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TPM Eddie Award Update - 3 Nominees - Campbell Brown, Rachel Maddow & Katie Couric
We are getting a great response today on the TPM Eddie Award for Journalistic Accuracy.
Based on your helpfully pragmatic input we will run this for the week, providing updates throughout, with a winner to be announced each week on Friday. Nominees so far include Campbell Brown, Katie Couric and Rachel Maddow.
Nominees so far...
Campbell Brown of CNN for "So what if Obama were a Muslim or an Arab?"
Katie Couric of CBS News for her interviews of Sarah Palin
Rachel Maddow of MSNBC for her interview with David Frum on her own show
Comments on the nominees? Other heroes of the fourth estate we should consider honoring?
Based on your helpfully pragmatic input we will run this for the week, providing updates throughout, with a winner to be announced each week on Friday. Nominees so far include Campbell Brown, Katie Couric and Rachel Maddow.
Nominees so far...
Campbell Brown of CNN for "So what if Obama were a Muslim or an Arab?"
Katie Couric of CBS News for her interviews of Sarah Palin
Rachel Maddow of MSNBC for her interview with David Frum on her own show
Comments on the nominees? Other heroes of the fourth estate we should consider honoring?
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This is a great idea.
I nominate Contessa Brewer interviewing Nancy Pfotenhauer about McCain's economic plan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9LgSafIqDw&eurl=http://www.truveo.com/Pfotenhauer-on-McCain-MSNBC-101408/id/1136855676
I think Campbell Brown should be given an Eddie for her Tucker Bounds push back a few weeks ago.
I know you want to be more timely, but it really set a great example for all journalists.
Nancy Pfotenhauer
October 15, 2008 1:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nancy, thanks for the Contessa Brewer interview, thanks! She is in the mix.
Also, good point on Campbell Brown in that her commentary was less a push back on the facts and more a statement on how low we as a country have sunk if Arab=Scary...Do you have a link to her interview with Tucker?
October 15, 2008 1:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYYiw_y2qDI
October 15, 2008 1:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks, Andrew! This was a classic.
October 15, 2008 1:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Totally.
October 15, 2008 1:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
As our estmeemed Deputy Publisher perhaps you should be a judge for the Eddie?
p.s. the new Movable Type interface TOTALLY ROCKS!!
October 15, 2008 1:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is just great. But what about something for the CNN report that set it all up?
An Eddie Emeritus? An Eddie with a giant #1?
That sounds a little risque . . . so I think we should do it. Wolf will be so pleased.
October 15, 2008 2:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Great point, we at least should include CNN's posting on the McCain speech, the one that triggered this whole idea, in our first nominees.
October 15, 2008 2:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think Nancy Pfotenhauer's name at the end of my post was leftover from my initial draft.
October 16, 2008 11:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
What does it say about the MSM that all three of the week's nominees are women?
I find that statistically curious.
October 15, 2008 2:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Claudia,
Good catch! Now that you have called out the "elephant" in this room - I would be very interested in the thoughts of all on whether or not there is something to the fact the first names that have come up when we think - TRUTH IN JOURALISM - are...so far...all women.
Gregory
October 15, 2008 2:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Okay, my turn.
For consistently speaking truth to power...for calling it like it really is...I give you Keith Olberman of MSNBC in his Special Comment last night
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuP-IeIF3gk
October 15, 2008 2:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
My first pick is Rachel because she is so remarkably brilliant with great insight. But Keith runs very, very close.
He was the first to walk that tightrope and call them as he saw them when all of the media was swinging on the right wing tire swing. We on the left applauded him since he seemed to be the only sane MSM pundit for years. Unfortunately some in the blogosphere thought he was too hard on Hillary when he simply did what he always did - told the truth. Then many started calling him the left's version of Billo the clown. Bullshit, I say!
For spending many years speaking truth to power when it definitely was not fashionable - Keith Olbermann deserves at least 2nd place!
October 15, 2008 4:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
I vote for Campbell Brown. I think her 'so what' column hit a real nerve and exposed the undercurrent of inherent racism (black and white) that this race has spewed on the airwaves.
October 16, 2008 12:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
Plus, that Rachel and Keith are accurate is not new. They are viewed as liberals, and so of course a liberal web site would like what they have to say. It's the Campbell Browns of the world that we need to award when they start doing their jobs.
October 16, 2008 12:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
I vote Katie Couric. Not many people took her seriously before those Palin interviews (including, I suspect, the McCain campaign) but she was tough and classy and told The Story. But all the nominees are respectable. Interesting, but not surprising, that they're all women. The men in cable news are knuckleheads. Except Anderson Cooper--he KILLS on Sesame Street.
October 16, 2008 12:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
So here we are and The Final Debate (a.k.a. The Joe the Plumber debate) is over.
Did anyone see a nominee out there for the Eddie based on their work in the post debate commentary?
October 16, 2008 12:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
David Gergen for his simple "I don't know" response to the CNN moderator question about what he would advise McCain to do next after the debate. Beyond a doubt the most rfefreshing bit of candor from the panel after panel of pompous herd-following biased buffoons.
October 16, 2008 10:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
1. Rachel Maddow (her upside to the head of Frum was deal-maker of the ar).
2. The independent investigator for the Alaska Ethics Board that is also investigating those found by the legislative invetigation to have been involved one way or the other with the Palin's criminal violations of law.
