Kurtz admits coordinating question topics with guests
June 29, 2009 4:26 pm ET by Jamison Foser
Yesterday, I made the point that the media hyperventilation about the possibility that Barack Obama knew what Nico Pitney was going to ask him about is silly, given that shows like Meet The Press and Reliable Sources negotiate topics with guests ahead of time.
Today, Howard Kurtz acknowledges the obvious: he tells guests on his Reliable Sources television show the topics in advance:
Just to be clear, I never, ever give Reliable guests Qs in advance. But it's only fair to tell people what the general topics are.
Now that Kurtz admits this (not that it was ever in any doubt) maybe he'll tell us why he didn't bring that fact up while talking to Dana Milbank yesterday? Milbank was complaining about Obama and Pitney allegedly "coordinating" Pitney's question - but Howard Kurtz knew that he and Milbank had "coordinated" on the topics Milbank would be asked about. While Kurtz is at it, maybe he should give David Gregory a call and ask him to reconcile his outrage at Pitney's question with the fact that Meet The Press works out topics with guests in advance.
That's what a media critic would do anyway. We'll see what Kurtz does.
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It's similar to the complaints that Obama uses a teleprompter. Every time that usage gets mentioned, someone else needs to say that every celebrity or politician reading prepared remarks uses a teleprompter. The reason is simple - it's better to have the audience be able to see your face, and no one needs to memorize their speeches any more since there are teleprompters. We don't make politicians waste their time memorizing speeches. They have better things to spend their time on.
In a similar way, the news media wants to educate their listeners and have entertaining shows. To achieve that goal, they let their interviewees have a good idea of what topics will be addressed. That way the interviewee has an idea of what answers, info and data he might have need of, and the interviewer has an idea of how long he has to spend on each tangent.
You know, they plan on how much interview TIME they have too. And op-ed writers know how much space they can fill, and so they write as much as they can to fill that space. It's amazing how it works that way.
It is like dealing with the birthers.
Nothing you say or do will placate the Obama haters and the right-wingies suffering from Obama Derangement Syndrome.
And with the liberal elements of the MSM unwilling to criticize righties (as MMFA wrote very well about last week) and not wanting to have the same treatment to them as was done to WaPo's Froomkin, the media just seems like a bunch of raving lunatics right now.
I am hopeful that some kind of sane balance is reached soon.
Maybe if we hear more from the likes of Pawlenty on the right instead of Rush Limbaugh, that balance may be achieved.