'Impressive!' Couric Coos After Obama Sinks a Jump Shot, Smith Frets Over 'Enmity' from Talk Radio
Looks like - hardly a surprise - CBS's Early Show on Friday morning
will deliver a jovial and empathetic session with President Barack
Obama just three days after NBC's Today show had a friendly sit-down
with the President. Thursday's CBS Evening News previewed Harry Smith's
time with Obama on the White House basketball court, a segment which
ended with Obama successfully hitting a jump shot, to which Katie Couric
reacted: "Impressive!"
CBSNews.com features a video excerpt in which Smith
despairs over the "enmity" toward Obama from talk radio where he's
supposedly called a Nazi:
After spending time, out and about, listening to talk radio, the kindest of terms you're sometimes referred to out in America is a "socialist," the worst of which I've heard is called a "Nazi." Are you aware of the level of enmity that crosses the airwaves and that people have made part of their daily conversation about you?
Back to the CBS Evening News, "Mr. Smith went to Washington today,
Mr. Harry Smith of the Early Show," Couric cutely set up the preview, "for
a couple of one-on-ones with the President. An interview and
basketball." Viewers were soon treated to Smith's double-meaning
query: "The question that everybody wants to know. Can you go to your
right?" As he bounced the ball, Obama maintained: "I can go to my right,
but I prefer my left."
Over video of Obama missing the basket, Smith noted "he doesn't
always sink his famous jump shot," and Obama rationalized: "I've got a
few other things on my mind." Then, after he tried again and succeeded,
leading into Couric's "impressive" assessment, Obama proclaimed: "It's
like health care. I always come from behind. I finish strong."
From Tuesday:
> "Lauer to Obama: How Do You 'Move On' from the Vitriol, Sniping and Threats?"
> "NBC Nightly News Showcases Devotional Obama as Lauer Cracks: 'Spirituality Meets High-Tech!'"
- Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.
