Michael Lucas on Bad Journalism

I was also thinking of the famous interview of President Nixon by David Frost, where Frost got Nixon to publicly admit, for the first time, that he had lied about Watergate. After three friendly interviews, Frost understood that if he did not attack Nixon in the fourth and final interview, he’d remain a listener instead of an interviewer.

And this is precisely what Larry King, Katie Couric and the others who are allowed to interview the most homicidal dictators are. They are respectful — albeit sometimes irritated — listeners who are afraid to interrupt. But sometimes interruption is important, vital, unavoidable. When an evil man is evading a question that has a deep moral dimension, he must be interrupted and forced to answer.

The softball treatment of Ahmadinejad allowed an evil ideologue and brutal dictator to present himself as a mainstream political figure. American audiences saw a suave, worldly president, a living lie. This gives a totally false impression about the man. But, more importantly, it’s a callous betrayal of the Iranian opposition members who have risked and given their lives to fight the regime of which Ahmadinejad is the face. And that’s a moment when American media has lost its moral standing in the world.