Posted on 04/14/2004 4:51:22 AM PDT by governsleastgovernsbest
Edited on 04/14/2004 4:58:31 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Too bad. The Today Show trotted out Lester Holt to interview Sean Hannity. It would have been more entertaining if Katie Couric had handled it. In fact, perhaps the most telling part of his appearance was the dripping-with-venom tease that Katie did for it.
At the end of the first half-hour, Katie teased Sean's appearance in the second half-hour. Words can't convey the disdain dripping from her voice, but Today Show viewers familiar with Katie's inflections will be able to imagine.
She referred to Sean as "never being at a loss for words" (a not-so-subtle way of calling him a loudmouth), and added that he would be discussing the 9/11 Commission, Iraq "and of course his new book" (i.e., just another hack trying to hump his product).
Lester Holt did the interview. I've always thought of him as a solid pro, but it seemed to me that perhaps being on the Today Show and with Katie looking over his shoulder, he felt pressure to be more partisan than usual.
There was a technical glitch toward the beginning. Lester wanted to air footage of reporters at last night's press conference pressing W to admit to mistakes, but instead the footage was of W determinedly saying "this is the hour," etc.
Still, Holt raised the issue of W's "refusal to fess up to mistakes."
Sean gave a simple answer:"Why should he apologize? Evil does exist. America is at war, they attacked us."
Holt stuck to the theme of mistakes: "We've heard a lot of evidence in 9/11 hearings of mistakes. Why shouldn't the government own up and admit it dropped the ball?"
Hannity: "The problems were largely structural. The title of my book is 'Deliver us From Evil.' Evil does exist. We have to face fact that there are millions of people who want to kill Americans. We have to face threat and deal with that reality."
Holt: "You seem to see the world as conservatives and liberals. But what of people who don't have a political agenda and are seeing casualties and asking why are we there?
Sean: "Liberals don't seem to understand what is at stake. We must stop the threat now before it gets worse."
Lester than tried to demean W's abilities as a communicator: "People question his ability to communicate. People criticize him for his demeanor, body language."
Hannity: "I'm not judging him by whether he's the greatest communicator. His message is what I like."
All in all, a rather disappointing interview, with Holt and Hannity largely talking past each other. Holt trying to land a few punches (which I feel lessened him and his reputation for fairness) and Sean sticking to the theme of his book.
Again, a shame Katie didn't do the interview - we would surely have seen more engagement and more sparks flying.
Any theories as to why Today decided to defuse the situation and having Holt handle it? Post-Ann-Coulter-shock-syndrome on Katie's part?
Actually, it's kind of fun watching Katie be so predictable. Just by observing her body language, her smile or the pursing of her lips, veteran Couric watchers would be able to tell with the sound off whether she's talking about a liberal fave or a hated conservative.
Any theories as to why Today decided to defuse the situation and having Holt handle it? Post-Ann-Coulter-shock-syndrome on Katie's part?
Post-Ann-Coulter-shock-syndrome! What a statement. The perky b!+c# cannot stand the truth, and would have been beaten badly by Hannity. She cannot stand tough challenges, only "softball" interviews.
Martin Savidge(formerly of CNN) doing an out on the street interviews in Atlanta and he seemed that he was disappointed that he could only find Bush haters amongst partisan democrats. Well at least that is some progress in that he noted that they were actually democrats.
Imus had Frank Rich on and Imus saying that he thinks President Bush is sincere and thinking out loud if he thinks he is an idiot for thinkg such.
Kathie Lee doing a pretty good job taking over for ED this morning, of course the rabid Howard Stern fans(which there are less and less of these days) will have there usual visceral hatred of her.
As for Sean, I thought he did a good job. He didn't take Lester's liberal premisies and stuck with his own and got his point across.
President Bush was like a deer in the headlights.
Rove's body language showed that he knew the President was tanking.
President filibustering like Condi, not answering questions...that's all I heard.
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