I have fellow blogger Bob McCarty to thank for this, and it’s definitely something to share with my friends across the line in Delaware who get to see this guy on the ballot twice.
On Thursday, anchorwoman Barbara West of WFTV-TV in Orlando cornered Vice-Presidential nominee and Senator Joe Biden with some great questions regarding ACORN, “spread the wealth”, and Biden’s recent comments about a crisis to test Barack Obama should he be elected. The interview is about 5 minutes long and you can tell that it was all Biden could do to not storm off the set.
Needless to say, this was probably not the best career move for Barbara West, who actually looks like the “bubble-headed bleach blond” for which TV news is famous – those who run the network news outlets certainly won’t take kindly to someone disrespecting their chosen One’s chosen one. Nor would it surprise me if there weren’t a death threat or three in her e-mail from ardent Obama supporters. But you must admit West did her homework and wasn’t content to lob softball questions at a guy who could be a heartbeat away from the Presidency.
I tip my hat to Barbara for doing what the drive-by media should be doing for everyone, not just Republicans.
Yes, I crossposted this to That’s Elbert With An E for my Delaware friends.
Michael,
It is refreshing to see that a reporter has finally put aside whatever political views that she has really stuck it to Mr. Crest whitening strip Biden. Maybe he should do whitening strip commercials. Beware of someone who smiles too much! They can’t be trusted! Biden smiles too much.
I happen to disagree with this Post Michael. I have viewed the interview and simply feel that Joe Biden was answering tough questions.
Storming off the set, I think not. I walked away from it thinking, how refreshing to see a politician actually answer ridiculous questions. The Reporter tried to make a name for herself and IMHO I think Biden made her look like a fool. Good for him.
I line up with Joe on this one, Michael. While I am dismayed at reporters who fail to ask tough questions, this reporter’s questions were pretty ridiculous. She could have done a lot better job with questions that were tough but weren’t so absurd.
Her failure to follow up on Biden’s answers and question some of his assertions inducates to me that she was simply reading from a script and not thinking for herself. For instance, if she was truly thinking for herself she could have asked Biden if he thought there was no difference between “spreading the wealth around” through government programs and creating wealth through tax cuts. But instead she went on to read the next ridiculous question. It’s unfortunate that Republicans are celebrating this type of empty-headed journalism.
Without giving Barbara West style points, wouldn’t you both (Marc and Joe) agree that Biden doesn’t usually get these sorts of questions on a regular basis? Some of the criticism of her style is justified, but when Biden asks who’s writing these questions it’s apparent that he’s not used to those high hard ones.
They sound a little like questions a good blogger should ask. 🙂
My other point that no one’s followed up on (at least that I’ve seen) is whether she’s had the death threats and such which I alluded to in the post. That’s worth following up on as well.
While I do agree that Biden (and other politicians, Republicans and Democrats) don’t get hard questions regularly, I don’t think that has anything to do with this incident. Her questions weren’t very intelligent, in my view, and were quite clearly biased. I think Biden asked who was writing these questions because he thought they were so ridiculous, not because he thought they were difficult. They were one level up from an Ali G interview.
Good reporters should ask hard questions, no doubt about it. They should not be trying to advance a political view through by asking clearly biased and slanted questions. It’s no better when Republicans do it than when Democrats do it.