oblig·a·to·ry
adjective \ə-ˈbli-gə-ˌtȯr-ē, ä- also ˈä-bli-gə-\
1: required by a law or rule
2: always or often included as a familiar and expected part of something
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Ah the harsh competition for the coveted cardiac fitness center demographic.
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“Our corporate masters have spoken and we’ve answered their call”, said Mitchell. “Good luck, Chuck.”
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I didn’t watch the show, my television knows not to go to that channel on Sunday morning. Just curious though, did Lindsey Graham and John McCain bake him a going away cake?
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Oh, I think Gregory filled Tim Russert’s show to a tea. They both wore “red” track shoes!
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Paraphrasing Shakespeare: I’ve come to bury Caesar but I will offer some faint praise.
Did Andrea draw the short straw?
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NBC would never allow Hayes or Maddow to become hosts of this show.
The Sunday talk shows operate under an essentially unstated but pretty clear credo:
We will invite people primarily from the Village and for the most part, we will avoid grilling them…we might ask a tough question or two once in a while, but we will not get aggressive with follow-ups. More often than not, whatever they want to say, we’ll go ‘Uh huh’ and then either move on to the next question to say, ‘Sorry we’re out of time,’ and move on.
Yes Hayes and Maddow have demonstrated a real skill in talking to people who matter to a given story and skillfully so. Maddow is especially good at professionally interviewing people who are not progressives and her technique of often asking subjects whether she has properly characterized their stands and statements is an excellent one.
But the powers that be on the networks run the Sunday talk shows for one primary reason: They are beholden to Washington for their licenses to operate on the public airwaves. In return for having those licenses, they are not likely to rock the boat by subjecting the power brokers to intense grillings.
Today was a good example and it wasn’t even one of the talk shows…it was CBS Sunday Morning and there was our favorite GOP 'wonk" Paul Ryan.
There isn’t an economist yet who has been able to take one of Mr. Ryan’s numerous plans to reform, revise, “strengthen”, or alter the federal government’s budgets, the national debt and the economy and make it work mathematically. To make them work ultimately demands that there be massive cuts in social programs.
But far be it from reporters to ever raise such embarrassing questions. Instead Mr. Ryan is “pressed” to say whether he is going to run again for high office and then his lovely wife is asked if she is ready to run again amidst lots of jocularity and no real answers.
Such is what passes for tough journalism in today’s modern age.
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Bye bye, David. Don’t the doorknob hit you on the way out! Oh, and here’s a LOVELY parting gift:
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No one has commented on the fact that Gregory is not just leaving MTP----he’s leaving NBC altogether.
Lo! How the mighty are fallen.
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What? No appreciation of his footwork? Not even a clip of him cutting a rug with Karl Rove? It’s an outrage.
Feet of clay.
I don,t know but I think Chris(I answer my own questions)Matthews better start letting people get wodrs in edgewise or he may be next.They cut his repeating of shows and they also cancelled his Sunday show,Hints ? Maybe.
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“Watch ‘Meet The Press’ Say Goodbye to David Gregory”.
No.
And you can’t make me.
What did Gregory do to deserve a big sendoff? I don’t recall them doing the same for Russert 
He sucked. Good riddance.
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What a week for Charlie Pierce to take a vacation !!!
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Tweedle Dum, Tweedle Dummer
Be that as it may, Fox News will soon be launching a “Welcome David Gregory” program for your continued enjoyment.
RichardinSanJoTPM prime memberRichardinSanJo
32m
Tweedle Dum, Tweedle Dummer
This is the dominant reaction on the net and I say it’s totally wrong. Gregory is a hermaphroditic pretty boy from women’s fashion trends on the Today show.
Chuck Todd is a total political geek.
The real question is, “Can Chuck attract and hold and audience” and I don’t think it will be easy.
Gregory had the worst of a bad bunch of Sunday morning talking head shows. They barely made a pretense that it was a news show. The pols would show up, announce their talking points for the week with a modest amount of prompting from Gregory and that would be that. It had all the excitement of posting a notice on a bulletin board, which is about all it amounted to. If a hard question was asked it was strictly by accident.
I understand that the major politicos have the show intimidated–no hard questions or they won’t show up. Better to get secondary and teritiary players and try and ask them some real questions.
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