Talk about calling a spade a spade.
On MSNBC's NOW Wednesday, PBS's Jeff Greenfield called host Alex Wagner as well as the MSNBC contributors on the panel - David Corn, Joy Reid, and Katrina vanden Heuvel - "advocates" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
JEFF GREENFIELD, PBS: One of the things that struck me about Obama when he came out – and frankly, I’ve felt this about the President since he was campaigning - he talks too much.ALEX WAGNER, HOST: So you think he should be less transparent?
GREENFIELD: No wait - a 28 minute speech is 26 minutes too long about what happened, surrounded by the same kind of, you know, human props, that poor pregnant diabetic who almost collapsed. It was too long. It was, what he might have learned from Winston Churchill was to begin by saying, “We screwed up.”
KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL, THE NATION: But he did say that.
GREENFIELD: “We screwed up, we screwed up, and we are going to fix it.” I’ll tell you the other thing, look, I realize, you know, sometimes networks can be, I want to just, want to be a counter-arguer.
[Laughter]
WAGNER: You’re allowed to do whatever you want.
GREENFIELD: Because I don’t represent myself, I represent myself as a humble country journalist, not an advocate. But what you said…
WAGNER: I think many people at this table would consider themselves journalists, too, not advocates.
GREENFIELD: Who are also advocates.
WAGNER: No, we’re not.
GREENFIELD: [Turning to Vanden Heuvel] Progressives and liberals.
VANDEN HEUVEL: [Nods]
WAGNER: We can get into that discussion later.
Not surprisingly, they never did get into that discussion. Why do you think that is?
Regardless, nicely played, Jeff. Bravo!
(HT NB member mad53PA)
