Oxon Hill, Md.
Unlike the young conservatives milling around the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) with cameras waiting for their favorite politician or pundit to turn the corner so they can get a “selfie,” Jan Helfeld is here with a camera for a different reason—a serious interview. Politicians and pundits are usually eager for free publicity, so Helfeld often scores big names, despite having no mainstream-media affiliation or even many Twitter followers. But many of them have found that sitting down for a conversation with him can come with costs.
Helfeld’s video interviews on YouTube are essentially five-minute Socratic rodeos, in that they almost always end spectacularly with someone being tossed. Whether Helfeld is the bull or rider is a matter of perspective, I suppose.
