Sarah Palin is hosting the Today show tomorrow because Katie Couric is hosting Good Morning America on ABC all week.
Four years ago, Couric asked Palin a few semi-tough questions that got big publicity because they highlighted what everyone who was paying attention already knew: Palin is a not-very-smart serial liar who chokes when she’s not part of a scripted, prepared political event. For that effort, Couric won journalism prizes and was treated as the woman who ended the McCain/Palin campaign. And even though all that happened is that Couric was slightly more skeptical than E! News would be with Kim Kardashian, the event is treated like a “hold my gold” full-on catfight.
The national media reminds me of the forty year-old mother of two who corners you at a high school reunion to discuss why her frenemy Lisa screwed her out of her rightful position as captain of the cheerleading squad. They can’t remember any of the details of why we almost had another Great Depression, but they’ll take the inflection and tone of Katie’s “Which ones?” question to their graves.
Bruce S
The networks have no shame – Stephanopoulos had the cynical clown Ann Coulter on his panel this morning, as if George Will and/or Matthew Dowd – with an assist from Cokie Robersts – couldn’t muster enough horseshit. I’m guessing Van Jones, who had to sit next to her, hit the showers after the show.
dmsilev
The killer is that if Palin had actually been interested in doing her job as governor, an honest answer (“Some of the Alaska papers, and clippings from around the country”) would have been perfectly fine. It was hardly a nasty question, unless it was being asked of someone who reveled in their ignorance.
Patricia Kayden
There goes the Today Show. Publicity stunt, much?
Professor
Are sure it’s Not an April Fool Joke carried over?
dmsilev
Also, too,
We’ll see her previously-unseen erudite and compassionate side?
Or, since she’s been photographed from the front, back, left, and right, maybe we’ll get an overhead view of the top of her head?
WyldPirate
The reason why Palin is on TV at all is because America is basically a nation populated by panty-sniffers, “smart idiots” and buffons who are too fucking lazy to try to learn anything about the world around them. Hence the media is giving the rubes what they want—bread and circuses.
Even more dangerous is the fact that the media is cranking out multiple versions of reality for these “smart idiots” and buffoons. Special interests and corporations are also actively promoting his alternative reality. This is allowing the conservatives to have their very own version of reality that enforces their need for authoritarianism.
Chris Mooney lays it out in this article, Diagnosing the Republican Brain, which is basically a synopsis of his book by the same title. I think he is on to something and I also think we are beyond hope as a nation, if not a civilization, if we can’t find some way to disrupt this.
I think the giant asteroid needs to go on and hit and get the reset button for the planet hit already. We’re fucked as a culture and as a country.
the Conster (f/k/a Cat Lady)
It’s more like the 40 year old mother of two at the high school reunion wearing her 15 year old daughter’s clothes. Staying relevant in a dying format for an aging demographic is hard, and by hard I mean pathetic.
jibeaux
Just read a USA Today story via TPM about the gender gap in polling, with some R douche complaining about the contraception kerfuffle and how it caused Republicans to take on water “unfairly.” Good grief the victim complex this people have.
jibeaux
I mean, if Romney’s people are going to complain that women under 50 abandoning him “unfairly” just because he supported the Blunt amendment and said that he’d get rid of Planned Parenthood, how far away can we really be from bitching about gotcha questions like “what do you read?” and “what have you seen so far in Boston?”
Karen S.
Why on earth do the Today Show people think Palin is at all relevant to anything going on in this country right now? Do they really think she’ll be a gift to ratings? Is the Today Show that hard up? I never watch it; never watch any of the morning shows. I don’t see any reason to start now if they insist on sinking to this level of shenanigans. I don’t even find Palin a figure of fun anymore. She’s just pathetic as are the people who pay her.
Phylllis
@dmsilev: I thought that myself. I’d been reading the Wasilla paper online after she was announced for the ticket, and thought it was a fairly decent local paper. If she’d said, ‘I start my day with the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman, like most of my neighbors’, Katie would have moved on and that would have been the end of it.
Schlemizel
@dmsilev:
I’m sorry but the only angle we have not seen is up skirt and I would rather swallow razor blades than be subjected to that.
The good thing about this booking is I have hopes it will finally break my wife’s addition to Today. I run screaming from the room when she turns it on because I can feel IQ points being sucked from my brain. I have been able to show her examples of how they play dumb and it is starting to dawn on her that their fascination with mAnn Coulter and the clown car lady with 20 kids is part of the attack on decent America. This may be the final straw.
amk
american msm – dumbing down amurika by the minute.
chopper
nice title. love the decemberists.
MikeBoyScout
Why would anyone watch the Today Show with or without Mooselini?
dr. bloor
@the Conster (f/k/a Cat Lady):
This. My first reaction was, “Really? The Today Show is still exists?”
liberal
Heard that when the DVR for Sesame Street finished the episode and the STB reverted to the last channel.
