Admittedly, I haven't scrutinized a Matt Lauer interview in a long, long time. So bear that in mind while digesting this thought about his new counterpart, Meredith Vieira:
That was one lame newsmaker interview she did this morning with John Ashcroft.
The former attorney general is letting the eagle soar this week for his book tour, and paid a visit to the "Today" show, where Vieira asked him about last week's news (Bob Woodward's book) and news from five years ago (Ashcroft's decree to cover up naked statues in the Justice Department).
The only thing she didn't ask was about what was in the news ... TODAY.
Specifically, this report from McClatchy-Tribune's Washington bureau that Ashcroft had, despite his denials on Monday, received a briefing on July 17, 2001, about the al-Qaeda threat. Apparently, Vieira and her producers at NBC only read the New York Times. It carried Ashcroft's denial but not the followup from McClatchy, which confirmed from the State Department that Ashcroft had been personally briefed by CIA director George Tenet on plans for an al-Qaeda attack on U.S. soil.
Now, admittedly this wasn't big news anywhere. The leading dailies focused instead on the aftermath of Rep. Mark Foley's resignation and the horrific school shooting in Pennsylvania. But the leading dailies didn't have John Ashcroft swinging by to plug his new book. And they didn't have our Washington bureau, which has time and time again zagged where the big papers zigged, questioning received wisdom about the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and failures at Homeland Security, or launching investigations of consequence, like its 2005 expose on the disgrace of veterans' benefits. And don't question its reach: One MCT story (I'm so used to typing KRT...) can make its way into hundreds of newspapers, with a combined circulation far larger than the Timeses and the Post put together.
Anyway, here's how the underinformed Vieira waded into it with Ashcroft:
V: Before we talk about your book, I want to talk about a meeting Bob Woodward writes about in his book ... Do you know anything about this meeting and were you ever warned about Al-Qaeda in the summer leading up to 9/11?
A: Well, the summer was full of warnings about al-Qaeda [but none were about domestic threats] ... If there had been such a meeting that had taken place with Miss Rice [sic] ... I'm surprised they wouldn't have such a briefing for the attorney general as well.
By basing her question on Woodward's book, not the MCT reporting tying Ashcroft to 9/11 warnings, Vieira assured herself of a Brylcreemed talking-point response from her subject.
I don't mind when reporters let their subjects gratuitously plug themselves. For instance, I think viewers are smart enough to see through Ashcroft's absurd, circa-2002 defense of the Patriot Act that he offered to Vieira. But not to tell your viewers the latest news and get newsmakers to respond to it ... that's inexcusable.
With all that time to kill not passing along actual news, Vieira was able to engage Ashcroft on a particularly un-newsworthy topic:
V: I gotta ask you before you go. When I said that I'd be interviewing you today, some friends of mine said, "You gotta ask him about those statues. Those naked statues."
Meredith, do us a favor. Spend LESS time talking to your "down-to-earth" friends who are helping you make your show more "relevant" to viewers and spend a little more time reading some news.
Bravo! Great commentary!
Posted by: Mad Kane | October 04, 2006 at 03:24 AM
Meredith Viera has been a lightweight for 25 years. Her CBS Morning News interviews from two decades ago were equally bad.
Posted by: mike | October 04, 2006 at 10:44 AM
meredith has just started writing a blog on ivillage.com http://meredithtoday.ivillage.com/entertainment/
it is pretty cool. she seems to talk pretty honestly about herself and her job.
Posted by: christian | October 06, 2006 at 11:04 PM