For reporting that is an embarrassment to the profession
of journalism, and for being beholden to corporate paymasters rather than
the citizens of America.
The satellite TV interview: national politicians have to do a lot of them
in running for office. You sit there in a room and conduct one satellite
interview after another after another, often answering the same questions
over and over. And because TV journalists in smaller markets tend to approach
these interviews in a distinctly different manner than a national journalist,
satellite interviews don't draw much attention.
But Barbara West of WFTV, Orlando wanted to make sure her
interview with Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden was something completely
different. Unfortunately, integrity and ethics were left out of the equation.
WEST: You may recognize this famous quote: "From each according to
his abilities to each according to his needs." That's from Karl Marx.
How is Senator Obama not being a Marxist if he intends to spread the wealth
around?
BIDEN: Are you joking? Is this a joke?
WEST: No.
BIDEN: Or is that a real question?
WEST: That's a question.
BIDEN: He is not spreading the wealth around. He's talking about giving
the middle class an opportunity to get back the tax breaks they used to have.
WEST: What do you say to the people who are concerned that Barack Obama
will want to turn America into a Socialist country much like Sweden?
BIDEN: I don't know anybody who thinks that, except the far right-wing of
the Republican Party.
Though Biden had no idea such a question was coming, he responded beautifully.
Satellite interviews are tricky since you aren't in the same room or even
the same state. You likely have never met this person, and she asks such
a question.
West is listed as a health reporter and anchor for the ABC affiliate in
Orlando. According to her bio, she has covered political stories over the
years. But also during most of that time, her husband, Wade West, has been
a Republican media consultant.
From Daily
Kos:
"Wade has long standing relationships with many Republicans. His
connections date back at least to Governor George W. Bush in Texas, inculdes
(sic) his
protests for Bush during the 2000 election, and extends to his employment
by over 85 congressional Republicans plus Bush cabinet members."
So how bad was the West-Biden interview?
Frank
James of the Chicago Tribune:
If journalism schools ever needed a perfect example to show their students
of how an interview should never be conducted, it would be the recent encounter
between Sen. Joe Biden and Barbara West, an anchor for WFTV in Orlando,
Fla.
Embarrassing and painful are two words that quickly come to mind to describe
West's interrogation of Biden last week. It may be the worst interview of
a major political figure by a "professional" broadcast journalist
I've ever witnessed. It was like something out of the old Soviet Union where
propaganda masqueraded as news.
Every question West asked revealed a bias against Sen. Barack Obama that
reached the point of outright hostility.
Mike
Thomas of the hometown Orlando Sentinel weighs in:
"This is the most embarrassing interview I've ever seen on local
television. This has nothing to do with whether you are for Obama or McCain.
It's about
being professional. Quoting Karl Marx?
Even Sean Hannity wouldn't be so ham-handed. Making matters worse, it looks
like Barbara is just dumbly reading questions someone just handed her, then
staring blankly at the screen. Biden made her look like a complete dimwit.
Not that this was hard.
How could WFTV allow this to happen?"
While West's interview with Biden was the stuff of media stories for days
to come, one key point often ignored was the softness of her
interview with Republican presidential candidate John McCain. Sean Hannity must have been
impressed.
The "toughest" question McCain received wasn't even about him,
but was replaying the talking points about ACORN. If West thinks she was
as tough on McCain as she was on Biden, she needs to see the tape.
West claims that she wasn't trying to move up the media ladder with this
move. But she did take the opportunity to go on Bill
O'Reilly's TV show.
West tells O'Reilly she was as tough on McCain as she was on
Biden. But when asked what was the toughest question she asked McCain:
"Actually, I think the toughest question that I asked him was asking
him about his own campaign and his management of his own campaign. Obama's
campaign is so organized and so well put together and such a well-oiled
machine. And yet even now this late in the campaign, Senator McCain's campaign
still
seems to not have it together."
So asking an outrageous irrelevant misleading
question about Karl Marx is equal to a question of management of a campaign?
She didn't ask one question
about McCain's policies. Some of the questions involved "Why haven't you gone after him" on ACORN, "Are you
going to cut and run (in Florida) or fight harder?" and "Do you
feel the Democrats are trying to paint you into a box?" When you conduct an interview that could make FOX "News" on-air
staff cringe, you are doing something right in the right-wing bizarro world.
For the rest of us who expect some semblance of ethical journalism, even
on a TV satellite interview, Barbara West fails the smell test along the
lines of a room filled with burning sulphur, a pack of angry skunks, and
a year's worth of dirty diapers. For the most disturbing local TV interview
we've seen in some time, we eagerly award Barbara West as our Media PUTZ
of the Week.
|
