NBC's 'Today' Spends More Than 11 Minutes Fawning Over Obama Late Night Comedy and College Tour
Throughout the Wednesday broadcast, NBC's Today repeatedly found time to promote President Obama as funny, hip, and connecting with young voters. Touting the President's appearance on NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, co-host Matt Lauer gushed that Obama, "gave our colleague Brian Williams a run for his money when he helped Jimmy Slow Jam the News."
Highlighting Obama's tour of college campuses, Lauer and fellow co-host Ann Curry conducted a four-minute live interview with a Colorado college student who met the President when her yogurt was accidentally spilled on him. Lauer teased the segment at the top of the show: "And what a mess! A college freshman gets the chance of a lifetime to meet the President. And then spills her food on him....The President laughed it off, saying at least she's got a good story to tell. She does. And she'll tell it to us in a live interview."
At the top of the 8 a.m. et hour, news anchor Natalie Morales declared that Obama's "day spent courting young voters" had made him "a hot topic online." Besides the yogurt spill seen round' the world, there was "also the goofy photo with a fan on Instagram," not to mention the "surging video" of Obama's Late Night appearance.
In other news briefs, Morales parroted the President's talking points on student loans: "In a move to woo younger voters, President Obama revealed that he and Michelle finished paying back their student loans only eight years ago."
In the interview with Colorado University freshman Kolbi Zerbest about what Lauer dubbed "Yogurt-gate," he and Curry demanded an in-depth account of the incident:
LAUER: This all seemed like it started really well. You were in the right place at the right time. You got to get up close and personal with the President. And then it took a kind of messy turn. What happened?
ZERBEST: Well, basically, Secret Service brought us a little bit closer to where President Obama was supposed to be coming out of the restaurant, and so, we were just waiting there patiently, and then he came down this line of people, and we knew we were going to be pretty like – we were pretty close so we knew we'd eventually get to shake his hand. And so, as soon as he comes towards us a little bit more, paparazzi come rushing behind us and right as I'm shaking his hand the paparazzi kicks the bowl that I had placed on the ground onto the President. And it was mine, so, obviously I took the blame for it.
CURRY: In fact, that was impressive. You jumped right in there and said, 'Hey, this is my fault.' And – and – I think that he was impressed by that.
ZERBEST: Well, I felt bad. Well, hopefully. Because it technically was my fault that I'd placed it there. But, I mean, I'm not the one who spilled it on him or kicked it on him. As some of the stories have been told. So, yeah.
LAUER: But then it resulted in a pretty long back and forth between you and the President, you actually got to carry on...
ZERBEST: Yeah.
LAUER: ...a conversation with the commander in chief.
ZERBEST: Yeah. Which was really surprising. I didn't really expect that. I just expected him to shrug it off, try and clean it up a little bit, and then just get on with walking to his car. To leave. So, yeah, it was pretty exciting being able to talk to him for a minute or two, to like try and exchange what just happened.
CURRY: Kolbi, it's hard to see from the videotape, but just how much yogurt got on the President?
ZERBEST: It wasn't a lot. Honestly, more of it got on me, the ground, and on the Secret Service. So – it got on his trousers a little bit, though.
In an earlier report, White House correspondent Kristen Welker explained: "Now, the President laughed it off. And the White House really is too, they say these types of mishaps are always a possibility, especially since the President is frequently interacting with excited crowds, and shaking a lot of hands."
Discussing Obama 'Slow Jamming the News' with Jimmy Fallon, Lauer observed: "It seems like a lighthearted moment but there's a real calculation. I mean, the President obviously reaching out to Jimmy Fallon's audience and those young voters who were – he's going to need, pretty much, in the fall."
Taking a line from the comedy sketch, Morales wondered: "Can we start calling him the Preezy of the United Steezy?" Lauer replied: "Not to his face." Curry chimed in: "Yeah, let's do that, I like it."
In comparison to the adulation over Obama, Mitt Romney's string of Tuesday primary wins was only given a mere 38 seconds of coverage between two news briefs during the entire four-hour morning program.
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Comments
As motherbelt would
Submitted by killa37 on Wed, 04/25/2012 - 4:12pm.
As motherbelt would say...............'OH BARF'!!!!
Oh gosh...who cares what the debt is...?
Submitted by NeoKong on Wed, 04/25/2012 - 4:15pm.
Obama is cool.
What else matters?
I Know
Submitted by tcm14 on Wed, 04/25/2012 - 4:25pm.
Can't get a job to support your family? Who cares? We've got yogurt, folks!
Or you could say it is a new take on Marie Antoinette: "Let them eat yogurt."
MSNBC's Sharpton spent at
Submitted by kg on Wed, 04/25/2012 - 7:56pm.
MSNBC's Sharpton spent at least 5 minutes showing photos of COOL Obama and another 6 minutes on a student who asked to be photographed with Obama. They even had her in a studio and on the air to say how cool it was.
"DumbAssity of Dope"
What?
Submitted by KornKing on Wed, 04/25/2012 - 4:18pm.
Nobody could come up with something important on Tiger Woods, like what he had for lunch?
Party like it's 2008
Submitted by Tomorama on Wed, 04/25/2012 - 4:24pm.
38 seconds of a wipeout in the primaries last night with a PRO-AMERICAN and not anti this and anti that speech that was OUTSTANDING by Romney, 38 FN seconds?
Instead we get these POS fellating over the one IGNORING anything bad going on OR ANYTHING GOOD about the "other guy".
I honestly hate these people with all my passsion.
What's inna name?
Submitted by Galvanic on Wed, 04/25/2012 - 4:26pm.
Taking a line from the comedy sketch, Morales wondered: "Can we start calling him the Preezy of the United Steezy?"
