Letters to the Editor

Letters posted here are associated with the following article:
David Gregory shows why he's the perfect replacement for Tim Russert The new Meet the Press star conducts an "interview" with the Israeli Foreign Minister that makes the media's pre-Iraq-war behavior look adversarial by comparison
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  • Stretchin' Steppit

    Radio and Television Correspondents' Association dinner, March 28, 2007: (Karl) Rove provided the centerpiece of a rap skit where the comics made fun of his self-professed hobbies of stamp collecting and ripping the heads off small animals while Rove danced, shouted "I'm M.C. Rove" and NBC's David Gregory provided the most awkward back-up dancing ever seen.

    _______________________________________

    David "Stretch" Gregory's Stretchin' Steppit backup to Karl Rove may have been all in good fun (?), but it revealed the essence of the man: the epitome, the personification, of "infotainwhore". (medius infotainwhorus)

    I guess the NBC poo-bahs didn't think Luke Russert had the gravitas.

  • Remedy

    Let's see hwo deferential Gregory is when questioning Democrats when they are in power.

  • Was Gwen Ifill unavailable?

    Link in signature and here:

    http://tinyurl.com/57dr2c

  • Can't remember where I saw it

    But one of the news stories on this over the weekend referred to Hamas "siezing power" in Gaza. Uh, yeah - they "siezed power" by winning an election, the same way George W. Bush "siezed power" in 2000.

    Oh, wait - that's not right, is it? Hamas won fairly - they didn't need to have the Gaza Supreme Court appoint them the winners.

  • Good post Glenn, but beware False Equivalencies

    Media hacks like Gregory failed disgracefully on the Iraq Invasion precisely because there was absolutely no evidence of threat, WMDs or connection to 9/11.

    The Israel/Palestine issue is thus not really comparable, as Palestine was clearly and directly launching missiles into Israel for months, a direct provocation for Israel's response.

    I realize you don't explicitly equate the two events, but there is an implicit danger when you link the failure of the media to pose adversarial questions in each case. Thus your post implies both acts of "war," as such, were comparably propagandistic acts of provocation, deserving of media scrutiny, in which the media acted as protector of government lie and spin.

    But these two events are not comparable on the underlying issues. Thus, Gregory's obsequiousness, which you rightly critique, is not equally pathetic in each case.

    Israel, as our ally responding to a direct attack and as a foreign nation in which Gregory does not live nor is a citizen of, can not be expected to be met with the same media scrutiny and adversarian positioning that we should expect when it is our own country, and our case for war is as shockingly pathetic as it was in 2003.

  • it's in the name

    There's a reason it's called 'Meet The Press' and not 'Meet the Bloggers'.

  • A function of our entertainmnet media, perhaps?

    Glenn refers to Gregory and his ilk as "our media stars". Perhaps we should just accept they're nothing but entertainers, certainly not actual journalists, and begin treating them as such.

    This includes telling them this to their face at every opportunity. And treating them like the walking jokes they are (well versed mockery of them in print and opinion, for example).

  • 8 out of 10 TV pundits

    Say:

    "Pin 'em down."

    And:

    "Get in your best licks

    While they're pinned to the ground."

    It's better than wrestling.

  • ..."not _ role"...

    Gary Kamya said David Gregory as a pick for Meet the Press is "the greatest collapse in history of American politics."

    I know it disgust me.

    He dances with Rove?

    He dance a death gig!

    It's sad David wasn't name Dick? Dick Gregory is a Heath aficionado and great social activist. What a great MTP Host!

    Like Rummy say:`Trash?

    We take Gregory. Garbage?

    David G. is no Dick Gregory.

    Dick Gregory is anti-war-LIE!

    Dear Joan Walsh has me reading.

    Read Frances Cornfield To David?

    David, in Memory of Tim Russert?

    *The Coast: Norfolk.- Frances Cornfield.

    As on the highway's quiet edge

    he mows the grass besides the hedge,

    The old man has for company

    the distant, grey, salt-smelling sea,

    A poppied field, a cow, and calf,

    The finches on the telegraph.

    Across his faded back a hoe,

    He slowly, slowly scythes alone

    In silence of wind-soft air,

    With ladies' bedstraw everywhere,

    With whitened corn, and tarry poles,

    And far-off gulls like risen souls.

  • I wonder...

    from what online journalism school Mr Gregory graduated?

  • Gregory as archetype

    I too, think Gregory is the perfect example of "serious" Beltway journalism. From the gut-wrenching moment I watched him boogy down with his BFF, MC Rove, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYZre8kEsuw) I knew he was destined for greatness. Beyond the smooth moves, which belie the old shibboleth that white guys can't dance, he was so excited to be in the spotlight with one of the great political figures of his time, that he was almost tearful with joy, or with scotch.

    I try not to subject my heart to too many Bush "press" conferences, but I do seem to remember one, and only one occasion, in which Gregory actually seemed to demand some sort of truthful, or at least, more informative answer from his old friend, Tony Snow, who naturally, bristled and refused to take any more questions from the upstart. I briefly wondered if Hades had had a freak Arctic chill or if perhaps, an ex-girlfriend of Gregory's was in the audience. Anything to explain this unnatural assertiveness! I soon forgot about it as he reverted flawlessly to form, forevermore.

    This carefully coiffed, vacuous suit has spent his entire life in pursuit of his love of the noble profession of journalism; obviously as yet, unrequited. In the 2000 campaign, Bush (& Rove?) threw a 30th birthday party for "stretch" on the campaign plane, complete with cake.

    While raised Jewish, he obviously does not let that influence his views on Israel. Michael Chertoff "attended a baby shower for his his children". Since June 2000, Gregory has been married to former federal prosecutor and former Fannie Mae executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary, Beth Wilkinson. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Gregory_(journalist)

    RIDE ON,David G! A finer exemplar of the incestuous Washington Press Corps(e) would be (slightly) difficult to mold.

  • Gregory

    is a very successful "journalist." That means he's climbed the ladder up through the ranks quickly and to a very high rung. In short, he knows how to play the game. The sentiments he expresses and the way he conducted the interview with Livni accurately reflect his understanding of the game of advancement in the field of American electronic journalism.

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