The network morning shows this year haven't always been tough questioners with the presidential candidates. But it bothered me on Wednesday when ABC's Good Morning America interviewed John McCain (the day before the New York Times unleashed its underbaked "romantic" hints-and-whispers story), and co-host Robin Roberts dragged out the old-age issue against McCain using late-night comedians to mock him. Can you imagine Hillary Clinton sitting still for that tactic?
ROBERTS: You brought up a number of good points in your speech last night. And it was well received. You got a lot of applause when you said you are clearly the most experienced, as you put it. You're 71. You would be 72 on Election Day and the late night comics have taken note of your age as well. I want to get your reaction to this.
JAY LENO (clip): Do you realize when Castro came to power in 1959, John McCain was only 61 years old?
CONAN O'BRIEN (clip): Senator John McCain is doing very well. Senator John McCain has unveiled a new campaign slogan. Ready to lead America into the 21st century. Yeah. Yeah. And this is a lot better than his old slogan. I've been around since the 19th century. This is an improvement.
ROBERTS: Senator McCain, when you hear comments like that, and you laugh along. Like I said, watching your speech last night, you said you are clearly the most experienced, but are you concerned at all? There are some people looking at your age as a serious issue.
MCCAIN: Well, just watch me campaign. As I said in the beginning of this, I could out campaign anybody. And I can and I will. And take a look at the vigor, and take a look at my vision for the future of this country...
McCain may have a sense of humor about this, but if ABC isn't going to try this tactic with Democrats, then it's a mocking double standard. Even if viewers don't object to this kind of seltzer-bottle interview, media critics can still object that ABC has such a low opinion of its viewers' attention span that it stoops to sprucing up its hard-news interviews with Leno jokes.
