KIRSTY GOES A-ROVING

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Time to begin catching up.
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Thursday's Newsnight began on the theme of high-speed rail. The transport spokesmen - and spokeslady - from the three biggest parties were gathered for interview by Kirsty Wark. Here's how the statistics break down for the encounter - and they're hardly surprising ones, given the interviewer:
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Theresa Villiers (Con) - 5 interruptions, I.C. of 2.1
Lord Adonis (Lab) - 3 interruptions, I.C. of 1.3
Norman Baker (LD) - 2 interruptions, I.C. of 0.9
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Then Peter Marshall, ignoring the present (including all those embarrassing scandals for the Democrats), turned back to the Bush era for an unflattering portrait of Karl Rove. There were three talking heads:
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- Norman Ornstein, American Enterprise Institute
- Wayne Slater, author Bush's Brain
- Paul Glastris, President Clinton's speechwriter, 1998-2001
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Mr Ornstein's one-and-only contribution consisted of little more than some uncontroversial general comments about how Mr Rove helped George Bush. Mr Ornstein, according to Wikipedia is "generally considered to be a liberal", even though he is with a conservative-leaning think tank. (Also see http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/norman-ornstein)
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Mr Slater of The Dallas Morning News is an out-and-out opponent and, if a Google-trawl is anything to go by, not popular with American conservatives. (The follow-up to Bush's Brain bears the title Rove Exposed: How Bush's Brain Fooled America). Here he attacked the 'viciousness' of Rove's campaign tactics. He got two bites of the cherry.
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That Mr Glastris, having being Bill's speechwriter and also being editor in chief of the left-leaning Washington Monthly, might also be a critic is hardly surprising.
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I've not reviewed too many of Peter Marshall's reports on this blog, having usually fast-forwarded through them (through lack of time), but those I have watched have tended very strongly towards the Left in their choice of 'talking heads': http://beebbiascraig.blogspot.com/search?q=Peter+Marshall
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Kirsty then interviewed Mr Rove & concentrated her questions on (a) WMD, (b) water-boarding and (c) 'turd-blossom'.
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