Incompetent Sunday Morning Talking Heads

Perhaps it’s the producers of the Sunday morning talk shows that are to blame for their uninformative guests and commentators.  May be I have watched too many of these shows.  No, neither of these explanations is correct.  A scowling Brent Scowcroft  (the United States National Security Advisor under Presidents Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush) would regularly appear on Face the Nation and Meet the Press and avoid answering almost every moderator’s question.  That was the failure of both the moderators and the producers.

Today’s This Week was an excellent example of a truly poor performance.  Larry Summers (top economic adviser to President Obama) gave vague answers to every question put to him by George Stephanopoulos.  Given Mr. Summers’ understanding of economics and the workings of government he should have been able to provide an understandable explanation to every question asked.  Instead he fumbled through the entire 15 minute interview.  Dithering Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was totally unprepared to answer any questions.  The outstanding question being where is the Republican budget plan was answered with the idea that they did not have a plan but that the GOP will offer numerous amendments to the administration’s budget plan.  The followup round table discussion provided little in the way of insights or ideas on where the government should go on any of the topics discussed.         

The Sunday morning shows need people like Tim Russert as moderators.  “Tim Russert, … was a gifted and cunning Sunday-morning interrogator who, while never quite disturbing his genuine persona or television’s conventions, used his outsized position on “Meet the Press” to rattle many more politicians than any of his on-air rivals did.”  As David Remnick wrote in The New Yorker.  I like David Gregory but he just does not have the authority needed to conduct this program.