Warren Piece

I really hate to pick on NBC three times and religion twice in 24 hours (oh, who am I kidding?) but I thought this little tidbit from Mediaite was pretty entertaining:

"Ah, to be Rev. Rick Warren on a 'very special' Thanksgiving 'Meet the Press.' Despite being connected to a Ugandan minister who supports the death penalty for gays, you don’t get asked about it... and you aren’t pressed to explain your 'I’m not a politician' position while calling abortion a 'holocaust' and discussing your public position in opposing same-sex marriage in California.


The most heated questioning -- if you could call it that -- came when David Gregory asked Warren to explain his role in supporting Proposition 8 in California, which outlawed same-sex marriage."

And was a big controversy, oh, a year ago.

In Gregory's defense, I think he thought he was talking to Chuck Todd.

Quote of the Week (Early Contender)

"[C]oming on Meet The Press allows you to frame the conversation how you really want to...and then move on. You can see (sic) you have done your interview and then move on. Consider it."

-- E-mail from Meet the Press host David Gregory to an aide of Republican South Carolina Governor, Romantic Ambassador to Argentina, and habitual "line-crosser" Mark Sanford

RIP Meet the Press: 1947-2009

(h/t Cesca)

Press On

From the "Rumors are Always True" department:

Eight-foot tall chimpanzee look-alike and occasional Karl Rove dance partner David Gregory has apparently landed the prime gig on the Sunday morning news show circuit: The Huffington Post is reporting that he'll be the new full-time moderator of NBC's Meet the Press.

His people won't confirm it, but Gregory's been the frontrunner to take the reins of the show since Tim Russert's sudden death back in June.

On the positive side, Gregory was one of the first in the White House press corps to decide that he'd had enough of the Bush administration's horseshit and would no longer allow poor Scott McClellan to lie his ass off and get away with it. On the negative side, it took as long as it did for him to get to the point of being fed up enough to do his job.

Also, he's a lightweight of the highest order when compared against his predecessor -- a TV personality as opposed to a rabid-dog newsman.

Oh yeah, and there's the aforementioned Karl Rove thing, which, in less unprincipled times, would've disqualified him immediately.