Jay Carney: Obama’s Most ‘Substantive, Challenging’ Election-Year Interview Was With The Daily Show

The toughest interview President Obama had in the
run-up to the 2012 election was with snarky talk-show host John
Stewart, according to White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.

In an on-stage interview at George Washington University today,
the top administration communications official pointed to the
president’s sit-down with The Daily Show as the “most
substantive, challenging” grilling Obama had prior to the election.

Via RealClearPolitics:

JAY CARNEY: I remember we had some discussion during 2012 about
well, is it appropriate for the president, the sitting president
and candidate, to give interviews with Jon Stewart and others. And
the answer was yes, again because the young voters we were trying
to reach are more likely to watch The Daily
Show than some other news shows. But also, I think if you
look back at 2012 and the series of interviews the sitting
president of the United States gave, probably the toughest
interview he had was with Jon Stewart. Probably the most
substantive, challenging interview Barack Obama had in the election
year was with the anchor of The Daily Show. 

That’s a feather in Stewart’s cap, and a reflection of his
formidable skills as an interviewer (for a more recent example,
witness the interview he conducted with Health and Human Services
Secretary Kathleen Sebelius shortly after the launch of Obamacare’s
exchanges). Stewart really is extremely good at drawing out his
subjects, at getting to the point, and at focusing more on
substance than on soundbite-driven news-cycle controversies.

But if you think Carney’s remark is true, it’s also something of
an indictment of the mainstream journalists who are supposed to be
holding the president accountable. If the president isn’t squirming
a bit under questioning, and his staff don’t consider the
interviews he sits for to be tough or challenging, then that’s a
problem.

Of course, that’s hard to do without access. And this White
House has not exactly made it easy for journalists to question the
president, especially those with national audiences who might be
most eager to press him on tough subjects.

During much of the 2012 campaign, the White House minimized its
contact with national press, favoring local media outlets that were
easier to bargain with. By August of that year, the president had
been
interviewed just eight times by national media, and 58 times by
local news. Local news reporters were given ground rules that
most national press would have been unlikely to accept: The White
House
chose the topic of the interview in advance, and then limited
the length of the interviews to just 10 minutes, meaning that even
if a reporter wanted to deviate from the predetermined topic, there
was little time to discuss anything else.

National media ought to be willing to subject this president (or
any other, from any party) to tough, rigorous interviews. But the
White House and its communications team ought to be confident
enough to subject the president to fair but critical interviews
about his statements and policies. That they are not probably tells
you as much or more than many of the softball interviews he ended
up giving.