Oily, Creepy Bashir Replacing Koppel

Ted Koppel has been replaced on Nightline with a trio, including Martin Bashir of Michael Jackson documentary fame. Is there any doubt that TV news execs have given up any claim of legitimacy?

Fox News' Roger Friedman has a nice summary:

In the outtakes [of the Jackson documentary], as in the main doc, Bashir is, for lack of a better word, creepy. He baits Jackson, praising his strangest qualities during breaks in the filming. Jackson is flattered and pleased, but when filming resumes, Bashir then attacks the singer for the traits he only seconds earlier complimented.

You should know that Jackson's attorney Tom Mesereau played the outtakes video for the jury in full. It was a brilliant move, because Bashir is so awful that Jackson comes off as a victim. Mesereau counted on the outtakes to help get Jackson acquitted, and he was 100 percent right.

It's a weird and awful experience to see Bashir in action. The first time the interview was shown it certainly made every journalist in Judge Rodney Melville's courtroom question our own style of interviewing. I know that having seen this rare backstage look at Bashir's technique, I would be incredibly uneasy having him question world leaders on a news program.

His method of getting headline-making answers is as dishonest as it could possibly be. Not only does he heap adulation on Jackson, but he then turns to the singer's makeup woman, Karen Faye, telling her what an injustice it is that Jackson is so misunderstood by the public.

"It's terrible," Bashir says. "How can we tell the world who the real Michael Jackson is?" He then goes on and on at length about what a great parent Jackson is, and how if only the world could see him with his kids they would think more of him.

This is all off-camera. Then the lights go on, and Bashir begins slicing Jackson into little pieces. That's what Cabinet secretaries and the like can expect I suppose when they come to "Nightline."

Why would any Cabinet secretary bother? It looks like Nightline's going after an audience that is not exactly frequent voters.