David Gregory is Terrible

David Gregory is the host of NBC's Meet the Press. Recently, it was reported that NBC News has been using a psychologist to find out how to improve the show, which Gregory has taken from a longtime first in the ratings, down to third.

I will tell them why, for free.

First, the viewership is changing. They want more polarization, which is why Bob Schieffer -- easily the most closed-minded, incurious, and biased of the Sunday show hosts -- is doing so well. (I've got plenty of examples of his carelessness: they often involve his explicitly stated surprise, when interviewing conservatives, that anyone could possibly believe what millions of conservatives believe, like when Michele Bachmann stated the fact that not increasing the debt limit wouldn't necessarily result in default on the federal debt.)

But Gregory himself is a big part of MTP's problem. He is not very smart or prepared, for starters. He may try to prepare, he may work hard at preparation, but at the end of the day, he isn't well-prepared. He doesn't ask insightful questions, at least, no more insightful than any of their average viewers could come up with. He is overshadowed by pretty much everyone on the show, guests and journalists alike. And he has a very clear ego problem, and often tries to insert his own opinions into a discussion, rather than trying to moderate the discussion.

That's not to say he's terrible. It's easy to find clips in every show where he is doing a fine job, certainly better than Schieffer. But when he asks dumb questions, when he inserts himself, when he doesn't understand his interview subject well, he is going to lose viewers. And it happens regularly.

A great example of how to do it the right way is George Stephanopolous. He is the one guy who, recently in his career, was a leftist spokesman for a Democratic President. But he is, far moreso than Schieffer and Gregory, well-prepared and fair and understanding about his conservative interview subjects.

Personally, my favorite is Chris Wallace, not because he is more conservative, but because I think he's the best moderator and best interviewer of the bunch. But Stephanopolous takes a close second. Gregory doesn't even get an honorable mention. Schieffer has a negative score.