What's Wrong With This Picture?

By all accounts, David Gregory is a good guy. But he's not a very good journalist. Set aside the over-the-top superlatives from his colleagues for his cheshire cat grin gotcha of Newt's slipup in supporting the "Obamacare" mandate. Any half-connected journalism student would have gotten that one. So what's wrong with this picture?

Here it is:

GINGRICH: I have never said anything about President Obama which is racist.

GREGORY: But what did you mean?

GINGRICH: [FILIBUSTER FILLER]

GREGORY: *CRICKETS*

There are two rules for good journalistic interviews: First, be prepared; ask the right questions. Gregory is always very well prepared. The second, and most important rule for me (and any informed consumer of news) is, ask the FUCKING FOLLOW-UP QUESTION!

Oh sure, the good MSNBC political shows were all over it the next day. But the "echo chamber" concept works both ways. The fact is, the viewer demographic for Meet The Press includes a broader, less political audience, those "independents" the pundits say decide elections. Why is David Gregory holding out on his audience?

There is a reason Newt Gingrich was the most popular guest on Meet The Press in 2009 (a little-known fact); perhaps not in 2010, after Gregory was busted. That reason is not that David Gregory is the "adversarial" interviewer claimed by Gingrich — in full damage control the next day.

It's the same reason the right wing Beltway darlings are lining up to be on Gregory's show: David Gregory is a right wing propaganda "policy" enabler. The show is structured such that these people are provided an open platform to spout their propaganda, uncontested except in a very tea-parlor-raised-pinky kind of way. Even if the questions aren't vetted in advance, you've got to be a "profoundly stupid" politician (Mama Grizzly) not to know what the ever polite and obsequious Gregory is going to ask you.

David Gregory isn't an idiot, but he's a card-carrying member of the Idiot Punditocracy. They're not idiots, but they think we, the audience, are. With good reason. The MTP demographic is easily fooled, steered, influenced, in the direction of the corporatist, elitist, conservative Beltway Media narrative; not toward the truth. Why? Figure it out.

David Gregory, Marbles Mouth's annointed one, is a Beltway Media luminary. But he's not a very good journalist. Here's how a REAL JOURNALIST would have followed up —

GREGORY [Interrupting FILIBUSTER FILLER]: "But you also said this regarding an article on President Obama by Dinesh D'Souza:"

You said D’Souza made a “stunning insight” into Obama’s behavior — the “most profound insight I have read in the last six years about Barack Obama.”

“What if [Obama] is so outside our comprehension, that only if you understand Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior, can you begin to piece [his actions]?” You ask. “That is the most accurate, predicative model for his behavior.”

And then you said, “This is a person who is fundamentally out of touch with how the world works, who happened to have played a wonderful con, as a result of which he is now president.” What about that, Mr. Gingrich ... isn't that racist?"

What about that, David Gregory ... Hmmm?