The Fourth Estate.

RIP.

For those keeping score at home, that's Sawyer 1, Gregory negative absolute zero.

That's how the world works, and it's hard to know what to do about it.

Ask David when he was cloned from Dennis Cole.

Free Press in action. How sad we keep the right to bear machine guns but lose the right to ask a follow-up question.

The sycophancy of Gregory and the rest is sicker than I ever imagined.

No wonder I quit watching MTP after Gregory's first week.

We are doing something about it. We read TPM instead of the LA Times, and we watch Youtube instead of Meet the Press.

Their ratings are on a long decline eventually to end up in the sewer of history.

None of these shows will be around in 20 years, maybe even 10 so take heart.

Instead of watching Meet the Press, I go here:

http://www.moonshinepatriot.blogspot.com/

Much more enlightening.

I think I prefer the realism of '†he Dating Game' to 'Meet the Press.' Less scripted and the contestants have more integrity.

This is why they should have hired Gwen Ifill. No way she does this.

Gregory should be fired immediately.

It's hard to know what to do about it? That's just the way the world works? You gotta be kidding me. This isn't the way it has always worked. It's a matter of having some professional standards and ethics. Like the rest of our elites, the journalisitic elite is no different: corrupt to the core and totally devoted to their own profit and fame. Sickening.

“I ran the wrong kind of business (prostitution), but I did it with integrity”

Sydney Biddle Barrows

Do you think they would have made the same type of offer to a Dem governor in similar circumstances...say Eliot Spitzer? I think you know the answer to that.

I am reading the obituary for, "Meet the Press." Tim Russert must be rolling in his grave. MTP was the show that never laid down; never rolled over. Here's Gregory flat on his back, legs spread, inviting Sanford to pick an orifice.

Meet the Press
Born
November 6, 1947
Passed Away
December 14, 2008
Rest in Peace

How poetic that this story is juxtaposed with the passing of Walter Cronkite. A true reflection of an age that has passed us by, and we are worse off for it.

I don't think anyone commenting here has ever had to actually deal with a press office.

Someone answer me this: if you were a reporter and your goal was to get Mark Sanford on your show/on the phone/in your studio/whatever, how would you have pitched your email to his press office?

"I know Sanford is up to something! Cut the bullshit and please have him call me for an interview!"?

These emails look pretty gross, but this is simply how the game is played. Any halfway decent reporter knows she has to suck up, lie and use any other means she can to circumvent a press office whose entire purpose for existing is to keep serious questions away from its boss.

If she's a good journalist, she'll still manage to ask the tough questions once she gets the interview.

And if she's a great journalist, she'll be able to get another interview a few months later.

It's actually pretty easy to speak truth to power. It's not easy to get it to speak back.

Judge these guys based on the quality of their reporting, not their behind-the-scenes finessing, which doesn't necessarily bear a relation.

Never trusted Gregory or Russert. And u can't be dancing with Rove. Can't do it David. You're suppose to be a journalist, making less than half of what they make, not socializing with them, being suspicious of almost everything that comes out of their mouth, etc. But instead you're a shill, and a bad one at that. Not even slick or convincing. Christ, what is it u do?

Under Bush it was like a fascist country here, with the media putting out the Bush war message every day while being paid by our most powerful corporations to do just that who in turn profited greatly. Don't know what else to call it.

So do what I do. Don't watch the corporate news crap ever. Pravda had more news integrity than these ass*k clowns.

I remember when Gregory was the dopey low on the totem pole reporter standing in the snow storm at Blue Canyon reporting for the crappy local station with snow stuck to his face...

I was happy they sent him to 5000 feet to get the news van stuck then and I am glad he is 3000 miles away whoring in DC.

Man's got to know his limitations...

Not only do the e-mails not surprise, might we find out Gregory sent along a case of wine or some other gratuity to boost his chances?

I've pretty much stopped watching the Sunday morning lineup. I don't care anymore.

For those who used to watch the Sunday Morning "talk shows", partisanship became more obvious after Senator Obama became President. I am willing to watch criticism, but not whining. That could have been controlled if commentators (as they are not necessarily journalists) started asking first and follow-up questions or challenging the guest about what they were saying. This is a repeat of what we have seen before when broadcast news sold the GWB BS about Iraq.
Gregory is not alone, but he is unable to overcome his own political bias to make any political discussion relevant to the public.

Most of those reading and responding to this post don't listen to these talk shows and use alternate sources to read and research the claims that are made.

