Larry King, Ace Interviewer, Gives the Lebanese Prime Minister the Softball Treatment

Last week, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora got the super softball treatment from CNN's star interviewer, Larry King. But you're not going to hear peep from the bosses of the self-styled "most respected" cable net. Mr. King (called "Larry" by the solicitous and happy-to-be-here Prime Minister) has the numbers! In fact, King's ratings exceed those of CNN's other primetime shows.

Actually, Siniora is not that bad a guy. An anti-Syria ally of the murdered Rafik Hariri, he has led the fragile coalition in Lebanon since last year. But when faced with Larry King's gentle, hyperbole-inducing pablum, even an okay guy morphs into master bloviator cum prevaricator.

United Nations Resolution 1559 calls for a Lebanon under the "sole and exclusive authority of the Government of Lebanon throughout Lebanon" and directs the "disbanding of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias."

Against this backdrop, King produced the following howler in a sea of other howlers:

King: "Does your army can they take control of your southern border [sic]?"

Siniora: "...I think the Lebanese army is and should be empowered to really assume this responsibility but this comes as a complete package in finding a full solution to the problem whereby Lebanon will go back to the armistice of 1949."

So "Larry King Live" gets to rewrite Resolution 1559 to trash the obligation of the Lebanese government to control the south and disband Hezbollah's militias in favor of doing so after a "full solution." Huh?

Now you know why a lot of world leaders like Larry King! It's easy! They get to rewrite United Nations resolutions and King demurs.

Even the ratings leader ought to be subject to some command control over at CNN. Keep watching to see if it happens.