NBC's 'Today' Spends More Than 11 Minutes Fawning Over Obama Late Night Comedy and College Tour
Throughout the Wednesday broadcast, NBC's Today repeatedly found time
to promote President Obama as funny, hip, and connecting with young
voters. Touting the President's appearance on NBC's Late Night with
Jimmy Fallon, co-host Matt Lauer gushed that Obama, "gave our colleague Brian Williams a run for his money when he helped Jimmy Slow Jam the News."
Highlighting Obama's tour of college campuses, Lauer and fellow co-host
Ann Curry conducted a four-minute live interview with a Colorado
college student who met the President when her yogurt was accidentally
spilled on him. Lauer teased the segment at the top of the show: "And what a mess! A college freshman gets the chance of a lifetime to meet the President. And then spills her food on him....The
President laughed it off, saying at least she's got a good story to
tell. She does. And she'll tell it to us in a live interview."
At
the top of the 8 a.m. et hour, news anchor Natalie Morales declared
that Obama's "day spent courting young voters" had made him "a hot topic
online." Besides the yogurt spill seen round' the world, there was
"also the goofy photo with a fan on Instagram," not to mention the
"surging video" of Obama's Late Night appearance.
In other news briefs, Morales parroted the President's talking points
on student loans: "In a move to woo younger voters, President Obama
revealed that he and Michelle finished paying back their student loans
only eight years ago."
In the interview with Colorado University freshman Kolbi Zerbest about what Lauer dubbed "Yogurt-gate," he and Curry demanded an in-depth account of the incident:
LAUER: This all seemed like it started really well. You were in the
right place at the right time. You got to get up close and personal with
the President. And then it took a kind of messy turn. What happened?
ZERBEST: Well, basically, Secret Service brought us a little bit closer
to where President Obama was supposed to be coming out of the
restaurant, and so, we were just waiting there patiently, and then he
came down this line of people, and we knew we were going to be pretty
like – we were pretty close so we knew we'd eventually get to shake his
hand. And so, as soon as he comes towards us a little bit more,
paparazzi come rushing behind us and right as I'm shaking his hand the
paparazzi kicks the bowl that I had placed on the ground onto the
President. And it was mine, so, obviously I took the blame for it.
CURRY: In fact, that was impressive. You jumped right in there and
said, 'Hey, this is my fault.' And – and – I think that he was impressed
by that.
ZERBEST:
Well, I felt bad. Well, hopefully. Because it technically was my fault
that I'd placed it there. But, I mean, I'm not the one who spilled it on
him or kicked it on him. As some of the stories have been told. So,
yeah.
LAUER: But then it resulted in a pretty long back and forth between you and the President, you actually got to carry on...
ZERBEST: Yeah.
LAUER: ...a conversation with the commander in chief.
ZERBEST: Yeah. Which was really surprising. I didn't really expect
that. I just expected him to shrug it off, try and clean it up a little
bit, and then just get on with walking to his car. To leave. So, yeah,
it was pretty exciting being able to talk to him for a minute or two, to
like try and exchange what just happened.
CURRY: Kolbi, it's hard to see from the videotape, but just how much yogurt got on the President?
ZERBEST: It wasn't a lot. Honestly, more of it got on me, the ground,
and on the Secret Service. So – it got on his trousers a little bit,
though.
In an earlier report, White House correspondent Kristen Welker
explained: "Now, the President laughed it off. And the White House
really is too, they say these types of mishaps are always a possibility,
especially since the President is frequently interacting with excited
crowds, and shaking a lot of hands."
Discussing
Obama 'Slow Jamming the News' with Jimmy Fallon, Lauer observed: "It
seems like a lighthearted moment but there's a real calculation. I mean,
the President obviously reaching out to Jimmy Fallon's audience and
those young voters who were – he's going to need, pretty much, in the
fall."
Taking a line from the comedy sketch, Morales wondered: "Can we start
calling him the Preezy of the United Steezy?" Lauer replied: "Not to his
face." Curry chimed in: "Yeah, let's do that, I like it."
In comparison to the adulation over Obama, Mitt Romney's string of
Tuesday primary wins was only given a mere 38 seconds of coverage
between two news briefs during the entire four-hour morning program.
-- Kyle Drennen is a news analyst at the Media Research Center. Click here to follow Kyle Drennen on Twitter.
