What makes a great interview?

Design Principles:

1.)Making a description/add a little biography about the person that's being interviewed.
Example from CBS: Couric Palin Interview
(CBS) When CBS News anchor Katie Couric sat down for an exclusive interview with vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, she focused on the economy - but also addressed reports that the lobbying firm of Sen. John McCain's campaign manager received payments from the controversial mortgage giant Freddie Mac until last month. Couric asked for the Alaska governor's reaction to that.

Esther and I's part of the answer:
I think that one interview design principle that all interviewers always have to have is flexibility. They need to be able to make up more questions on the spot. If people do that they cannot get a lot of information that they were not planning on getting. Also sometimes people feel like they only have a certain amount of questions but once they get started and the interviewee starts answering them they get more ideas on follow up questions. I think it a very good skill that an interview could have and that would make the interview good.If they ask the right questions.her is an example
At this early stage, would you say that you were happily married?
a: Very much so. But, the pressure on us both as a couple with the media was phenomenal, and misunderstood by a great many people.
We'd be going round Australia, for instance, and all you could hear was, oh, she's on the other side. Now, if you're a man, like my husband a proud man, you mind about that if you hear it every day for four weeks. And you feel low about it, instead of feeling happy and sharing it.

q: When you say ´she's on the other side', what do you mean?

a: Well, they weren't on the right side to wave at me or to touch me.

q: So they were expressing a preference even then for you rather than your husband?

a: Yes - which I felt very uncomfortable with, and I felt it was unfair, because I wanted to share.

q: But were you flattered by the media attention particularly?

a: No, not particularly, because with the media attention came a lot of jealousy, a great deal of complicated situations arose because of that.
Princess and the Press
Another design principle that makes an interview great would have to be when an interviewer asks some hard questions, because these are things that the audience would want to know. Also sometime when interviewers ask several questions at one time this is kind of a good way of interviewing, sometime it can seem like the interviewee is being interrogated instead if interviewed, but they may sometimes get good responses from the person. This i think means that the interviewer really wants to know the roots of the situation, and how the interviewee feels about it.
example:
HARWOOD: How did it feel to be there with the former presidents today and what can you learn from them, especially the current President Bush whom you criticized so strongly in the campaign?
another one is
HARWOOD: ...why stop at $775 billion? Why not go to the $1.2 trillion that some economists have recommended? Is that because you think that the political figure of a trillion dollars is too politically charged to get over? Is it because you think more spending would be pork rather than stimulus? Or do you think you've figured out exactly the right amount of stimulus that's needed?