NPR Offers Free Campaign Ad

UPDATE: You can listen to the “interview” here. Check out the huge block of time, in radio terms, that Kerry gets to offer campaign soundbites unrealted to the questions asked. By my count he has at least 60 seconds on the first answer and more than that on the second. imagine what that would cost if he had to pay for it.

I was just listening to NPR’s Morning Edition and witnessed Bob Edwards give John Kerry a free campaign spot. Edwards asked (I am paraphrasing) Kerry if the campaign at this point was about knocking him off his top spot or at least slowing him down. Kerry said roughly: You will have to ask the other candidates that, I am just focused on . . . He then proceeded to launch into campaign mode and give a diatribe against President Bush. He claimed that the current administration was the most beholden to special interest as any in Senator Kerry’s career.

Not content to give Kerry sixty free seconds of air time, Edwards then asked if his rise in the polls was attributable to his growth or the other candidates dropping (again rough paraphrase). Kerry once again, brushed off the question and launched into campaign ad mode. He basically gave a quick outline of his career in public life and once again tied it to how corrupt the Bush administration is; he used the word “disgrace” a lot.

It was one of the most blatant hijacking of an interview I have heard. Now, Bob Edwards bears much of the blame here for asking such lame questions and just sitting silently while Kerry gets uncontested free air time to promote his candidacy unfiltered, but Kerry’s robotic responses are equally lame. I fear if Kerry gets the nod then we are in for a repeat of Al Gore. Constant blasting of special interests and the tiresome us versus them mantra. I have a headache already.