Sign up for The Media Today, CJR’s daily newsletter.
MSNBC’s Carlos Watson was joined this morning by guest-co-host (and former New York Governor) Eliot Spitzer. Guest co-hosting a news show, of course, can require small talk on any number of topics, and in this case, at one point, it involved a discussion of Has Michelle Obama Changed The Role of First Lady? (and the answer is, apparently, still yes– with her clothes). Which was part of a larger conversation about Having an African-American Family in the White House, all part of MSNBC’s “Obama’s First Six Months” coverage. (Doesn’t “The First 100 Days” coverage seem like it was just yesterday?)
Anyway, it made for some awkward airtime, as Watson, Spitzer and Touré (MSNBC pop culture analyst) stood around a small table and discussed How The Obamas Have Impacted Our Culture Thus Far. In part:
TOURE: The importance of family is really powerful with this guy. The date night thing was so huge. [Pres. Obama] took his wife to New York, to dinner at a great New York restaurant…
WATSON: Put a lot of people to shame…
TOURE: …and to Broadway. If a busy guy like him can make time for a date with his wife, you can too, I can too…
Spitzer stood silently by, smiling, and only weighed in moments later, when prompted by Watson, with generic comments about how “the president has already been transformational” so “let’s hope it continues” because he faces very “difficult issues…”
Has America ever needed a media defender more than now? Help us by joining CJR today.