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You know about the five "w"s I assume, if not here ya go:

The Five Ws is a checklist used in journalism to ensure that the lead contains all the essential points of a story. As far back as 1913, reporters were taught that the lead should answer these questions:

• Who? – asking about a person or other agent
• What? – asking about an object or action
• When? – asking about a time
• Where? – asking about a place
• Why? – asking about a reason or cause

[source: Wikipedia: Five Ws]

Together with the Why there is the concept of "five whys":

Five whys (or 5 whys) is an iterative interrogative technique used to explore the cause-and-effect relationships underlying a particular problem. The primary goal of the technique is to determine the root cause of a defect or problem by repeating the question "why?" five times, each time directing the current "why" to the answer of the previous "why".

The method asserts that the answer to the final "why" asked in this manner should reveal the root cause of the problem. The number of whys may be higher or lower depending on the complexity of the analysis and problem.

[source: Wikipedia: Five Whys]

Together you can follow most TV interviews watching out for the 5 Ws as they try and cover the whole story being discussed. Of course in these days of combative / polarised / patsy approaches to interviews you may not find many of the Ws at all, the less you notice the more likely it's a patsy 'interview'.

[sidenote: the 5 Whys are most excellent on their own, especially if you're talking to about something going 'wrong' and you are trying to get down to the root cause, or if you're 'counselling' someone ... be careful though, you need to be able to deal with / support the answers that come out]

Back to interviews, I have noticed over the past few years that the vast majority of journos are not asking "Why?" once, let alone five times. Let's have an example, read Interview: Christopher Luxon says debate over New Zealand’s founding document is finished and ask yourself where is the Why. There is a lot of What, some When, a lot of Who, and a smattering of Where but no Why at all ... this is a patsy interview more akin to a press release.

Another, listen to this interview, 'Not a gotcha': Swarbrick pushed on details over Green Budget and hear all the Ws being used, especially Why (first one at 2:28 mins, quickly repeated twice), and how much deeper and useful the interview is because of it.

If you call yourself a journalist then learn the craft and apply it in all circumstances.

And as everyone who inhales 'news' watch out for the use of the 5 Ws and especially Why (multiple times), if you don't notice it then ponder, why?