3. Gwe Ifill for debate moderation.
October 16, 2008 1:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
I vote Katie Couric with Palin. A difficult line to walk; she walked it well.
Love Gwen Ifill's sense of humor. But she really wasn't great as a moderator.
October 16, 2008 8:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
Although I am an avid Rachel fan and I try to catch her show whenever I can, I had not seen this interview with Frum. So I was about to actually vote for Katie for accidentally skewering Palin.
Then I saw Rachel intentially skewer Frum totally off the cuff. She gets better everyday. Katie may have helped Palin look like an idiot, but Palin was going to do that anyway. Frum came out swinging and looking for blood only to find his own blood pooled at his feet.
I give this to Rachel for being able to think on her feet and just plain smack down Frum's false equivelancy claims. I cheered when I watched this. Katie's was funny, but she put little effort in.
October 16, 2008 9:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
The emergence of credible journalism in the form of Campbell Brown is one of the great media stories of 2008.
October 16, 2008 9:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
Absolutely, Frog Let. Campbell Brown has been a nice surprise, and the piece she did on anti-Arab and anti-Muslim prejudice was badly needed and, in this environment, courageous.
Great post, Gregory!
October 16, 2008 9:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
Current voting totals:
Campbell Brown 5
Rachel Maddow 3
Katie Couric 2
Contessa Brewer 1
Gwen Ifil 1
Keith Olberman 1
Please note that I have included nominees where we could remember the name. Also, I have limited the nominees to journalists.
So as we head into the home stretch in our first week of Eddie Award voting, the front runner is CNN's own - Campbell Brown!
And for IClaudia's benefit we have this running crosstab:
Female Journalists 5
Male Journalists 1
October 16, 2008 10:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
Greg,
Thank you for the crosstab!
I am torn here. I think that Katie's interview was amazing and, here's the tricky part, very deftly done. If she had mishandled it, Palin would not have been the story. Mean, liberal, reporter-ambusher Couric would have. As it was, Katie stayed just far enough out of the way to let Palin have all the glory. Not an easy feat and one deserving of recognition.
But the Campbell Brown piece has significant merit, too. We have been inundated with connections that equate Muslims with terrorists in ways all too familiar from the past for other "other" groups -- connections that may not be specifically terrorist, but strongly negative just the same. Groups who, for whatever reason, have been viewed as not-Americans and have paid for that in their work life, in limits on where they can live, and in their personal relationships. Calling attention to this is a reminder to those groups to not do to Obama what was done to them, in many cases not all that long ago.
I am going with Katie Couric, but it was a tough call. I believe that the interview deserves to be called a real, true game changer. Before it, Palin was on a roll. After it she began heading seriously downhill.
Can we give Campbell an honorable mention?
October 16, 2008 10:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
Rachel!
October 16, 2008 11:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
If we leave all our biases aside, whose work had an impact on the outcome? Couric.
October 16, 2008 11:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
I think Couric was favored by just being in the right place at the right time. I don't think the revelations Sarah Palin made during the interviews were a result of Couric's journalistic prowess. In fact, she asked pretty normal softball questions and seemed as shocked as the rest of us at the answers. But she did however need to keep a straight face, I'll give her credit for that. I mean, how can Couric keep a straight face after Palin answered "all of them" to Couric's softball question on what she reads?
You guys can give Couric credit. I think it is undeserved. Brown or Maddow should win. Couric is out of their league.
October 16, 2008 11:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
ooops "not in their league" :)
October 16, 2008 11:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
I dunno--if it were me interviewing Palin, I would have been second-guessing myself the whole time. Something to the tune of "That didn't reall mean anything, did it? She pieced together nonsense sentences instead of answering the question, didn't she? Am I going crazy here?"
October 16, 2008 12:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Another for Couric here. Those gosh-darn followup questions renewed my faith in Couric, and I hope we will be seeing her deliver the news for many years to come.
October 16, 2008 11:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
Seems like Katie is coming on strong!
October 16, 2008 11:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
Another honorable mention, or award that should be given even though it happened a while back; Chris Matthews interviewing
right-wing radio host Kevin James.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMMklhX74_w
October 16, 2008 11:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
What about Schieffer's moderator performance. I thought he did a good job. Kinda like a good official in sport, did his job (a much more open debate) and was forgettable (didn't let his ego get in the way of the action).
Also wanted to suggest nominating Eddies to media folks who legitmiately gave our team (Obama campaign) a tough time too. I am a bit of an idealist in that I think the media should do their job in both directions. I'm guessing that suggestion will go down like a sack of sh!t. But that's my opinion. Otherwise the award can be interpretted as a "pandering to the left" award.
Just sayin'.
October 16, 2008 11:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
I agree with you about journalists giving dem surrogates a hard time as well.
An Eddie should be non-partisan.
I have another nomination for this, though it's one journalist calling out another. When Joe Scarborough was spouting Republican talking points, Keith Olberman, off camera, chimed in
"Jesus Joe, why don't you get a shovel?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiiarNdxouc
October 16, 2008 2:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, here it is Friday and we have our first winner for the TPM Eddie Award for Journalistic Accuracy. And it goes to Campbell Brown...who just edges out Rachel and Katie.
October 17, 2008 11:24 AM | Reply | Permalink