MEEEEEEE!!!!!
Okay, we get it, Chuck Todd. You are the new host of Meet The Press but does that mean you will now hog every interview? After all, the president of NBC News, Deborah Turness, promised a return to the original format of MTP in which the guests would be interviewed by a panel, not just the host. Therefore your humble correspondent was disappointed when he watched Chuck interview the guests solo today while the panel merely chit chatted among themselves. Here is the unkept promise of a MTP format change made by Turness:
Her new vision for “Meet the Press” includes adding a regular panel of journalists who will question guests, something of a return to the venerable show’s original format. “The show needs more edge,” she said. “It needs to be consequential. I think the show had become a talking shop that raked over the cold embers of what had gone on the previous week. The one-on-one conversation belongs to a decade ago. We need more of a coffeehouse conversation.”
Really? So if the "one-on-one conversation belongs to a decade ago" then why is MTP still stubbornly clinging to it like a security blanket? A suspicious mind might surmise that NBC News is worried that a "rogue" (conservative) panelist could ask an incisive question that could make a liberal guest highly uncomfortable. I think fellow Miamian Chuck Todd is a better interviewer than David Gregory who has pocketed a nice chunk of change to the tune of four million bucks to take the oath of omerta about his time at MTP. However, for MTP to really stand out they need to adopt the undelivered format promised by their NBC News president. Oh, and perhaps it might be even better to keep the identity of the panelists secret until broadcast time. Imagine the tremendous surge in MTP ratings if Chuck Todd made the following introduction:
"Today's guest is House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi who will be interviewed by our panel of Jim VandeHei of Politico, Nia-Malika Henderson of the Washington Post, and...Rush Limbaugh."
An oatmeal cookie to the first reporter to ask the NBC News president when she will institute the promised format change from "Me The Press" to be a truly "Meet The Press."
