Katie Couric’s Double Standard?
Taegan Goddard wonders, “Why did Katie Couric keep pressing John and Elizabeth Edwards on 60 Minutes last night about their decision to continue his presidential campaign when she didn’t give up her job as host of the Today Show when her husband was diagnosed with cancer?”
A fair question. Running for the leadership of the free world is arguably more worthwhile than banter about the newest diet fad and trends in cat fashion.
I think the answer lies more in the one dimensionality of Couric and CBS than in Edwards. It is an interesting question, but I don’t know if even John and Elizabeth could give themselves a straight answer, let alone each other or the whole world.
The tone of the questions “some say” I think was meant to generate sympathy for them.
I dunno, YAJ. “Some say” questions always strike me as thinly-disguised, weaselly attack questions, regardless of who asks them, but that may just be me.
“Senator, some people say you molest farm animals. How do you respond to that?”
legion,
I agree, the “some say” can absolutely be used as a way from distancing the questioner. But it can also be used to generate pity. The anonymous “some” who “say” can be thus portrayed as ignorant louts who are attacking the Edwards in their time of grief. If you are going to devout an entire segment of 60 minutes to one question, posed 20 different ways, then it would seem that identifying some of the “some” would make sense.
I think instapundit has a link to a compendium of just Couric’s questions. Listen to it and see if you get a feel of attack while hiding behind the “not me, but some” shield or as softball pitches for the Edwards to defend themselves against the mean “some”.
If I read one more story on this website that disparages the trends in cat fashion, there will be trouble of the ultra-wedgie variety.
I imagine this whole question of softball vs. veiled aggression s an eye-of-the-beholder thing dependent on anyone’s sympathies towards Edwards.