Today marks the 800th anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta. It was on June 15, 1215 that the English King John met his barons on Runnymede field to reluctantly affix his seal to the great charter that granted more powers to the latter. By strange coincidence, yesterday also marked the notable event when Chuck Todd on Meet The Press allowed a couple of panelists to question a guest, Bill Daley.
This was actually nothing new because in its original format, which has been forgotten in recent years, Meet The Press meant exactly that...meet the press, not just meet the interview hogging host. Your humble correspondent, often feeling like Captain Ahab in his desperate search for the great white whale, has been harping on this point for nearly a year when he reminded any who would listen about the promise of a return to the original format by NBC News president Deborah 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.”
My obsession on this matter over the next few months seems to have paid off on yesterday's Meet The Press at about the 47 minute mark when Chuck Todd allowed panelists Andrea Mitchell and Hugh Hewitt to question President Obama's former Chief of Staff, Bill Daley. As Jeffrey Meyer pointed out, the decision to yield some limited interview power to the panelists by King John, uh, I mean Chuck Todd quickly yielded fruitful results:
On Sunday’s Meet the Press, conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt provided some much needed balance to the show’s political panel when he pressed Bill Daley, President Obama’s former Chief of Staff, over Hillary Clinton’s use of a private e-mail server.
Will the limited interview powers granted to the panelists be temporary or permanent? We shall see but since the MTP ratings have been stagnant they might have no choice.
Exit question: Just as King John kept the royal seal, Chuck Todd will continue to maintain complete control over the sacred Nerdscreen but will my fellow ex-Miamian like a resentful King John attempt to take back full interview rights?
