Opinion: How a good question becomes a softball
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We in the elite media (umm, that was meant to be self-mocking, not presumptuous) are often characterized as acolytes of the Left, the Man, Corporate America -- pick your demon. In our defense, we often assemble these conflicting critiques as proof that we’re unbiased. I mean, how can we not be when liberals and conservatives alike denounce us? To borrow a phrase, we wear your scorn as a badge of honor! Oh, wait -- we didn’t like that guy.
Anyway, what seems like slant can sometimes simply be a case of a reporter being pwned by a spinmeister. Such was the case this morning, when NPR Morning Edition’s Steve Inskeep interviewed Robert Gibbs, a senior strategist for Barack Obama’s campaign. Inskeep opened the piece with an intriguing question: ‘When you listened to John McCain’s speech last night, what, if anything, did you hear -- speak to me as a professional here -- what if anything did you hear that made your job harder?’ It’s a subtle way of asking what McCain did right politically. But as Inskeep should have known, people like Gibbs don’t answer questions like that. And Gibbs didn’t. Instead, he trotted out a now-familiar line of attack, one that Democrats have been repeating ad nauseum in recent days: McCain’s ignoring the plight of Real American Voters!
Well look, I think obviously John McCain always starts out with a very compelling life story and biography. But I tell you what I think isn’t going to help those that are experiencing their lives getting harder out there in America. And that is, the fact that John McCain, and quite frankly this was true throughout the Republican Convention, outlined very little about what they wanted to do to help people get through their tough lives, help them get back up on their feet, find a job -- all those sorts of things I thought were really lacking. I’m not sure this speech did what John McCain wanted it to do.
When one of these guys says ‘quite frankly,’ you know he’s about to launch in something that’s anything but frank. I’m only surprised Gibbs didn’t bring up McCain’s seven houses. Oh wait -- he did, later in the segment. In short, no matter what Inskeep was trying to do with this segment, it played as a commercial for Obama’s campaign. And you though NPR was commercial-free....
2002 Photo of Steve Inskeep courtesy of NPR