Meet the Press guest host Gregory sat by while Lott issued falsehoods

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

http://mediamatters.org/items/200508220009

On the August 21 broadcast of NBC's Meet the Press, substitute host and NBC chief White House correspondent David Gregory let Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) falsely claim without challenge that he had been "supportive" of President Clinton's position against setting a timeline for withdrawing troops from the Kosovo conflict in 2000. Gregory also failed to challenge Lott's inflated claims about Iraqi troop and police readiness.

Gregory did not dispute Lott's contention that there are 171,000 "capable" Iraqi police and soldiers, even though the Pentagon has acknowledged that the figure Lott cited includes many Iraqis who have received only the most basic training and equipment. According to a Pentagon report to Congress -- the unclassified portion of which was publicly released on July 21 -- roughly 171,300 members of the Iraqi armed forces had "completed individual entry training" and were "equipped with basic equipment." The Pentagon has reported that a far smaller number are actually capable of engaging in counterinsurgency operations without U.S. support. Similarly, Gregory was unprepared to correct Lott's revisionist history on Kosovo. Prior to interviewing Lott, Gregory interviewed Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), who on August 17 had called on the Bush administration to set a timeline for withdrawing all U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of 2006. Gregory pressed Lott to reveal his position on setting a timeline for withdrawal by referencing Feingold's remarks:

GREGORY: You heard Senator Feingold talk about not a deadline, he says, but a target date for withdrawal by the end of next year. Is he right that it's important to tell the Iraqi people and the Iraqi government that American forces are not there for good, that they do have to stand up on their own and stop the violence?

But Gregory failed to note a falsehood in Lott's reply. Lott justified his opposition to setting a timeline for withdrawing troops from Iraq by misrepresenting his prior position on doing so in Kosovo:

[ironman202]

1. Press the Meat

[EST]

2. I got the impression

Gregory felt he had an "in" relationship with the audience and was almost laughing at the creep. He kept returning and calling Lott out on issue after issue, letting everone sample his pathetic attempt to give a BJ to everyone, including the same inconsiderate, greedy jerks who set him up.
Maybe I am too willing to allow for a certain amount of intellect in the other guy and an easy mark.