Time to pile on David Gregory

[ChairmanAgnostic]

Here's a letter I wrote to NBC about Me Depressed.

What village idiot decided that Gregory could handle a tough and important assignment like Meet the Press? Whoever it was deserves to be fired since they obviously have no clue about:

a. What the program entails. (Hint - intelligent conversation about one important topic)
b. How a well run program like MTP should and could offer a great deal to the political discourse in this country. There is a huge potential audience, if they weren't having their sensibility, taste, and intelligence insulted by the likes of Gregory.
c. How bad Gregory is at his job. Seriously. Ask around.
d. The toxic mix of Gregory and his standard stable of GOP old white farts turns people off faster than Sarah Palin orating about hard work, family values, ethics and the newspapers she reads.
e. The general public would be better suited if NBC simply shut the whole mess down and replaced it with 30 minutes of the old fashioned black and white TV test pattern that was used in the 1950s and 60s.

Can you people be so dense as to not realize what an embarrassment Gregory is?

If you do plan to fix MTP instead of shutting the whole mess down, here are a few suggestions. The first step is simple. NEVER LET GREGORY NEAR A LIVE CAMERA AGAIN. Next, pick someone who is not a media whore, but who learns about a subject, understands his or her role, and grills the target politely, but firmly. No talking points allowed. Your host should never allow those to control the discussion. Oh god, and please, no more McCain, Rinse Preibus, Graham, or any other standard GOP sTalking head. PLEASE! Finally, no refusal to answer the question. If some Teabagger decides to recite their scripted crap, either call them on it, or shut them down. Embarrassment is the best medicine for tepid idiocy.

Your new host can be female, male, or trans. I really don't care. Liberal? conservative? White, black, hispanic, oriental - It does not matter. But character and ethics, intellectual honesty, knowledge, and hard questioning done in a fair manner do. Gregory has none of those. In abundance.

If you wish to write them, try this: [e-mail]

[Peacetrain]

1. A persons political beliefs are his own..

Last edited Tue Jul 29, 2014, 12:11 PM - Edit history (1)

If you have a job like moderator of Meet the Press.. you CANNOT let those personal beliefs be the forefront .. and David Gregory filters everything that way.. He is not a good host to present a balanced political commentary show.. He would be fine for FOX.. but not NBC.. good letter

Edit for name correction.. sigh.. God give me strength..

[ChairmanAgnostic]

2. That is why someone like

Rachel Madow would be so perfect for that job. She would be professional enough to be prepared, to ask hard questions, regardless of the political label of the guest, and to keep her own views out of the mix.

There are a few PBS people who would shine, too. We have Phil Ponce on Chicago Tonight. Low key, very smart, always prepared, and asks great questions.

[Peacetrain]

4. Absolutely!

Edit to Add: I do not care where a persons private political sympathies lie in tv correspondents .. as long as they are able to keep them out of the mix .. and present a balanced view.. sometimes they will peek out, after all we are all human.. but unfortunately for David Gregory, he cannot do that.. He is just not a good pick for Meet the Press..


Edit to correct Dick to David.. thank you fellow posters for pointing it out to me.. sorry folks..

[ChairmanAgnostic]

21. actually, in his case, "Dick" gregory works just fine

a la Cheney

[cui bono]

26. No, because Dick Gregory is an awesome activist and political satirist

who has fought for civil rights for decades.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Gregory

[ChairmanAgnostic]

30. True, he is.

Perhaps we can label NBC's "the dick" Gregory instead? Or is that still too close and confusing?

[Atman]

5. I don't agree.

While I DO agree that Maddow would be an excellent host, she would be the death-nell of MTP. She is viewed by the GOP and Tea Baggers as the left's version of Sean Hannity (although they think Hannity is fair and balanced). If Maddow ever asked a tough question, the GOP-Baggers would run crying. "She's unfair! She's mean!" They'd never take her seriously. Plus, y'know, she's one of teh gay. MTP would never get another GOP guest to appear on the show. Good enough for me, but then they'd have the same beef WE do.

She'd be a great host if it wasn't for the target audience of defense contractor GE, owner of NBC.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

7. your analysis is strong.

