Remedial Interviewing on MSNBC

Sep 18 2011

I should have known better.

I decided to pop on the tv to see a headline or two just now and what do I see but the funny little man with Chris Hayes on MSNBC. Mr. Hayes has just been given the distinct privilege of having his own national show – granted, an early morning weekend show on a network with 5 viewers, but – this is what I saw on the CC I keep on so I can just glance over and not have to actually listen. I’ll get a few words wrong but this is the gist of it:

Chris Hayes: “I find interviewing politicans incredibily difficult. It’s like, they don’t want to answer. I watch you do it and I don’t know what your style is but it’s hard.”

Rachel Maddow (funny little man): “Yeah… It’s a style thing…”

Okay. Let’s unpack this. I’m not going to spend a lot of time with this, as amoeba have better things to do, never mind sentient humans, but:

1. Should you admit that you don’t know how to interview a politician on “The Place for Politics” on your debut weekend show?

2. If you can’t do it, number one, should you not at least possess the analytical skills to determine how a skilled person does it? Which leads to…

3. No wonder you can’t glean a tecnique from the funny little man because a requisite quality for a skilled interviewer is courage, which s/he/it lacks – proven by her ball-less defense of Keith Olbermann when he needed her (he “discovered” her) and he utter unwillingness to conduct thoughtful interviews with people with whom she disagrees.

That’s it. Just off the top of my head.

It hacks me off when there are so many DEMONSTRABLY talented media types on the beach and this pasty putz splays his peacock feathers in a blaze of incompetent glory.

Unbelievable shamelessness, really.

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