What must the Iranians think about Dana Milbank and David Gregory?
June 28, 2009 1:17 pm ET by Jamison Foser
OK, the whining from Village reporters about Nico Pitney's question at last week's White House press conference is well beyond ridiculous at this point. This morning, David Gregory used valuable airtime to grill David Axelrod about the question, as though there aren't more important things he could ask a top White House aide about.
Here's the thing: Nobody is actually claiming that Obama knew what question Pitney was going to ask. The allegations of "coordination" and "staging" are premised on the idea that the Obama folks knew what topic Pitney would ask about - Iran.
Well, it isn't all that unusual for a president to have a pretty good idea what topic a reporter is going to ask about. If you call on a reporter from Stars & Stripes or Army Times, you'll probably get a question relating to the military. Call on a Washington Post reporter, and you'll likely get a question about steroids in baseball or haircuts. Call on a New York Times reporter, and there's a pretty good chance he'll ask what enchants you about the White House. Call on a Huffington Post reporter, and they'll probably ask something a little more substantive.
But here's where the complaining gets really ridiculous. David Gregory hosts Meet the Press. Do you know what happens when Gregory and his staff book guests for Meet the Press? Much of the time, they tell guests what topics they want to discuss. That's right - they coordinate! The whole thing is staged! Quick, someone convene an ethics panel!
And it's not just Meet the Press. I'm pretty sure Dana Milbank knew what topic he was going to be asked about when he appeared on CNN's Reliable Sources opposite Pitney today. Ohmygod! Dana Milbank and Howard Kurtz coordinated! It was staged! What will the Iranians think?!?
Enough of this nonsense. Pitney has serious journalism to do; Milbank has his play-acting to get back to. Time to move on.
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People who do interviews on TV don't go in without a plan. People being interviewed on TV don't go in, if they have a lick of common sense, without some specific responses to specific questions they expect to be asked.
You'll often see Mara on FoxNewsSunday, for example, glance down at her desk to make sure she covered all of the points she wanted to make. Guests on Gwen Ifill's show do this too. That's because they know what topics will be covered.
The Presidents have long practiced before debates and before presidential press conferences. They are able to practice because they have a pretty good idea of what topics will be covered.
I too was upset, but not surprised, by David Gregory's harping on the question issue. I don't understand why, a week after the event, any network news reporter wouldn't understand that Obama didn't know the question that was going to be asked, and wouldn't recognize that nothing was going on. However, Gregory has a longstanding history of pushing the rightwing agenda on Meet the Press. I am disappointed that NBC put him in that role considering his apparent bias. He implied that Obama knew the question. It was a tough question, and there's no information that would lead any fair, smart person to believe that Obama knew the question. He only knew it would be a question directly submitted to Pitney from an Iranian.
Whymust the Iranians think about Dana Milbank and David Gregory?
I know, I know.
Because there was pre-planning of this event. They didn't know the exact question that would be asked, but they knew that they would call on those individuals.
Because that's what is often done in events like this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdvHwtRdg_I