David Gregory shamed Meet The Press again today by trying to use the situation in Ukraine to create a fake Obama leadership crisis.
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Transcript:
DAVID GREGORY: So Chris, I want to talk about Obama. Because I do think that this becomes the leadership challenge. You heard Susan Rice say, “Look, it’s not in our interests to go into Syria.” There’s a lot of agreement about that. But nevertheless, you have another country falling apart, that’s Syria. Iraq looks like it’s listing a bit and because of sectarian division. Do you think this President’s been clear enough about what America stands for?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I think he’s clear about what he stands for, which is not to get involved in any more countries. I think his policy’s been pretty clear. And it is consistent with the American people’s sense of pulling back. Now that could change, it’s cyclical.
What I found interesting over the weekend was not in the Olympics, but in Ukraine, they’re wearing ski masks, which told me that the people involved with the overthrow of the president there are not at all comfortable this is gonna hold, that the Russians are coming. Why would you wear ski masks after you’ve overthrown the guy? Because you don’t want to be identified. I think they’re very worried about what’s coming next, the Russians coming in, at least a portion of the country.
David Gregory’s whole point about the situation in the Ukraine was that it had nothing to do with the Ukrainians. It was all about Russia and the United States for Gregory. It was easy to see with this train of thought was going before he asked Chris Matthews the question. Gregory injected Republican talking points into Meet The Press by questioning President Obama’s leadership.
Matthews knocked down where Gregory was going very quickly. David Gregory was trying to push the idea that Obama’s foreign policy is unclear. He was portraying the president as weak. Gregory was trying to create another variation of one of the media’s favorite talking points, the Obama leadership crisis.
There is no crisis in leadership. The White House has a clear strategy for supporting the will of the Ukrainian people, without turning the situation into a geo- political turf war with the Russians. Even conservative panelist, David Brooks praised the White House’s handling of the situation, but none of this mattered to Gregory, who was this close to proclaiming that the Cold War is back, and President Obama needs to show more leadership.
What’s happened to Meet The Press under David Gregory is sad. Laziness and talking points have taken the place of well researched questions. Watching Gregory, it’s clear that he doesn’t understand what he is talking about. He has turned Meet The Press into a program that is riddled with mainstream media conventional wisdom, Republican talking points, and mostly unchallenging interviews.
Gregory has shown on occasion an ability to do good interviews. Knowing that he could do better, but won’t makes his disinterest in going beyond Republican talking points very frustrating.
David Gregory tried to invent a new Obama leadership crisis today, and in the process, he damaged what remained of the once sterling reputation of Meet The Press.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
