The big news yesterday was Trump throwing a pout and storming off the set of Meet the Press:
Obviously, the guy is full of shit and an asshole. But, this will play well with his base. Also, he seems pretty OK to me for an old guy who doesn’t get enough sleep.
But I want to talk for a minute about the institution of Meet the Press. Welker’s “I traveled all the way to Wisconsin” remark is kind of pathetic, but you try what you need to try to keep him in the seat. My question: is it worth it? I can only imagine the bowing, scraping, promise-making and indignities suffered by the booking staff of Meet the Press to get Trump into that seat. After this blow up, will they ever interview Trump again? And, if they do, what further promises will they make to get him in the chair?
Access to Trump is easy as hell. He’s in the oval office yakking all the time. Sitting him down to ask a couple of “tough” questions that you know he’ll evade is not a priceless journalistic gem. He’s been around for long enough for everyone to know he’s a liar and a hothead. Meet the Press, as an institution, somehow believes it can’t function without interviewing the President. With the President that we have now, that should make us think twice about the institution.
Another institution, 60 Minutes, is reeling after Scott Pelley had a tell-all interview with the New York Times, where he revealed that he was pressured to make the protesters in Minnesota look more violent, and also to lie and say that Renee Good had aimed her car at the ICE goon who shot her. (Here’s a video of the whole interview.)
The remaining 60 Minutes staff is staying. Here’s their rationale:
“60 Minutes” correspondents Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim said Friday that they planned to stay on at the newsmagazine, capping days of turmoil for the show.
“We have had a hard time deciding whether to stay,” the three wrote in a memo to their colleagues at the program, before adding: “We don’t want to see ‘60 Minutes’ die.”
Pelley’s revelation shows that the institution of 60 Minutes is effectively dead under the thumb of Bari Weiss. These three reporters can’t revive it, because every piece of reporting will leave reasonable people wondering just what Weiss did to water down or otherwise manipulate it. Sticking with the show now is just an homage to an empty shell of something that was once great.
It’s hard to let go of a broken institution — Leslie Stahl is 84 and she’s sticking with 60 Minutes. Even so, Bari Weiss killed it and Scott Pelley did the autopsy.
