Why can't journos ask a proper question?

A departure from talks about movies but kind of related... on Tues night I was watching SBS news and a British reporter (working for CNN) had a great scoop - an intervew with the JI leader who masterminded the Bali bombings, among others. Great coup, right? Instead of just asking "what are your goals", "what do you want to achieve", "when will you stop" he would say things like "why do you hate Westerners", "am I a target" - the hysterical personalisation of news. It reminded me of an interview Peter Overton did on 60 Minutes with the family of convicted rapist Bilal Skaf - instead of asking "if he's innocent, why was he convicted", "why do you think the girls are lying", stuff like that, he made it hysterical. Surely this stuff would be more effective television if it was un-sensational. Not to mention be better journalism.