Christ, the MSM is despicable.
MattF
Isn’t it more than a little odd that ‘conservatives’ are so utterly shameless? I guess ‘shame’ is what libruls are supposed to feel. Maybe it’s just a fit of Monday morning clarity– but still, it’s weird.
liberal
@Schlemizel:
The Onion had a video making the same point about Time.
Bruce S
Honestly, I have to say that anyone who watches the Today Show deserves whatever is tossed in their face.
amk
ari fucking fleischer
c u n d gulag
Palin on NBC?
FOLLOW DA $!
She’s on, because NBC knows that every Reich-wing Dipsh*t Murkan will tune in to boost their ratings over ABC’s that day.
And yes, it IS that simple.
dr. bloor
@amk: Ari Fleischer: Making Baghdad Bob look a little bit more like Edward R. Murrow every day.
jheartney
Years ago I started exercising before work, and got my first exposure to morning TV. I was astonished that they’d managed to come up with something even more vapid than evening TV.
It’s probably as good a general-audience venue for Caribou Barbie as could be found, but I’m guessing she’ll blow it as badly as she blows most things. Hair-trigger personal pique and aggressive ignorance aren’t attractive qualities, iI should think. (Heaven help us if I’m wrong about this – we’ll be seeing a lot more of her if she’s a hit here.)
dmsilev
@jibeaux:
As someone on a previous thread pointed out, if you blow the scuttling charges, any water you take on is your own damn fault. Or, since this is nearly the 100th anniversary of the Titanic’s sinking, if you see an iceberg and your reaction is “Full speed ahead. Ram that sucker”, kvetching about holes in the hull isn’t going to win much sympathy.
Tone In DC
Somewhere, Henry Winkler (an old motorcycle sitting on its kickstand nearby) is smiling.
beltane
I only know of the Today Show as something my grandmother watched in the 1970s. Are there really people out there who still watch this?
This is nothing more than a gift to Andrew Sullivan and the crew over at Wonkette.
amk
twitterdom
redshirt
If there’s one commonality to all the different poisons coursing through our society, it’s the relentless quest for profits.
Ratings = profits, of course. And that’s all you need to know to explain most of the media’s behavior.
g
@dmsilev:
It’s mildly interesting – since her main mode is mean-girl obsessed with President Obama, that’s totally not part of the “Today” show brand or tone. My take on her is that when she’s not being mean-girl, she’s faker than Romney. So any attempt to be “Today”-show nice, or, worse, trying to bring mean-girl to the bland platform of niceness that’s the “Today” show, is going to damager her brand.
ppcli
Palin is a not-very-smart serial liar who chokes when she’s not part of a scripted, prepared political event.
One small suggested refinement: If I were to try to play point guard for the Lakers against the Celtics, I would be embarrassingly bad. Not because I choked, but because even my best would be utterly inadequate.
Similarly, Palin doesn’t choke when she is in unscripted interviews with anyone but Hannity and the like. She just isn’t close to being up to it.
geg6
The one and only reason this is happening is the huge hoopla ABC has been making over Katie co-hosting all week (long and very funny promos, I have to say) and, even more pertinently, this:
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/category/morning-show-ratings
ABC is having Katie on to try to take over the ratings and NBC is fighting back with Caribou Barbie. I really am not a fan of morning tv, but I might have to watch GMA this week just to be able to counter the crazy Sarahbots at work with the invocation of one of their most despised enemies.
Joey Maloney
@dmsilev:
Upskirt, baby.
porter
@Bruce S: Coulter was on his show? Are you fucking kidding me?!
I hope it wasn’t Stephanopoulos’s idea. I though he would be above all that.
I guess Arianna was busy making more “let’s bash Obama for not having magical Dictator powers” videos to make his show. Usually they like to have her on with Will to be the ‘liberal’ to balance out Will which is pretty fucking funny in itself.
When you think about it there isn’t much difference between Arianna and Coulter these days apart from the accent.
beltane
I’ve read that this week’s Today Show will also be featuring the Duggar family, Kim Kardashian, and the Octomom. If this isn’t true it should be.
redshirt
@geg6: That they can pretend that Couric played “Gotchya” journalism is the clearest example of how insane they – and our country – has become.
My FSM above! She was asked what she read. That’s our standard now.
Rosalita
I saw them advertise this today and I couldn’t believe it. I will NOT watch it even to see her screw up. Disgusting.
handsmile
@liberal: (#19)
Deeply grateful to you for posting that link to The Onion:”Time Announces New Version of Magazine Aimed at Adults.” Excerpt: “Beloved children’s character Joe Klein is leaving the magazine to join the cast of the PBS program, Dragonfly TV.”
