WHAT POSSESSED Tavis Smiley when he interviewed Bill Clinton?

[Hekate]

After my husband and I watched Clinton's speech at the Convention we eagerly waited to see him some more on the Tavis Smiley Show. Within three sentences we turned off the tv in dismay and disgust.

Tavis's opening line was "I'm not going to ask you about Monica Lewinsky." Which naturally brought the sordid past right into the room and killed the soaring present moment. I was so upset I went to the Smiley section of PBS's website and left a message. (BTW, the "window" for viewer comments is so tiny I could't see what I was writing, so I wrote offline, then pasted it in.)

Dear Mr. Smiley:

President Clinton gave one of the best, most important, political speeches of his entire career before he sat down to talk with you. Did you by any chance see it? Did you see the faces of the people when the camera panned out to the crowd? He held them in the palm of his hand. He had me and my husband and we were 3,000 miles away.

More than the form of the speech was its substance: this country is at a crossroads, and he called us to action.

So I ask you this: WHAT POSSESSED YOU TO OPEN YOUR INTERVIEW BY MENTIONING MONICA LEWINSKY?

What were you thinking sir? Is there an equivalent opening remark you would ask President Bush, if he and his handlers would even permit you to get within a mile of him? Something so below-the-belt, so disrespectful of the man and the moment?

Bill Clinton came triumphant from deserved ovations to your chair, and with that one remark I saw the sparkle leave his eyes. This is a great man with human flaws. What size were you trying to cut him down to? And why?

Hekate

[Junkdrawer]

1. Smiley needs to tell Bush "I'm not going to ask you about Cocaine,

Abortions, DUIs and the National Guard". Let's see how long he survives after that.

[tooie]

3. terrible...

[HEFFA]

2. In the interest of equal time and fairness....

He should begin any interview with George the Lesser using one of the following statements:

"I'm not going to ask you about...."

...the stolen election of 2000.

...your inability to eat pretzels.

...your inability to ride a bicycle.

...the threat that you and your cronies falsely concocted in Iraq.

...the thousands of innocent men, women, and children that you are responsible for killing in your phony war.

...the millions of Americans that your stupid policies have put out of work.

...the draconian social agenda that you are forcing on a free people here in America.


I could go on and on and on. But, of course, you'll never see such hard-hitting questions of a Repuke on TV (or anywhere else). It must be that "liberal" media at work again. :eyes: