Tom Brokaw is a Joke
Look at the wimpy way he questioned Al Gore about his mansion on Meet the Press last Sunday:
MR. BROKAW: Let me ask you about your personal lifestyle, because it’s been the subject of a lot of dialogue on the blogs, as you know. You and Tipper have bought a big home outside of Nashville, and you had it retrofitted. But for a time there was a comparison between what the president has in Texas at his home as being more environmentally correct than your home. The Building Green Council gave you its second highest award. But Stephen Smith, who is with the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, is troubled by the scale of your home. He said, “We all need to evaluate what we … need in square footage.” Present company included. We all have to look at scale, don’t we? Why was it necessary for you to have a 10,000 square foot home? Because that is going to be more energy intensive than a smaller home for just the two of you.
VICE PRES. GORE: Well, there—I don’t claim to be perfect, and all of us who care about this issue are, are trying to do our part, but I, I will say this. We buy green energy. The issue is carbon. The issue is carbon, and we have, essentially, a carbon-free home. We buy from wind energy and solar energy. Our roof is covered with solar electric panels, a geothermal system with all these deep wells, and we cut our natural gas bill by 90 percent, and I’m, I’m—we’re, we’re walking the walk and not just talking the talk. There are always people who are going to try to aim at the messenger if they don’t like the message, and I don’t claim to be perfect, but we are walking the walk.
MR. BROKAW: How often do you fly on a private jet?
VICE PRES. GORE: I’ve—much more frequently on public transportation. I’m flying on Southwest Airlines again today. But sometimes the schedule requires that, and sometimes I do that.
Brokaw’s question is so long because he feels compelled to equivocate within the question, providing some a defense for Gore within the question (the Building Green Council award), foisting the onus of the question on Stephen Smith, and generally dancing gingerly around the issue, as if he’s worried that Gore will be angry at him for bringing up something that “the blogs” care about.
Also, Brokaw leaves unresolved the documented fact that Bush’s home is considerably more environmentally friendly than Gore’s. He raises the issue of the comparison, without acknowledging what the comparison shows.
Imagine if Brokaw were interviewing President Bush with the same kid gloves. He might ask something like this:
MR. BROKAW: Mr. President, there’s been a lot of discussion on the blogs about the use of enhanced interrogation techniques utilized by some in the lower levels of your administration. Now the courts have looked at some of these issues and your administration has complied with their orders. But for a time, some people quested whether these techniques should be used. William Kristol notes that these techniques have undoubtedly saved lives, and that our country has averted a dozen or more catastrophic terror incidents. But George Will worries that we’ve damaged our international reputation, and that we need to be more mindful of how we’re perceived in the world. Why was it necessary to use these techniques.
Or if Brokaw interviewed Barry Bonds:
Mr. BROKAW: Mr. Bonds, you’re certainly one of the great players of all time. You have hit more home-runs than anyone in the history of the game. You played with speed and power, and earned more MVPs than anyone else. But for a time, some sportswriters were worried that you might have benefited from using performance enhancing drugs. Now, a writer at Sports Illustrated notes that the entire league was using steroids, and that if you were using them, you were just keeping up with the game. But another writer, at ESPN, argues that maybe you shouldn’t have used the steroids. Still, you should be in the Hall of Fame, shouldn’t you?