN’s Larry King Live becomes the longest-running television show hosted by the same person, on the same network and in the same time slot. King will celebrate his 25th anniversary with CNN this year.
During his career, which has spanned more than five decades, King has conducted more than 40,000 interviews.
Roles were reversed on Thursday at the George Washington University when King played the interviewee, taking part in former CNN correspondent and professor Frank Sesno’s Conversation Series at the university’s School of Media and Public Affairs. The interview touched on everything from the rise in opinion journalism to King’s sex life.
Asked about the state of journalism today, King responded, “We’re in a wave of opinion,” and said, “I’ve never brought my opinions to the show.”
“It’s not my kind of programming,” he told Sesno. “I don’t have an agenda … you never hear me use the word ‘I’ because, technically, ‘I’ in an interview is irrelevant.”
“I never learned anything when I was talking,” King told Sesno was his motto. “You don’t want to be argumentative. It may be thrilling television, but you don’t learn anything.”
He did, however, acknowledge that he is an entertainer, “and so is every journalist. We’re all in that business.”
King criticized the cable news networks — even though he works for one. “Twenty-four hour news has changed television. I don’t know if it’s so much for the better … there’s a tendency to run with things, but you try to do the best you can.”
Even the Gosselins were up for discussion: “Jon and that lady, what’s her name? Kate? Is that news? I say no.”
Between clips of memorable interviews, King commented on Ronald Reagan, calling him a “great communicator” and saying, “He was very genial … I think it was impossible not to like him.”
He discussed President Barack Obama, repeating that he had “it” when it came to communicating with people.
“You can’t teach it. Clinton has it, too … they have confidence. Not so much ego, but confidence.”
King has interviewed every U.S. president since Gerald Ford.
The broadcaster reminisced about many of his famous interviews, from a debate over NAFTA between then Vice President Al Gore and Ross Perot to Karla Faye Tucker, the first woman to be executed in Texas, to an appearance on his show by actor Robert Mitchum, which he said was the must frustrating interview he ever had to conduct. Mitchum would only give him one-word answers. “After, he asked me ‘How’d I do?’”
His weirdest interview experience? Matthew Lesko, famous for his trademark suits covered in question marks and for telling people how to get free money from the government.
King talked about things other than journalism as well, talking about his recent experience flying commercial with the Transportation Security Administration. “They said, ‘Take off your shoes,’ and I’m like, ‘… Carson?’”
King, who wears metal bracelets (which can’t be taken off without a screwdriver) in support of the Larry King Cardiac Foundation, couldn’t get past the metal detectors. He was pulled to the side. “They grab you by the privates. They examine you pretty good!”
Amid jokes about the age difference between King and his wife Shawn (26 years), he also spoke candidly about the couple’s children, both born when King was in his 60s. But, he joked, “we didn’t use Viagra!”
King, despite being arguably one of the most successful television broadcasters of all time, was ultimately modest about his career in journalism. “I’m basically still just a little Jewish kid from Brooklyn … I still do enjoy it.”