Yes there is something worse

This comes from the New York Post, so ... but, at any rate:

[NBC News chief Deborah] Turness has been trying to figure out the future for David Gregory’s “Meet the Press,” with options including bringing in MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” team of Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski for a Sunday show, or blowing up the entire franchise and trying something completely different.

Well I'll be damned. So there is a hosting choice actually worse than David Gregory. And NBC News' top executive is considering it. I don't can't watch "Morning Joe," for my blood pressure is normal and I very much need to keep my matutinal prostate pill down; yet the sight of, nay, even the idea of watching Mika gaze adoringly for, what, two hours or three hours? at that pompous panhandler of a 10-cent political philosopher puts both of my somatic necessities at risk.

As for "blowing up the entire franchise," that seems somewhat redundant, given Gregory's presence.

 

Comments

[Jimiskin]

Beauty.

[Peter G]

Yet MTP has evolved into what should be profit center heaven. It features a host who knows virtually nothing and never asks difficult questions and avoids obvious follow ups at all costs. And guests who would not be there if anyone did ask a difficult question. The risk, therefore, of offending anyone at all has been reduced to an absolute minimum while guests are able to spin pretty much any nonsense they like. Why wouldn't the public love this? Strange. Very strange.

[tamiasmin]

I suggest exhuming Lawrence Spivak and reinstating him as moderator. Even dead, he'd be a tougher, more relentless questioner than MTP has had in many a long, lackluster year.

[Janicket]

Sigh. Wouldn't it be wonderful if Terry Gross became the host? She wouldn't hammer the guests into saying more than they intended; she'd seduce them into it, and they'd be blurting out truths before they knew what they were doing. As her profile at npr.org says:

"Gross, who has been host of Fresh Air since 1975, when it was broadcast only in greater Philadelphia, isn't afraid to ask tough questions. But Gross sets an atmosphere in which her guests volunteer the answers rather than surrendering them. What often puts those guests at ease is Gross' understanding of their work. 'Anyone who agrees to be interviewed must decide where to draw the line between what is public and what is private,' Gross says. 'But the line can shift, depending on who is asking the questions. What puts someone on guard isn't necessarily the fear of being "found out." It sometimes is just the fear of being misunderstood.'"

http://www.npr.org/people/2100593/terry-gross

[Turgidson]

I have long thought that installing Dancin' Dave as the host was an obvious ploy to make Russert look like a titan of journalism in comparison. Russert was mostly a hack who managed to maintain a reputation as a tough interviewer by luring (mostly Democratic) interviewees into "gotcha" moments by dredging up an old contradictory soundbyte.

Compared to Gregory's content-free dispensation of unchallenged GOP talking points, Russert was indeed a magician. But that's like saying a three-day-old McDonald's hamburger tastes great compared to a pile of squirrel guano covered in rancid milk.

[elisabeth]

MSNBC would be better served by adding two more hours of prison shows than Joe and Mika.