That is why a relative unknown, but with smarts and the proper approach would shine. Maddow would attract heat and abuse like a lamp attracts moths at night.

[marked50]

12. Small correction

NBC is now owned by Comcast. GE sold it.

[Atman]

13. MSNBC is owned by Comcast.

I believe NBC is still owned by GE.

[marked50]

28. Both NBC and MSNBC are susidiaries of

NBCUniversal, which is owned by Comcast.

From Wikipedia entry for NBCUniversal:

NBC Universal was formed in August 2004 by the merger of General Electric's NBC with Vivendi's Vivendi Universal Entertainment.[5][6] GE and US cable TV operator Comcast announced a buyout agreement for the company on December 3, 2009. Following regulatory approvals, the transaction completed on January 28, 2011. Comcast subsequently owned 51% of NBCUniversal while GE owned 49%.[6][7][8] Comcast intended to buy out the rest of GE's stake over the following seven years, but nothing happened until February 12, 2013, when Comcast announced its intention to complete the purchase all at once and assume 100% ownership of the company by the end of March.[9][10] The deal was finalized on March 19, 2013.[11]

Not trying to be too nitpicky here but people need to know that NBC and MSNBC are part of Comcast now and if you don't hear anything negative about the proposed merger of Comcast and TimeWarner on those channels now you know why.

[DrDan]

16. "Dick" Gregory? I thought the subject of the OP was "David" Gregory

perhaps I am mistaken?

[Peacetrain]

18. You are right..

Those of us with dyslexia have issues like that..I do this all the time.. I bet 90 % of my posts have to be edited.. because of that.. I can mean red, and write rad.. and when I reread it before I post, I will still see the word red.. it is amazing

[DrDan]

24. I can certainly relate to that

I was getting very frustrated writing my dissertation - read - reread - submit - only to have it come back with comments regarding punctuation, etc ("watch your use of commas&quot . I would then start the read - reread - submit process all over again . . . and again.

Reading and rereading 400 pages over and over.

I finally decided to hire a graduate student from the English dept. She caught sooooo many errors that I had been overlooking. That got me over the hump.

Amazing how the brain can process one's writing by reading the words correctly, while new, fresh eyes can catch these errors.

[Peacetrain]

33. It is such a headache...

When I was in college.. it seemed especially bad.. long tests.. where my eye would literally jump a sentence, and I would see something totally different than what the professor intended. I would sit and re-read and re-read my answers.. and still do the same thing on some questions.. its a brain hiccup for sure..

I did not get past my bachelors degree, because GOD and stratosphere can only guess what my dissertation would have looked like..

I have had it happen in here.. read a post and I am ready to fire off some a rebuttal only to re-read it and see I missed it entirely because my eye jumped a sentence..

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

17. "Dick Gregory"? Dick Gregory is a legendary political and social activist! David Gregory...

on the other hand, is a sycophantic idiot!

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[Peacetrain]

19. Sorry sorry..

I do this all the time.. think one word and type another..

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

35. LOL!! No worries at all. :)

[louis-t]

25. I have been a fan of his since the '60s.

I don't know why I remember a bit from his stand-up routine about aliens landing at a gas station. One alien walks up to a gas pump and says "I am agent X319 from the planet Zorkon, take me to your.....take yer finger outta yo' ear, boy, I'm talkin' to ya!"

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

34. He's amazing. My parents used to go see buy his albums/books. Big fans.

He think he still lives in D.C. I used to see him every once in awhile walking the neighborhood near Carter Baron.

[WI_DEM]

3. Here's a classic...

[dhill926]

9. and this nauseating photo...

represents all that is wrong with modern, so-called journalism today….

