Jon
Soltz of VoteVets.org and Melanie
Morgan of KSFO
radio infamy had a debate on “The News Hour” last week. All hell
broke loose. Morgan, who is ill mannered and uninformed, not to mention the
wildest eyed wingnut on radio, which is saying something considering the company
she keeps, just would not shut up. Time after time she just kept interrupting,
which isn’t exactly PBS manners. Read some of the letters
PBS received (scroll down to the end) on her appearance.
This is the response from the “News Hour” producer. It’s one for
the books.
The NewsHour Responds
Last night the NewsHour attempted to help our viewers understand why the
members of Congress are having so much difficulty arriving at a decision regarding
the way forward in Iraq. We believe the intensity of the pressure being exerted
on Democrats and Republicans by the “wings” of their respective
parties is having an impact on those who are looking for some sort of compromise
position. We decided to let representatives of those wings explain their positions,
hoping they would participate in a dialogue with us and each other. As our
guests demonstrated, however, that was a forlorn hope and the result was a
lot of heat, but very little light.Since neither guest was in the studio with Judy Woodruff, there wasn’t much
she could do to prevent them from interrupting one another, short of saying
— as she did at least three times — “please let him/her finish
his/her point”. The NewsHour style is to ask pointed questions politely;
we expect our guests to subscribe to the same rules. Since the program is
produced live, we can’t do much to eliminate rude guests from your television
screen once the segment has begun; what we can do is guarantee you will never
see that person on our program again.Linda Winslow
Executive Producer
The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer
Wingnuts just don’t have any manners. PBS likely won’t ask her back. Good move.
Comments are closed.