ESPN's Bob Ley interviewed Republican presidential candidate John McCain today at the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, as the Worldwide Leader attempts to give equal time to both candidates after Stuart Scott interviewed Barack Obama last month.The problem, though, is that Scott gave Obama a puff piece, complete with a game of one-on-one that ended with a hug. Somehow I can't see Ley and McCain hugging it out at the NASCAR track.
ESPN tells me they don't know yet when the interview will air, but I'm betting that when it does air, we'll see that Ley asked tough questions, because he's a good journalist. And I'm sure the McCain campaign will use Ley asking McCain tough questions and Scott asking Obama softball questions to bolster their claims that the media is biased against Republicans, because that's been one of the key McCain talking points in the last couple of weeks.
ESPN should have assigned Ley to both the Obama interview and the McCain interview. As for Scott, he didn't realize it at the time, but he was doing McCain a big favor by treating Obama with kid gloves.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-14-2008 @ 11:56PM
Matt said...
I don't care what kind of journalist Bob Ley is, he is no Brokaw or Rather and he needs to leave the political issues to someone else. If there are issues in sports that need addressing (PED use is one that comes to mind.....a football team cheating is NOT) then by all means they need to brought up.
The fact is that ESPN has an opportunity to do something that no other media outlet has a whole lot of interest in doing: teaching us about the men who vie to be the leader of our nation. I just found out yesterday that McCain doesn't use a computer because he can't use a keyboard, but still has an "encyclopedic knowledge" of baseball and adores Ted Williams. That to me is fantastic and brought a different level of respect to John McCain, regardless of where my political ideals stand.
Show me a man who isn't interested in sports and I'll show you a man who is far less likely to be a true leader. ESPN needs to stick to what they know....sports.
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9-15-2008 @ 2:16AM
Martin said...
NEWSFLASH:
The media is composed largely of people with liberal viewpoints and is biased against the conservative viewpoint. Just look at the tenor of the political "news" articles written by the AP since the Republican convention.
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9-15-2008 @ 7:37AM
Dean said...
ESPN did themselves and Obama a disservice by letting Stu Scott interview him.Scott is more worried about kissing up and furthering his own image than he is being a reporter.How the guy still has a job is beyond me, he is unwatchable.
I mean did he get the interview because he is black or did they think he was the candidate for the job?
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