That amount of laughter is particularly appreciated on a Monday morning, and even more so after confronting a story like this (sadly not from The Onion):
“Aston Kutcher…who replaced Charlie Sheen in the TV sitcom Two and a Half Men…has been cast as Steve Jobs in one of two competing biopics about the late founder of Apple.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/apr/02/ashton-kutcher-steve-jobs-biopic
Villago Delenda Est
@Phylllis:
But…but…asking someone how they stay informed on a daily basis is a “gotcha!” question.
Cacti
Disagree with Couric’s questions being semi-tough.
Katie Couric asked Sarah Palin a question that literally had dozens of plausible answers: What newspapers do you read?
She could have answered with anything from the Wasilla Frontiersman to the Washington Times to the Wall Street Journal. No one would have noticed.
Instead, being such a colossal dunce, she managed to blurt out the one obvious bullshit answer “All of them!”
Cacti
@handsmile:
Kutcher doesn’t seem nearly vicious enough to play Steve Jobs.
Violet
I heard she’s not showing up until the 8:00 hour, so that’s the second, fluffier hour. She’s a better fit there.
I saw a “check in” with her on this morning’s Today Show. Apparently she said something about “infiltrating turf” to someone at Breitbart’s children’s circus, so Matt Lauer asked her what she meant. She pretty much ignored the question and Lauer just sounded tired while interviewing her. He didn’t follow up. Al Roker could hardly keep the disgust out of his voice. I wonder if any of them will suddenly be “sick” tomorrow. I bet they’re ticked off they have to deal with her for the day.
patrick II
@Karen S.:
Octomom is a guest this week. If it’s on Palin’s day I am not sure I want to miss it.
Southern Beale
This is an April Fool’s joke, right?
dmsilev
@Violet: Are you sure? It’d be more in character for her to show up at the beginning, and then leave after the first hour….
Violet
@dmsilev:
Heh. So true. I don’t know if that’s the case, but that’s what I heard them say on the promo. It’s a better fit in that all she has to do is read the teleprompter and have carefully staged “banter” on the couch probably once. It’s hardly a hard-hitting hour.
Paul in KY
@chopper: Saw them last year at Bonnaroo. Great set, in about 100 degree weather.
redshirt
Breads and Circuses also too: Cat fights.
Paul in KY
@g: She will most certainly try to interject her talking points. Along with some winks and ‘youbetchaisms’.
Violet
I forgot to mention that during the “check in” with Palin, Matt Lauer asked her if she was “reading some newspapers”. Heh.
JenJen
You know, I think of that song almost every time I see her, and have thought of it since her triumphant speech at the RNC in 2008.
Awesome choice, mistermix. :-)
gene108
Why didn’t the Today show hire Katie (Cutie) Couric back? I mean, even if it is a one week gig, Katie could’ve knocked it out of the park. A lot of folks, who are fans of hers would’ve tuned it to see her back on the Today Show.
I mean, Comcast couldn’t give Katie her own day-time talk show?
I didn’t think Katie’s departure from the Today Show as the acrimonious. It’s not like Letterman leaving the Late Show or anything.
Also, too Sarah Palin responded with an honest answer. She reads every magazine out there, whether it’s in Hindi, German or Vietnamese. The fact we mock her and don’t bow down before that cowering intellect reflects poorly on us. None of us would dare to even think we could read every periodical out there, unlike Gov. Palin.
We’re not worthy…
Comrade Dread
This makes me hope the people who misinterpreted the significance of the end of the Mayan Calendar are right.
Mouse Tolliver
Meanwhile, Markos Miloutsas is still banned from MSNBC and Keith Olbermann just got fired by Al Gore for complaining about Current’s inability to keep the lights from blowing out mid-broadcast.
Svensker
So does this mean that the MSM is no longer “lame” and that they don’t practice “gotcha journalism” against helpless conservatives?
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
Just to be more accurate. And of course, you’re quite correct about what they’ll take to their graves ans what they will never understand.
cckids
@ppcli:
Sadly, as was revealed in the emails released from when she was governor, even when being “interviewed” by Beck or Hannity, she insisted on & got the questions in advance. Then had a staffer write out answers for her to parrot off.
jimmiraybob
I predict a segment where she – Palin – interviews herself and, despite slipping herself the questions ahead of time, fails to prepare and bombs the interview. The next segment will be her interviewing an outraged herself complaining about gotcha questions and the out-of-control MSM.
Many will come away confused. Her base will go wild.
Patricia Kayden
@jimmiraybob: Too funny! Now, while I can’t stand her, I would watch to see that.
James E. Powell
Does Palin still draw people? I had the sense that her star had faded.
Bubblegum Tate
@Cacti:
Seriously. It was the equivalent of a kid handing in a crayon-scribbled note saying “The dog ate my homework” with the parents’ signatures at the bottom. That was the softest of softball questions, and she somehow managed to blow it.
WaterGirl
@jimmiraybob: That’s got Saturday Night Live written all over it. That would be fun to watch.
Ruckus
Charlie Pierce. Two pictures says it all.