I’ve taken some heat in the comments for my approach:

Don’t you think memorizing a clear, concise question to start your interview might be a good idea? The hemming and hawing… [is] embarrassing…

ditto. the earlier commenter is right. you have good stuff but don’t be so wishy-washy and beat around the bush with your opening.
…
you have a big opportunity here, given the access you have in DC to hold these clowns accountable. don’t blow it.

I know where you are coming from, but I think there are a few things you are forgetting.

I’m not Chris Matthews or Wolf Blitzer. I don’t have these guys in my studio and I don’t (yet) have a platform that makes them need me as much as I need them. As such, reporting for me is as much about establishing a reputation for fairness and decency as it is about exacting a pound of accountability with every question. If I were to jam a camera in their face without warning and ask a self-righteous question without giving them a fair chance to gather their thoughts and respond, I wouldn’t be doing anyone any favors. To begin with, that’s not “real” reporting; it’s Fox News “gotchya” garbage. I won’t go down that road. Second, if I were to travel that path, I think each and every one of these guys would be entirely justified in ignoring me. Y’all would rapidly tire of seeing me talk to their backs.

Another thing you may be forgetting is that most reporting you consume comes to you in print or extensively edited video. The only thing similar at all to what I’m doing are the cable news shows, but there the principals are on to discuss a specific topic for a defined amount of time. By way of comparison, I don’t have any of these folks for more than a minute or two as they travel from place to place. Moreover, every reporter I’m working with does pretty much exactly the same thing I’m doing – they walk and talk with the principal. The difference is the end-product. With the newspaper, you may get a couple of quotes; you don’t see the “wishy-washy” 10 minute conversation those quotes were extracted from. There is a reason (aside from my name) that this site (which I consider a news service) is titled “StarkReports”. You get the stark report; it’s not produced or edited whatsoever. I do this because I want to provide complete context and the ability for others to have a record. I’m far from infallible; there may be a quote in the middle of any of these interviews that some other reporter may find useful. I’m not constrained by the need to fit into a thirty minute television schedule and YouTube and the internet allow me to put up the full interaction… so why not?

Now, with all that out of the way… there’s no doubt that my technique will improve over time. I expect that to happen as I get more practiced.