NPR Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep is often an excellent interviewer, but his behavior in this “interview” with Republican chairman Michael Steele was awful (and many commenters seem to agree). This morning I only heard the last 30 seconds or so and it was painful. I tried to listen again and could only stand a minute or so.
Yes Steele’s op-ed is ridiculous — “trust Republicans to defend Medicare!”, even NRO bloggers label it pandering — but Inskeep is clearly too close to this issue to conduct the interview respectfully. If Steele said contradictory/false statements, I was completely distracted by Inskeep’s badgering.
NPR needs an editor who’s willing to cut segments like this, not feature them on the home page!
Update: After listening again, what bothered me as much as Inskeep’s tone was his questions. He seemed to have an agenda to box in Steele as an anti-government ideologue (he is, but this isn’t particularly enlightening) and make the point that, since Steele agrees that Medicare is useful, that his opposition to another government plan is illegitimate. Much of the interview seemed like a jab at air.
I thought it was great to hear someone from the media actually challenge a politician on their self-contradictory, nonsensical statements. I do think Inskeep could have hogtied Steele just as easily with a more polite tone, but it didn’t bother me. If anything, if Inskeep had talked over Steele less, Steele would have had more time to tie himself in knots.