I've only had a few of nontrivial interactions with reporters for stories they were doing, but in every case it was clear the reporter already had a story they were trying to tell and were just fishing for the right quote so I could tell it for them.
I've long been puzzled why so many journalists really think journalism is about "working the phones" especially when mostly "working the phones" involves "dinging someone at some think tank to say what you want to tell the reader."
