Just watched the president's appearance last night with Jay Leno. It was better than the last one but it was still someone asking a political figure questions that the political figure wanted to be asked before a TV camera and was quite prepared to answer.
I understand why some hosts want to engage in such "interviews" for the ratings value and the prestige. I understand why other hosts want to boost their chosen candidates or leaders by having them on and lobbing them softballs. Leno would probably be the best example of the former; Sean Hannity typifies the latter, having inherited the mantle from Keith Olbermann. (I liked Olbermann's commentary and reporting but did he ever ask anyone a question the interviewee didn't know was coming?) And of course, I understand why the politicos love those opportunities. I understand it all…but don't like it.
I don't see a lot of interviewers or reporters out there who strike me as fair in the sense that they'll ask tough questions of everyone. If there are such people, they don't get the guests; not when there are so many venues where a political figure can appear and get a hot stone massage. These days, Reince Preibus of the Republican National Committee seems to be angling to cut down on Presidential Debates next time around, the theory being that the G.O.P. hurt itself with all those debates in which Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry and Herman Cain tried to outdo each other dragging the party not to the right but to the nutcase right. It would not surprise me if next election, we never see the major candidates get into a situation where they can't control the questions asked of them.