Posted on 09/12/2007 5:11:24 AM PDT by governsleastgovernsbest
Warning to Bush administration officials: when being interviewed by Meredith Vieira, be prepared to make your point in 7-10 seconds, or risk being rudely caught off by the "Today" co-anchor.
Twice in the course of her interview of Condoleezza Rice this morning, Vieira intemperately interrupted the Secretary of State just seconds after she began responding to her host's question.
MEREDITH VIEIRA: Yesterday Senator John Warner asked General Petraeus whether the war in Iraq is making us any safer, and the general responded "I don't know." [Note: in subsequent testimony before the same committee, Petraeus made clear the link between Iraq and America's security interests, but Vieira and others in the MSM have been choosing to ignore that this morning]. What should Americans take from that if the commanding general in Iraq doesn't know if the war there is making us any safer?A bit later, the same scenario.
CONDOLEEZA RICE: Well, the war in Iraq, when we are successful there, will make a more stable Iraq, and that will make a more stable Middle East --
VIEIRA [interrupting seven seconds into Rice's answer]: But that hasn't worked, clearly --
VIEIRA: So what's the purpose of the military surge if we still have dysfunction on the ground?This time Vieira magnanimously accorded Rice 10 seconds before butting in.
RICE: Well, first of all, I think both General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker made very clear yesterday that there have been security improvements in Iraq. Secondly, I hope we won't lose the forest for the trees here. Yes --
VIEIRA: But very little! Very little!Rice had had enough of Vieira's rudeness, and calmly responded.
RICE: Meredith, you asked me a question, now, the issue is --If Vieira's guest were, say, former Clinton Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, do you think Vieira would interrupt her so impolitely? Just wondering.
VIEIRA: OK.
Vieira rudely interrupts Rice. Ping to Today show list.
Remember when Ms. Viera, with her family in tow, attended an anti-war demonstration or rally in Boston at the 2004 Democratic convention? She was working the convention as a reporter, I believe, but was at the rally on her own time.
Boy, is she ever unbiased, ay?
I saw this also. Viera is giving The Perky one a run for her money in the ditz category. She was only reading what was given to her. She was clueless on Patreus’ testimony or his answers to congress.
Somebody should remind Vieira that it's not a military commander's job to make policy. His job is to follow the orders of the commander in chief.
I believe the incident you’re referring to happened during the RNC convention in NYC in 2004.
The question of whether we are safer than we were is difficult to measure, since we don't know what the result of a stable Iraq will be. One thing is for sure, giving up now would NOT make us safer.
I don’t watch anything on NBC, including Sunday night football.
You know, I think you’re correct!
Still a very unbiased approach to news, though, ay?
Ugh.
Mos def.
Newsbusters should have included the interview immediately folowing the Rice one.
David Gregory was interviewing B. Hussein Obama about his Iraq policy and Obama stated that “ethnic cleansing was a positive thing” in Iraq.
Nice, huh?
This would tick me off if I wasn’t well aware how capable Condaleeza is of handling such people.
The one that got me was the 60 minutes interview, when I realized the reason she was sounding so incoherent was that they were actually editing parts out of her sentences.
These idiot news people need to be called on this...... by the people they are interviewing at the time they are interrupting.
We should all write Dr Rice and urge her to say, the next time this happens, “Did you interrupt Secretary Albright so rudely??”
I wonder how that worked out, since her husband has had MS for many years.
While just about the whole NBC NFL program is unwatchable, Al Michaels and John Madden do a very nice job on the game itself.
Is it possible that this has something to do with the Today Show format, which for decades has been to rush things along? They treat the audience as if they have all just woken up and can only process information in small doses. The show is trying to complete each segment rapidly so they can get more commercials in before people run off to take a shower or go get their cereal. They're not going to let anybody give very extended responses so guests on the show need to get to the point very quickly.
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