NYU professor of journalism and PressThink author Jay Rosen has some thoughts on why “Meet the Press” moderator David Gregory is eschewing the idea of a show fact-checker, while “This Week” interim host Jake Tapper has embraced the idea.
I see two other possibilities for his refusal to adopt the fact check: one banal, the other more troubling. The banal: He’s too proud to adopt something that a competitor picked up on first; it would look like a “me too” response and he is the market leader, first in the ratings and heir to the chair that Tim Russert held.
The more disturbing possibility is that he thinks Tapper’s policy may give Meet the Press a competitive edge in booking guests who won’t want to be checked so vigorously. (As opposed to competing with an even better fact check, which would probably cause Bob Schieffer at Face the Nation to adopt the same policy, forcing the guests to accept the new rules or flee to cable, which has a fraction of the viewers.)
Advertisement
This story appeared in today’s Morning Media Newsfeed. Click here to receive the feed in your inbox every morning.