Frank Rich: 'Is David Gregory a Journalist?'

Talk about blue on blue violence. Sunday on “Meet the Press,” anchor David Gregory gave The Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald no benefit of the doubt when he asked his supposed media colleague if he should be “charged with a crime” over his work with NSA leaker Edward Snowden. Some in media defended and agreed with Gregory. New York Magazine’s Frank Rich did not:

Is David Gregory a journalist? As a thought experiment, name one piece of news he has broken, one beat he’s covered with distinction, and any memorable interviews he’s conducted that were not with John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Dick Durbin, or Chuck Schumer. Meet the Press has fallen behind CBS’s Face the Nation, much as Today has fallen to ABC’s Good Morning America, and my guess is that Gregory didn’t mean to sound like Joe McCarthy (with a splash of the oiliness of Roy Cohn) but was only playing the part to make some noise. …

In any case, Greenwald demolished Gregory on air and on Twitter (“Who needs the government to try to criminalize journalism when you have David Gregory to do it?”). The new, incoming leadership of NBC News has a golden opportunity to revamp Sunday morning chat by making a change at Meet the Press. I propose that Gregory be full-time on Today, where he can speak truth to power by grilling Paula Deen.

What Rich and Greenwald fail to understand, though, is that all things being the same other than Obama being a Democrat, I’d bet a month’s pay Gregory and his palace-guarding ilk wouldn’t even consider floating the idea that Greenwald broke the law.

The mainstream media doesn’t care one whit about ethics or bias. If they did, NBC would be getting pummeled right now for its sordid and ongoing history of malicious edits. Instead, the media choose to ignore those seven sins and instead pile on those who dare ding Obama, his agenda, or the Cause.

 

Follow  John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC