A Take on 2 New Shows

MSNBC's A Region in Conflict and ESPN's Pardon the Interruption

ANN ARBOR, MI MARCH 7 , 2002

Ashleigh (Don't call me Ashley) Banfield rose from being a reporter covering the 9/11 disaster to host her own primetime news show on MSNBC called A Region in Conflict.  What was the network thinking?   This show is awful.   Her interviews are brutal, and her style of walking and talking to us through disaster areas and foreign cities is bush league.  I assume at NBC probably received strong feedback on Banfield after her work at the World Trade Center site, and ran with it.  

This week Don Imus, on his show Imus in the Morning (also telecast on MSNBC), likened the show to "high school journalism".  During Imus' rant, executive producer Bernard McGuirk broke into a priceless imitation of Banfield: "Here we are in a falafel shop.  Here is a man eating a falafel...".  To paraphrase Imus, Hey Ashleigh, just go away!

Washington Post columnists Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon host ESPN's new daily talk show, Pardon the Interruption.  Despite my dislike of Kornheiser's column in the Post and his radio show, I think this show is solid.  

The show has an interesting format.  They line up a series of topics and allow a certain time frame (managed by a running clock) for Kornheiser and Wilbon give their takes on each.   I have seen the show a few times and wondered if the material would get tired after a while - it really hasn't.  One criticism - the 'role play' segment, where the hosts speak as if they were a sports figure in the news, is tired. 

The format may be the key - my guess is that the show would be much better if it were hosted by, say, Mitch Albom and Mike Lupica.  That said, pound for pound I would rather watch PTI than ESPN's Sunday morning show, The Sports Reporters.