Thursday, October 9, 2008

Thursday, October 9, 2008.

For the last two or three years my wife and I have watched and listened to NBC’s Today show as we get ready to leave for work in the morning. When we first started watching Katie Couric sat at the anchor desk with Matt Lauer. I for one was impressed with the mostly non-biased, professionalism that I saw each morning.
I don’t remember the date but I can tell you why, in my opinion, that professionalism left the Today show. This morning was another example of that. Since Meredith Viera has taken her seat next to Matt Lauer I have seen, on an almost daily basis, the interviews conducted on the Today show become sniping, cynical attacks rather than news pieces.
This morning was just another example of that. Meredith Viera was interviewing campaign workers from both of the presidential candidates. First, Meredith Viera smiled, almost laughed when she said that there was a technical problem and the woman from McCain’s campaign couldn’t hear what was going on so she would continue with the man from Obama’s campaign. Then, as usual, Meredith Viera interrupted both individuals when they were trying to answer her questions, not with pertinent follow-up questions, but with what she obviously thought were witty remarks.
I am old enough to remember when reporters, journalists, set aside there personal politics and reported fairly without trying to influence the viewer, they reported, supplied information and left the viewer to take that information and make their own informed decision. I’m not naive, I’m not saying that in the past all reporters were always unbiased. But, I get real tired of turning on a news program, be it the "Nightly" news or a "News Magazine" and feeling like I have tuned into a political ad.
I only single out Meredith Viera because we watch the Today show in our house. I could probably say something similar about the other network morning shows.
The bottom line for me is I would like to see reporter, and interviewers, return to the non-partisan, non-biased ways that I remember. Those qualities are not that far away. I watched Tom Brokaw act as moderator for a recent debate and I don’t recall seeing, or hearing, one remark that I would consider biased.