Imagine if I paid to have my comments aired during the President's interview. Which is exactly what NBC and the President allowed to happen.
Crude? Indeed. You said a mouthful.
I worked in television for 25 years, Stu, 21 of those years for an NBC affiliate. I know something about how it works. President Bush doesn't control what is advertised on NBC during Meet The Press. And if the president, or for that matter any candidate, attempted to determine which commercials aired, that'd be one more thing for the opposition to use in their campaigns against him, because it'd become an issue of free speech.
Advertisers pay for certain time slots within shows. They know the nature of the program during which their ads will air and in fact sometimes use that very thing to their advantage. Commercials are not just arbitrarily dumped into a show without regard to content. Television sales execs would be out of jobs if that were the case.
I'm not sure what you're complaining about in the first place. IMO, you're being pedantic to the point of ridiculousness.