[kairos12]

22. Could be a pair from "Shaun of the Dead."

[Evergreen Emerald]

6. Removing Gregory is a superficial fix

He is not the producer who decides on guests or topics or questions...he is the talking head. MTP needs an overhaul. They have become nothing more than a megaphone for the right. They are attempting to remove the most visible problem without addressing the underlying issues: they are propaganda and not news.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

8. Ah, there is hope for my quest for the Test Pattern.

[WI_DEM]

10. Here is my e-mail

Dear NBC News:
I've been reading with interest that Meet the Press has fallen to third place in the ratings. I can say that I am another former viewer who now watches Bob Shieffer and Face the Nation. I respect Bob's integrity as a newsman and his independence. Overall, I feel he treats his guests fairly and asks tough questions of both democrats and republicans--liberals and conservatives. I don't feel that he has a hidden agenda.

I, however, cannot say the same for David Gregory. I gave Mr. Gregory a chance for quite a while. It seems to me that he often poses soft ball questions to conservatives/republicans while he is often hostile to democrats. He lets tea party crazies go on and on with their anti-Obama agenda without challenging them or even making any attempt to correct the record. I honestly think that the ratings have declined because many honest independents and democrats have come to see Meet the Press as a Republican mouth piece.

In the meanwhile I will continue to watch Face the Nation.

Sincerely,

[heaven05]

11. oriental?

okay..........

[Atman]

15. Yeah...I wasn't going to bring that up.

The rant was good up until that point.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

20. my partner is oriental and she calls herself that.

If she is misusing the term, please let me know so I can educate her on that point.

[tularetom]

31. My cousin has been married for 20 years to a Korean lady

She's a lawyer for god's sake, and she uses the term constantly. To refer to herself, her siblings, parents, friends, whoever.

I questioned her about it one day, because I remember when it was not considered derogatory. Her response was that it wasn't really a slur like the n-word or some of the racist terms used to describe Asians, but a lot of Koreans considered it somewhat patronizing, like "negro". Obviously she didn't feel that way and had no intention to stop using it. So I asked her if it was like black people using the n-word but being offended when whites used it. She said not at all, she didn't care who used it, it didn't bother her.

So there you go, for what it's worth. I don't think it's on the A-list of racial put downs, but it's probably the sort of dated, mildly demeaning term that is becoming rare. If you don't want to inadvertently offend somebody, you should probably avoid it.

[heaven05]

32. okay

I'm out of it. Just used that term myself for years until an asian work acquaintance corrected me. Asian was how she wanted to be referred to. So vibe on.

[MyOwnPeace]

14. Pile on?

He already IS a big steaming pile....................

[A Simple Game]

23. Do you think anyone read past the village idiot comment? n/t

[muriel_volestrangler]

29. No, no-one would

But if they were typing it out to post it for this OP, it won't have taken much extra effort to send as an email too.

[samsingh]

27. excellent points - i stopped watching that program long ago

and at one time I watched it every week

[uponit7771]

36. Did anyone see this weekends gob smacking embarrasment of a question he asked the UN guy?

The UN guy COULD NOT see the pic DG asked about rockets being fired from a school...

The UN guy let DG know he couldn't see it and that it was very unfair for him to even ask even if he could because how could he tell what the building in the pic was or wasn't ..

At some point that crap has to stop

[ChairmanAgnostic]

37. i refuse to watch it live. I saw a clip of that.

gregory ended up looking even more like an ass.

[jillan]

38. Ari Melber - He's perfect for the job. Brilliant, confident, able to argue his point without

going off on a rant. Not afraid to get to the truth.
I am a huge fan of his. I think he is one of the best.

That's my 2 cents.

Rachel is great - but we need her right where she is.
If she was to take MTP, she would not be able to report on all of those other stories that only Rachel reports.
Who else is going to smash remote control cars if Rachel moves to MTP?

[brooklynite]

39. So, you didn't want to actually change any thing...you just wanted to vent?

You could have written a calm, thoughtful letter expressing your opinion, but instead you decided to YELL, insult and bluster. You probably got a minutes attention from a mail clerk. Well done!

[ChairmanAgnostic]

40. Thanks, and I do feel better for doing it.

And my snail mail will be far different.

[Enthusiast]

41. NBC has an agenda. This agenda no longer includes objective news programing.

No different than the rest of the networks. TV journalism doesn't fit in with corporate interests or the interests of the 1%.

[Enthusiast]

42. I admire your effort.

What you told them is right on. They do not give a single fuck.

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