Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough of Morning Joe
This week I watched presidential hopeful Chris Christie get interviewed on Morning Joe.
I know. Why do I put myself through such torture?
Not surprisingly, the interview consisted of too many softball questions, Joe Scarborough talking too much, and an almost complete absence of follow-up questions. That last one is probably the most glaring.
(To be fair, Willie Geist seems to be best equipped to go off script and ask a question related to the previous answer.)
Even someone with a newspaper career as uninspiring, inconsequential, and, in the end, as failed as mine knows the value of follow-up questions. They may not always be successful, but they’re necessary to try to pin down the interviewee on vague statements, distortions, and outright lies.
And every time a reporter fails to ask them, he or she is failing in the only real job they have: Keeping us informed about what’s going on.
Musings of a Nobody 