More like the Squeezy of the United Cheesy.
How 'bout Sleezy of the
Submitted by tcm14 on Wed, 04/25/2012 - 5:14pm.
How 'bout Sleezy of the Breakin' Breezy?
only 11 minutes?
Submitted by averageschmoe on Wed, 04/25/2012 - 5:10pm.
Wait until September when the Today's Show goes into full Obama Headquarters and they devote the entire 4 hours to Obama. "You ain't seen nothin yet"
That Obama is just terrific!
Submitted by ray johnson on Wed, 04/25/2012 - 5:16pm.
That Obama is just terrific! I wuv him sooooo much!
Nero fiddles while Rome burns
Submitted by LinTaylor on Wed, 04/25/2012 - 8:22pm.
The economy's in the toilet? Gas prices rising? North Korea getting more belligerent? The Black Panthers stirring up a race war?
Who cares about all that? Did you see the President singing on Fallon last night? *swoon*
Wow
Submitted by Nonanon on Wed, 04/25/2012 - 8:38pm.
Not to too risque, but are they sure it was yogurt and not some other cream-like substance? It is to the point we need to use full body condoms to watch this crap! How much more negative coverage of Obama can we handle? It is far beyond simply campaigning for him and Democrats in general.
It's sad
Submitted by Shreve on Wed, 04/25/2012 - 8:39pm.
when so many of my fellow Echo Boomers (a term I just learned) think a politician need only to be "cool" to get their vote.
I'd much rather a person in office who can do the job and not one who goes on talk shows talking about how great they are.
So Curry was impressed that Zerbest jumped right in
Submitted by Radical1979 on Wed, 04/25/2012 - 8:46pm.
and accepted blame. Does anyone think she can teach obama how to do that?
The Today Show is totally hopeless...
Submitted by Mary Louise Turner on Wed, 04/25/2012 - 8:57pm.
Of all the "news" shows on the National Barack Channel, the "Today" show is probably the worst when it comes to Ears-worship...Why don't these clowns have an "Obama 2012" poster on the front of their set?
He
Submitted by grammajane on Wed, 04/25/2012 - 10:57pm.
is cool, hip, a rock star, and now we can call him "prezzy" because fallon did. Is this a leader of America or, just what is it? I am totally bewildered about what nbc has come too, to have such, pardon me, am lost for words, on the network. Have never in 73 years seen/heard such crap when referring to the Pres. of the U.S. Don't know if I will make it until Nov.
Mah Buddy Barry, aka Barack (Part Two)
Submitted by berlet98 on Thu, 04/26/2012 - 1:39am.
Mah Buddy Barry, aka Barack (Part Two)
(This be the second part after the first part on mah buddy Barry. You can read dat first part here if yo wants to and if yo dont wants to who cares! http://bit.ly/I9LTCJ.)
In One ah wuz talking bout all dose emails ah gets from my bud Barry an his homies moochin fo money. Dey piss me off. Dis is a lil differant.
On Monday, Jimmy, (dat would be Jim Messina, head honky honcho fo da “Obama for America” campaign), emailed me for “input,” my sugestions in a survey on how we can make shure Barry gets fo more years in the White House.
We damn well don’t want dat moron Mormon guy moving on up to our place with all his ugly wives and his jerk-off ideas about people working for a livin and not survivin on food stamps. Do we?
On top of everything, ah heard dat Mit Romney believes in poligmy tho ah dont see nothin wrong with having a haarem of bitches. We all do dat, right? Why he would marry them tho is stupid.
Barrys fam back where he wuz born in kenya all had a bunch of wives–da men folk that is–and his daddy liked wut we call VARIETY, if yo catch my meaning and no one made a big fuss about dat!
As my new bud Jimmy put it, “Together, we’ve done some amazing work building this campaign so far. But I know that we’re in for a tough fight ahead, and we’ll need your voices and leadership if we want to win on Election Day.”
Ahm not exactly sure what “amazin work” has been acomplished and I ain’t been a leader since my dayz in the hood but, hey, if Barry’s boy Jimmy says so it must be so and if my boy Barry needs me, I’m there! But not there with money!!!! Dat boy has enuff of dat!!
As for fights, ah agrees with Barry when he said if da honky bring a knife to a fight, we brings a gun even tho we always have a knife on us, as dey say, just in case. Dat was good advise tho.
You can hep Barry and Jimmy by completin Jimmy’s survey. It has questions on what we think about the Buffet Rule, “taking the fight to al-Qaeda,” and “Ending ’Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ “. (http://bit.ly/Jqdb7P)
Look, ah never pay any taxes but if dose dumbass Repubs would jest stop being assholes and pass dat Buffet Rule, Waren would pay as much as his secratary and we could run the gubmint for a while, a few days mebbe but a few days is a few days right? . . . (Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=22242)
OBAMA: Slow Jamming American progress
Submitted by P. Aaron on Thu, 04/26/2012 - 8:27am.
Throw this bum out!
Obama is really pretty smart...
Submitted by thescoots on Thu, 04/26/2012 - 10:43am.
Think about it...Who is the 2 am audience for the Jimmy Kimmel's and Jimmy Fallon's of the world? Cab drivers and pizza deliverymen.....and aren't those really the only occupations with openings these days?
I know, you could fit the entire national audience of these shows in a soccer stadium....but Obama is making sure that he doesn't leave out any core constituencies....
nbc
Submitted by east tennessee john on Thu, 04/26/2012 - 11:07am.
What are the odds the national barack company will spend11 minutes combined on the growth of unemployment claims, again this week, and the probable 2% or less growth in the GDP while all the surrogates will continue to insist we're growing and the economy is improving?