A host still in search of himself on 'Fareed Zakaria GPS'

THE QUALITY of an interview has, naturally, a great deal to do with the quality of the interviewer. But it may have just as much to do with the perceived quality of the interviewer. In other words, is the person asking the questions worthy of receiving a greater-than-usual dose of truth?

Fareed Zakaria, host of the new CNN Sunday talk show "Fareed Zakaria GPS" (10 a.m.), comes to that battle well equipped. The editor of Newsweek International, he has been a frequent talking head on a range of shows in recent years (including amusing turns on "The Daily Show") and was, for 2 1/2 years, the host of the PBS talk show "Foreign Exchange With Fareed Zakaria."

On "Fareed Zakaria GPS" (in the show's usage, "GPS" stands for Global Public Square), which premiered June 1, time is split between a longish interview with a key political figure and a round-table discussion, led by Zakaria, with a rotating cast of experts.

Zakaria's status has helped him land high-profile interview subjects in the first weeks of his fledgling show: Tony Blair, Henry Kissinger, Condoleezza Rice (billed as Rice's first in-depth television interview in two years). As an interlocutor, Zakaria has a natural calm, and is utterly comfortable discussing the range of foreign crises, from the war in Iraq to Ireland's recent rejection of the Treaty of Lisbon, which would have paved the way for the creation of a president of the European Union, among other reforms.

There has been little discussion of Africa as of yet or Hugo Chávez or the recent shifts in power in Cuba. Nevertheless, Zakaria is refreshingly open in his viewpoints on the subjects he does take on. When interviewing Kissinger, he asked sincerely about the security concerns of Iran, not just the security concerns caused by Iran. After a brief news item on the recent protests in South Korea over the importation of U.S. beef, Zakaria noted, "Just one more example that being seen as pro-American remains a political problem in many parts of the world."

One-on-one, though, Zakaria's skepticism can get lost. He exudes a certain coziness with his guests, even the ones who are perhaps deserving of more circumspection. It has in moments bordered on complicity. Toward the end of his time with Kissinger, he asked the statesman, who had just turned 85, "Is your strategy now to simply outlive every critic that you have?" This is not, strictly speaking, a question. Instead, it is a wink -- to Kissinger, who could dodge (though he gave a better answer than the question deserved) and to the audience, to remind them that even though Zakaria had been playing nice, he was sympathetic to the opposition or at least aware of them.