Remember when George Stephanopolous and David Gregory grilled Nancy Pelosi about the Left's 9/11 Truther Movement?

Neither do I.

NBC’s David Gregory hit John Boehner with it over the weekend, and now grilling conservatives about their beliefs concerning President Obama’s birthplace and faith seems to be an all-out media fad. I wouldn’t really mind that necessarily if it didn’t come at the expense of trumping other important topics — but maybe that’s the objective of the questioner(s).

In this example featuring George Stephanopoulos and Michele Bachmann, the subject change abruptly occurs as Bachmann is talking about the tax policy. Then when Bachmann is talking about the stimulus fail, Stephanopoulos changes the subject to Lady Gaga.

Ed Morrissey calls it Non-Sequitur Central.

Since when do random GOP legislators take responsibility for a fringe group, members of whom may be plants?

For the best example I can remember, rewind to 2006, when Brian Gibson lobbed underhand softballs at the least experienced presidential candidate in history, one Barack H. Obama. Compare and contrast:

Obama interview:

How does it feel to break a glass ceiling?
How does it feel to “win”?
How does your family feel about your “winning” breaking a glass ceiling?
Who will be your VP?
Should you choose Hillary Clinton as VP?
Will you accept public finance?
What issues is your campaign about?
Will you visit Iraq?
Will you debate McCain at a town hall?
What did you think of your competitor’s [Clinton] speech?

Palin interview:

Do you have enough qualifications for the job you’re seeking? Specifically have you visited foreign countries and met foreign leaders?
Aren’t you conceited to be seeking this high level job?
Questions about foreign policy
-territorial integrity of Georgia
-allowing Georgia and Ukraine to be members of NATO
-NATO treaty
-Iranian nuclear threat
-what to do if Israel attacks Iran
-Al Qaeda motivations
-the Bush Doctrine
-attacking terrorists harbored by Pakistan
Is America fighting a holy war? [misquoted Palin]

The Anchoress summarizes the difference in a sentence: "So there, you have it - another utterly insane day in American politics, where 'big time professional journalists' ask Presidential candidates how they feel about being so great while drilling vice presidential candidates on Russia."

Come to think of it, Jon Stewart has been far, far more credible than any network news personality for several years now.

By the way: Michelle Bachmann for President 2012.


Hat tip: Memeorandum.