Scott Whitlock picked the wrong day to complain about softball interviews.
A May 11 NewsBusters post by Whitlock grouses that in 2008, ABC conducted a “friendly interview” with Osama bin Laden’s son and “tossed softballs” to him. But when it comes to softballs being tossed by NewsBusters’ own bloggers, however, that’s perfectly fine.
Meanwhile, a few hours earlier, a post by Lachlan Markay features his interview with David Freddoso, author of the Obama-bashing book “Gangster Government.” Markay immediately buys into Freddoso’s premise, saying of the title of the book, “I don’t want to call it hyperbole, obviously it’s not.” (He does concede that it’s “a very inflammatory term, almost.”) The rest of the interview as transcribed is Markay teeing up softballs for Freddoso to answer at length with no challenge from his interviewer.
Whitlock’s criticism might have come off a little more credible if his own organization could demonstrate that it can conduct interviews other than the softball kind he purports to loathe.