David Gregory is pure shit

[DainBramaged]

NBC's Gregory to Sanford's Office: "Meet The Press Allows You To Frame The Conversation As You Really Want"



The Charleston Post and Courier has posted online http://media.charleston.net/2009/pdf/govstaffemails_0713009.pdf
all 570 pages of emails obtained from the office of South Carolina governor Mark Sanford.

There's a bevy of information in there, but one exchange that jumped out at us was the one between Sanford's press secretary, Joel Sawyer (who just today announced he's quitting -- good for him!) and David Gregory, the host of NBC's Meet the Press. In courting Sanford's office, Gregory wrote that "coming on Meet The Press allows you to frame the conversation as you really want to."


All the networks aggressively wooed Sanford's office in the period during and just after his disappearance, in an effort to convince that their show offered the perfect forum for him to address the controversy. CNN's John King told Sawyer he had always appreciated Sanford's "kindness, candor, and hospitality," and added, in a transparent attempt to bond, "I'm all for anonymous escapes myself." George Stephanopoulos offered his show, ABC's This Week, as a "civil forum to address this week's events." And producers for CBS's Face the Nation, ABC's Good Morning America, several Fox shows, and many others gave Sanford's office the hard sell too.

But the emails of Gregory -- who in the past has been known as a pretty aggressive questioner -- make particularly clear just what a get Sanford was seen as, and how far the networks were willing to go in promising a safe landing place for the governor.

Look, you guys have a lot of pitches .. I get it and I know this is a tough situation ... Let me just say this is the place to have a wider conversation with some context about not just the personal but also the future for him and the party ... This situation only exacerbates the issue of how the GOP recovers when another national leader suffers a setback like this. So coming on Meet The Press allows you to frame the conversation how you really want to...and then move on. You can see (sic) you have done your interview and then move on. Consider it.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/07/nbcs_gregory_to_sanfords_office_meet_the_press_all.php

[grantcart]

1. who in the past has been known as a pretty aggressive questioner - now that's funny

[Cresent City Kid]

3. He is agressive in a small minded way

When an answer to one of his questions is nuanced and doesn't fit in the little box of his preconceived notions, he gets annoyed and pushes for the answer he expects. Regardless of who the gueat is on Meet the Press, I can't watch for this reason.

[PatSeg]

4. Actually

he got a lot of positive reactions from the left when he was one of the few reporters who aggressively questioned the White House press secretary during the Bush years. Those few encounters got him a lot of exposure that lead him to a prominent place at MSNBC. Then he turned into this smiling ass-kisser.

[grantcart]

9. I understand what you are saying but I always found his questions to be

of a 'wannabe' nature in that he was repeating the common thought of the day but he had little originality.

[PatSeg]

12. I can see that now

and I can't help but wonder if Chuck Todd is trying to follow in his footsteps by asking contentious questions at press conferences, questions that often appear to be contrary for the sake of being contrary.

[glinda]

6. He tried to give that impression early on I think to get in the position he is in

now. Ughhhhh. I don't like him and don't watch him at all.

[PatSeg]

13. I haven't watch MTP since he took over

I got a preview having watched that hideous "Road to the White House" and I learned really quick that Gregory isn't host material. Maybe in an entertainment venue, but not for serious news and politics.

[boobooday]

2. Agreed

he's a tool.

[Captain Hilts]

5. AND Karl Rove's dance partner. nt

[dmosh42]

7. A tough questioner wearing kneepads! WTF! n/t

[seafan]

8. Frank Rich's column mentioned Gregory as well... the chumminess between DC press and the pooh-bahs.

Frank Rich: And That’s Not the Way It Is

[MADem]

11. They're ALL in that club.

We just don't know Frank Rich's price....yet.

[TahitiNut]

14. "The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth from 9/11 to Katrina"

Read it. I finished it a few months ago and my regard for Frank Rich is the better for it. It's an honest, candid, and critical analysis of the Cheney/Bush/neocon assault on truth ... and it's done without hyperbole or apology.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001P3ON68

[MADem]

15. I am quite sure he hasn't sold out...yet. I'll bet it's a fine book, too.

Many people do have a price, though, that's all I'm saying.

Tim Russert used to be a "regular guy" before Jack Welch got a hold of him and he discovered that he liked being able to send his kids to BC and just pay the bill and summer in his impossibly-expensive-and-exclusive island home off Cape Cod.

[MADem]

10. He did a great interview with SECSTATE Clinton on MTP today.

If you are so naive as to believe that EVERYONE, from Barbara Walters to Oprah to whomever doesn't write suck-up little "I'll treat YOU right" letters to get people to come on their shows, why, I'll have whatever you're smoking.

It's how the game is played. Do you actually think Oprah wrote to Elizabeth Edwards and said "Hey, Lizzie, Howsabout I rake you over the coals with regard to your terminal disease and your cheating husband, with the goal of getting a tear in your eye and a ratings boon for me?" I mean, come on. You think Barbara Walters said "Hey Michael Jackson, how about I ask you all about your fucked up nose and your perverse behaviors with a goal towards making you look like a whacko-shitheel?"

They got those "gets" with soft words and assurances, with sweetness and light--that's how it's done.

What world do you live in?

[DainBramaged]

16. We knew with Timmeh he could be blowin like the wind, this tool is just a

tool. I tried to watch with HRC this morning, couldn't.