Scott Simon: Picture His Words

Usually, Scott Simon, as co-host (with Jackie Nespral) of NBC’s recently launched weekend editions of “The Today Show,” is the one asking the questions.

When the tables are turned, and he is the interviewee, Simon wastes no time noting that “The Today Show” is hardly his first foray into television. He has hosted numerous public television specials (including his Emmy-winning “The Paterson Project”), as well as guest-hosted for Charlie Rose on “Nightwatch.”

He is best known, though, as the distinctively calm, insightful voice of the National Public Radio news program “Weekend Edition.” Simon’s new “Today” assignment means many things, as he tells writer Robert Koehler, but leaving NPR is not one of them.

How does it feel to make what must be a big adjustment from NPR to hosting “The Today Show”?

I hope I’m learning. I think I learn a little each week. Brain surgery or finding world peace are beyond my abilities, but not doing “The Today Show.”

Two months into it is too soon to reach any hard and fast conclusions, but I’m grasping some realities about commercial TV. The literalness of the medium is something I hadn’t come to grips with before--finding a picture to match a phrase in an essay. Or when someone in the office says that we had a great show, they cite the rating it received.

I was accustomed to coming to work in the middle of the night and looking like it, but now I have to look good. There’s the whole institution of the makeup room. I had bought a shirt a couple of days ago, but the sleeves were too long, and during station breaks, teams of people would come up and stuff my sleeves into my jacket so they wouldn’t show.

I also have to write shorter as a writer. Though I don’t find it more difficult than writing for NPR; we have to compress for radio as well. TV writing is more like caption writing, in which you have to find phrases to link images. But it’s also true that if you find the right image, as we did on a report on children enduring the war in Bosnia, it makes the words more powerful.

How would you respond to the critics who either think weekend “Today” shows should be geared to kids, or who dislike the way the show is coming across?

Who’s to say it’s not formatted for kids when you look at me? There are plenty of bad cartoons for children, and, given all the available channels, there’s a place for a good news program for kids. But there’s also room for a serious weekend news show for adults.

I don’t think NBC can be said to have made a mistake with this format. As for the criticism, I don’t read most of that stuff, but what I have has disappointed me. (Washington Post television critic) Tom Shales says that I have a face for radio, and he’s perhaps 75% accurate. But the larger point is that critics or journalists will go on about, say, the “chemistry” between Jackie (Nespral) and me, rather than focusing on the quality--or lack thereof--of the news reporting.

Whether I’m on NPR or PBS or “The Today Show,” my comportment doesn’t really change. The problems with the early “Today” shows were mostly technical, which are going to happen with any new, live broadcast.

What do think of your work as a journalist so far on “Today”?

I’m not the best person to say. But, here goes: I haven’t been dissatisfied with what I’ve done on “Today.” I’ve made mistakes, though those have to do with performance and relatively little to do with journalism. If I’m going to have a full relationship with the audience, I should never be preaching to them, nor should I be balancing a ball on the end of my nose. Some have noticed that I’m very open about showing my discomfort when asking uncomfortable questions. But I can’t really do it any other way.

Does your move and those of several of your NPR cohorts--Cokie Roberts, Nina Totenberg, John Hockenberry--to commercial TV represent an end of an era at NPR?

A lot of people have it all wrong about this. While John is going to ABC and ending his relationship to NPR, Cokie, Nina and I are still with NPR. We have an understanding with the network companies that we will continue reporting for NPR.

Our feelings about that kind of radio are so deep, so strong, because NPR has always been made up of people who wanted to do something different with the medium. As for the networks hiring us, well, it’s sort of like the old joke that goes in three phases: The network heads go, “What’s NPR?” Then they go, “Let’s do something like NPR.” Then they go, “Let’s hire someone from NPR.”

Some media observers have wondered if “Today” will last on the weekend. If it does, what might be in the future for the show?

I have no reason to think that “Today” is not a permanent part of NBC’s weekend programming. That doesn’t mean, however, that their commitment to me is permanent.

One theme I’ve openly carried a torch for at NPR, and want to continue on “Today,” is a concern for American cities, hunger, the poor. An enticement that drew me to “Today” was creating a flexible format for longer, more sustained pieces of reporting, which I want to do.

The Saturday “Today Show” airs at 6 a.m. Saturday and Sunday on KNBC, 7 a.m. Saturday and 6 a.m. Sunday on KNSD and 7 a.m. Saturday on KMIR.