Preferential Treatment: Gregory Stows Claws In Favor Of Kid Gloves On Edwards

Just yesterday, a guest-hosting David Gregory took to the Today Show and, in an extended exchange, took presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton to task for responding to his questions with a series of parroted talking points. However, given the opportunity to do the same this morning with John Edwards, Gregory made no use of the reportorial tenacity he displayed with Clinton, as he allowed the candidate to skate by on a similar recitation of campaign talking points and mushy declarations of the "energy" and "excitement" he maintained was palpable in Iowa.

GREGORY: Let's look at the reality in Iowa which is really do or die in the view of many for you. Right now it shows Obama has the edge at the moment. A lot of people think he has plenty of momentum at the moment. The issue for you is why you haven't really broken out of the pack despite how deep your organization is, how long you've been campaigning in the state...really, since 2004. And the question is whether -- there's a question of authenticity, whether your own personal wealth, your investment in a hedge fund that -- to the subprime crisis, belie your populist rhetoric.

EDWARDS: I think what you'll see, David -- I've seen it in the last few days. The First Lady of Iowa just endorsed me. There's huge momentum in Iowa. Energy, excitement. I've seen this before. and I know how to close in Iowa. I've been through this before. I mean, these people know me, and when I talk to them about the way I grew up in mill towns and mill villages, the fights that I've been engaged in on their behalf against big corporate interests my entire life, they understand that and they respond to it. I see it -- nobody has to tell me about it and I don't have to read it in a book. I first lived it my whole life and I see in the people of Iowa, the caucus-goers, a real response to that. We have a huge energy and momentum right now that I haven't seen previously. It's exciting what's happening.

GREGORY: All right, Senator John Edwards, we'll leave it there for this morning. thank you very much.

So, numbing inanity is okay when it comes from the candidate whose "comeback" has been woven into the official media storyline!

Considering Gregory promoted the exchange at the top of the hour as one in which he would ask Edwards if he could "get past some of his missteps, including questions about his authenticity," his letting Edwards off the hook on this very question is, at best, disappointing, and at worst, inconsistent.

[Watch it.]

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1348279751http://www.brightcove.com/channel.jsp?channel=1178199204

Comments

[milo9]

02:01 PM on 12/19/2007

Edwards can't get Corporate Media coverage. It seems to me that it's only fair that he catches a break.

[Oldchef]

12:44 PM on 12/19/2007

Is he upset that Edwards got a few seconds of face time after being ignored by the MSM for the past year while the big money candidates got on the news every time they stepped out on the street?

[andygaus]

10:48 AM on 12/19/2007

Edwards has offered more substantive positions and asked tougher questions than Clinton or Obama, and in return he's mostly been ignored or been written off as the guy with the fancy haircut. If on this one occasion he gets off easy, that's all right, we owe him one.

[CatfishJohn]

08:18 AM on 12/19/2007

...you mean a few seconds of unimpeded air tiem for edwards- not even a chance of course in the MSM to elucidate on any of his substantive position points- and all fo a sudden he is being fcvored after being marginalized and ignored ( read: too liberla for the corprate media's plutocracy-first agenda)fpor the past 6 months. but rest assured things are back to vapidly normal...just this mornbing, andrea mitchell in her ever-faux gravitas was on at 7am breathlessly telling us "its all bout persoanlities" in Iowa...not about experience...not about- god forbid- policies and agenda- but "PERSONALITY"...the people magazine election is here... THE CORPROATE MEDIA'Sa refinement of the "beer and a burger" Bush approach in 2000 ...and this morning the breathless mitchell reducing it to "personal charm and likability" -another exhibit in the corporate media's dumbing down the democratic process into the dust of banality...

[Boadicea]

02:07 AM on 12/19/2007

There is no comeback for Edwards. The poll was flawed. ABC poll tonight has Edwards dropping dramatically. And for good reason - Iowans are not stupid.

Edwards had one leadership position in his short, uninspiring political career: he was on the senate intelligence committee.

At the most important moment in his political career he failed miserably in that leadership position. He didn't bother to read the 92 page intelligence report that would have told him that the administration was cherry picking the evidence for WMDs.