It is a sad state of affairs when every action has a political spin. When Gregory offered Sanders time in the national media to "spin" his own story, it says more about Gregory than Sandford. Commentators should have the wherewithall to state their political position before presenting a guest commentator, so that those who do watch know that what they are watching is a biased political drama, not news.

Gregory sold his soul while at the WH...and he has taught this lesson to Todd (who says that Congress should not investigate Torture because the WH wants the public to focus on the Economy and Healthcare). Who are these guys trying to fool?

Should Gregory keep his show, I don't think so, but it is not my decision. NBC should watch their own ratings drop and if they want to keep an audience, admit failure and take action.

DC-based media has sold out because they claim to survive comes down to "maintaining access." To put Sanford on public trial by asking the questions most on viewers minds would result in no one agreeing to go on a "hard-hitting" interview show.

This is another example of how ratings and producing a profit has compromised the whole notion of a fourth estate to protect us from politicians.

let's see: on one hand we had names like walter and tim and now we have (lucky us) david gregory.

We just have to remember that television shows are there to entertain us, and nothing more. Even the local news shows are shaped to entertain - when was the last time you watched one of those and actually saw relevant news being dispensed?

If you can find a way to get past the corporate bias of newspapers you may have a shot at getting real news, but even there, the front page is driven by the need to entertain us.

It is the profit motive that prevents any published news, whether on TV, in the print media, on radio, and increasingly on the internet, from being an open, aboveboard, honest reporting of factual news. We need to cherish the few years we will get of internet reporting of actual news. Just watching TPM develop should illustrate that. My bet is that by 2015, at the latest, TPM will be adjusting its reporting to be favorable to the wealthy corporations too.

Hopefully, by then a new media will emerge, and we will be able to trust that media for a few years too.

Why in God's name would anybody believe a word anyone says on the Sunday shows?

When I see Gregory, I can't help but see him frugging again merrily, a backup dancer for the versatile song-and-dance man Karl Rove. That's the Gregory here caught whoring after a Sanford interview. That's the man/newsman he is.

And that image of the cozy establishment insider reporter dancing with Rove -- I really can't stand to have it come back to me. So I don't watch Gregory, ever. Why does anybody?

Cal Gal said that Tim Russert said that he ASSUMED everything told to him was "off the record" unless the person said "for the record..."

A journalist doing an interview assumes, and sticks to it, that everything is ON the record unless the interviewee and the journalist agree to make something OFF the record.

"Uh, in fact, yes, I've made my career dealing with press offices, and you don't make promises, period."

Where do you see Gregory promise Sanford anything in those emails? He's saying, put the governor on my show and I'll ask him about his disappearance and give him a chance to spout off — which he's going to do anyway. He's couching his request in friendly terms because to do otherwise would guarantee Sanford rejects his offer.

Just to be clear: Gregory may well be a hack — I've never watched MTP so I don't know. But the outrage over these e-mails, most of which show nothing more than some artful but meaningless finesse in the reporter's attempt to get a politician into their studio, displays complete ignorance of the profession and naivety about politics.

And I have to laugh at those commenters holding up TPM as the model for aggressive, objective journalism. I read TPM every day and love it, but it's 100% partisan. Marshall's last big "get" was an interview titled "A Chat with Al Franken." It consisted of the two men sitting inches apart on a futon in visible adoration of each other.

What do you think Marshall's e-mail to Franken's press office for that one looked like?

Gregory's first e-mail was OK -- all he promised was a "fair shake." But the second was basically corrupt.

Zachary Roth finishes this piece with:

" The politicians themselves have the power to make or break the networks, by granting or withholding access. That ends up meaning that, consciously or not, the networks soften their approaches -- both in their pitches, and in their actual interviews -- in exchange for that access.

That's how the world works, and it's hard to know what to do about it."

What to do about it takes more guts than the nets have these days. But ask yourself what Cronkite would have done if he had a show where these people refused to come on unless they were guaranteed softballs. What Cronkite would have done is reported that. It would be the story.

If it was a story on Sanford, he'd have people on who WOULD go on the record, and he'd offer Sanford the chance to make his points as well. If Sanford refused, he'd still have a good story, it would still be good TV, and it would be honest.

I swear that I am sick near to death watching these blow-dried fops praising Cronkite for the style of reporting that got him passed over by CBS, which was looking for a younger man with a better haircut.

"coming on Meet The Press allows you to frame the conversation as you really want to."

This quote kind of makes me happy that the mainstream media is dying. These gatekeepers stand in the way of us not only having meaningful dialog but actually making our democracy work.

David Gregory would defend the status quo with his dying breath.

Die mainstream media die, you lying traitorous money grubbing a**holes.