On today's Good Morning America Diane Sawyer, complete with her "Somebody stuck a Christmas tree up my butt" facial expressions, interviewed the mother of Omaha, NB shooter, 19-year old Robert Hawkins. Sawyer's line of questioning was the usual watered down garbage, but worse was the fact that Maribel Rodriquez, Hawkins' mother, was not ready for this type of event at all - the pain of her son's actions is just far too fresh and the country isn't through passing it's initial judgment on Hawkins and what he did.
But that never stands in the way of ABC or any of the other media outlets when it comes to getting the scoop. This interview was painful to watch - lots of extended pauses, a shattered parent trying to hold all of that emotion in, and Diane Sawyer's irritating facial expressions and fake empathy - it was all there. Whatever you think of Hawkins or how Rodriguez raised him, you have to admit that this particular interview was ill-timed and ill-advised for ABC and for Ms. Rodriguez. It was just too soon.
Weather "Ken Doll" Sam Champion had one word for the interview when Sawyer went to him for the national forecast - "Riveting". No, not quite Sam, disgusting is more like it, because network news is not about information, it is about the scoop. It is about getting the damaged families of the shooting victims on TV as soon as possible-first, it is about getting their hands on the mall surveillance tapes and getting them on the air-first, and it is about getting the mother of Robert Hawkins on the air and pseudo-grilling her-first.
Congratulations ABC and Diane, you won, you got the exclusive! You also just further established GMA as a half-assed news source, Diane Sawyer as a horrid interviewer, and ABC as a network willing to do anything for the story. Most telling was Sawyer's comments after the segment wrapped - "and by the way, as Ms. Rodriguez left, she broke into tears." Nice Diane. I wonder, did we really need to know that, or was that just your way of capping yet another half-witted attempt to try and be a news breaker? Nevermind, just go away.
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