He didn't bother to read it, because he wanted to be president; he wanted to co-sponsor a war and bask in the glow of "tough on terror."

Edwards demonstrated that he is easily influenced by his own ambitions, and by those around him. This was an unforgivable instance of negligence that caused the unnecessary deaths of untold numbers of Iraqis and Americans.

Unforgivable negligence in something as important as going to war.

He'd be a terrible president.

[MRb1000]

12:52 AM on 12/19/2007

Well all I can say about Edwards is he debates the issues. He is different than Hillary. She is dirty. She is Nasty. Also she uses bigotry to try to bring down her opponents She does not debate the issues. She sound like a lawyer fighting in a trial.

[MrsHaskell]

11:51 PM on 12/18/2007

Kid gloves? You cannot be serious. Your bio says that you cover media and politics, so I shouldn't have to point out to you the well documented fact that Edwards gets virtually no coverage in the mainstream media. See e.g., the per News Interest Index. On the rare occaision when he gets a chance to speak, he's asked ridiculous horse race questions like the one Gregory posed.

Did it occur to you that it's not about favoritism? That a simpler and less conspiratorial explanation would be that given the inordinate amount of coverage she gets, we've all heard HRC's pre-programmed talking points many times over and they just don't make for a newsworthy interview?

[melonman]

10:19 PM on 12/18/2007

I'm sorry. What was your point?

[peachfuzz]

09:58 PM on 12/18/2007

I love when people talk as if a poor person is going to run for president. It ain't gonna happen. Edwards already accounted for his hedge fund experience--it was a job, and he acted on the subprime issue and the peoples' mortgage problems. You can dig up crap from all these candidates, and many people have money invested without knowing where every dollar is. It is nuts in a culture of capitalism gone amok, that he is criticized for being rich, as if any of them are not. He explained himself; people either have to see what he fighting for or move on because these accusations are getting stale.

[EspressoAtNoon]

09:45 PM on 12/18/2007

Palease!!!

Edwards hasn't been engaging in "swift boat" type political crap like Bill and Hillary. Edwards called Hillary out on her Iran vote and displayed how she was not answering questions and trying to have it both ways during a debate, which is all fair and frankly, accurate.

But he hasn't been doing "swift boat" stuff like Bill and Hillary. When you engage in that kind of sleazy political crap in the 11th hour reporters are going to try and make you own your words (or your husband's words who's speaking on your behalf).

Hillary has had her posse bring up Obama's teenage drug use, things he said in kindergarten, his middle name "Hussein" and implied he was a Muslim. Engaging in this kind of crap entitles you to be questioned about it when you face reporters.

[ednadumpling]

09:06 PM on 12/18/2007

the line tweety and stretch II have been tryng to promote is Edwards is only winning because Clinton committed murder suicide attacking Obama

nbc and msgop are worthless and wrong
still waiting for the Biden surge boyz

[PerryWhite]

06:24 PM on 12/18/2007

At the White House Gregory rarely asks questions, he makes pronouncements. The reason that he is a television journalist is that he's not smart enough to be a game show or reality show host.

[strifeknot]

04:57 PM on 12/18/2007

HRC's lil' pup is nipping at the ankles of one of her opponents again. Little doggy must be all barked out at Obama, he's onto yapping at Edwards this week.

[dynadem]

04:56 PM on 12/18/2007

"at best, disappointing, and at worst, inconsistent"

Is "inconsistent" really worse than "disappointing?" And is "inconsistent" really the worst?

[cadaverdog]

04:53 PM on 12/18/2007

Gimme a break, Jason. After months and months of a virtual Edwards blackout in the press, our guy is finally getting some coverage. I can understand why there has been so much buzz over the possibility of the first woman or black president, but don't get all huffy because the press has finally fessed up to the notion that somebody else has a chance to win in Iowa.

This election is going to be decided by so-called independents, most of whom are leaning heavily Democratic, and these are the people who are not towing the DNC line. If John Edwards can win the Democratic nomination, he will storm the White House with the support of the American middle class voters of all political persuasion, and that is exactly what the polls confirm time and again: John Edwards is the most popular candidate on both sides of the aisle to the majority of the public.

Wake up and smell the coffee.