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To understand how the fifth estate works, it's important to recognize the ability of its hosts. They become highly skilled at reading faces and body language, at the art of human psychology. "Sometimes the truth is revealed by the flicker of a muscle in the cheek," says former host Trish Wood. "Or sweat over a lip, and you know it's not the TV lights because you're not hot."
Hana
Gartner, who, despite her warm, open manner can be a steely, indomitable
interviewer, says about some of her famous subjects: "There's something
about a movement, an action, that suddenly convinces the audience of who
they are."
While interviewing Donald Lavoie, a Montreal hit man-turned-informer,
Gartner probed for a entry point into the man's psyche. Having told her
that he'd killed 15 men not for money but for power and respect, Gartner
asked: "Well, how did it all end up? You wanted respect, you wanted
power. Now you are a man in jail, afraid of being killed. You are a stool
pigeon. What respect do you have?"
"Well I was…" Pausing, Lavoie looked away. "A stool pigeon? I'm not a stool pigeon first of all, okay?"
Sensing an opportunity, Gartner pressed on. "Was it difficult? Was it difficult for you to go to talk to the police, to tell them what you know?"
Shifting uncomfortably
in his chair, Lavoie said: "Madam, I know you are trying to, you're
skating away from that. Now let me think about it." Turning to stare
directly into the camera with an icy look that may have been the last
thing some of his victims saw, Lavoie pointed and said: "Cut it." 
Former
host Adrienne Clarkson has her own formula for coaxing the
reluctant witness to talk; it's all a matter or persistence she says.