It’s your responsibility. You put a guest on your show, or a pundit, or a commentator, it’s on you. You (ostensibly) made the decision, and whatever happens, it’s yours to own. Simple.
Yeah, it’s about Pat McAfee and Aaron Rodgers, but it’s also about Kristen Welker and Elise Stefanik, it’s about Boris Sanchez and Jay Ashcroft, and it’s about news reporting and social media. It’s about how you react when a guest goes off the rails (or doesn’t). It’s about taking responsibility and responding in the moment.
What do you do when a guest begins spouting conspiracy theories? Forget that – what do you do when the guest goes way off topic, or steers the conversation into waters you’d just as soon avoid? What do you do when a guest resolutely refuses to answer an important question? You need to be prepared for that. It’s your show. You’re supposed to maintain control at all times. Lose that, and it’s not your show anymore.
It’s fair to say that when you sign Aaron Rodgers as a weekly guest, you know what you’re getting. Same when you invite politicians onto your show. You know Rodgers is into anti-vaxx stuff and conspiracy theories, and you know the politicians are going to pull what politicians always do and answer the questions they want to answer rather than the ones they’re actually being asked. Knowing all of that going into a segment, you need to be prepared to push back, to challenge (whether or not, that is, you agree with the spin they’re offering), and to repeat key questions when they’re not being answered and not let it go until you get an answer.
Of course, it’s more than that. The mere act of booking guests like that is, for some, a problem, namely offering your platform to people who may not deserve a platform. Aaron Rodgers is a get, and so are prominent politicians in the news. The thing is, you know you’re going to get things out of them that aren’t what you might want to endorse.
Once you’ve opened your platform to those people, though, you really are endorsing them if you don’t offer any pushback when they say things that aren’t defensible. And the last thing you should be doing is being afraid to respond to a guest for fear they won’t come back on the show; if they’re going to do that, they’re not worth having as guests in the first place.
So, how should it go? Do you let someone spout falsehoods or unproven allegations and just move on to the next thing, like Kristen Welker did with most of Stefanik’s filibustering on Meet the Press last week? Do you yuk it up like McAfee and Rodgers (and can someone check A.J. Hawk’s vital signs, please? Maybe a mirror under his nose to see if he’s breathing)?
Or do you ask tough questions and refuse to move on until you get a clear answer? That’s what Boris Sanchez did with Missouri Attorney General Jay Ashcroft – he asked on what grounds Ashcroft plans to try to take Joe Biden off the ballot, and when Ashcroft would only cite the Texas Attorney General’s unspecified investigation, Sanchez kept at it, noting the section of the Missouri constitution that applies to the situation and insisting that Ashcroft answer the question, then bringing the interview to an abrupt end when Ashcroft couldn’t or wouldn’t answer. It was strong, compelling television and it made a larger and more salient point than politely moving on to another question would have provided.
I get it. Sometimes controversy sells. More people probably are aware of Pat McAfee now than before Aaron Rodgers went rogue after Jimmy Kimmel and Anthony Fauci, though judging by how I’ve seen McAfee’s show on every TV screen at every restaurant and bar at every lunch I’ve had out for months, I think he’s about as ubiquitous a TV personality as anyone these days. But it’s a long-term issue, and even if it doesn’t directly hurt business, it’s not the best long-term play to be known as someone who allows falsehoods – lies – to spread without pushback.
So push back when warranted. There are a lot of things with which you can have your name associated. Softball questions and acquiescence to conspiracy theories are not among the most desirable ones. Your platform is worth a lot more than that.
Perry Michael Simon is a weekly news media columnist for Barrett Media. He previously served as VP and Editor/News-Talk-Sports/Podcast for AllAccess.com. Prior to joining the industry trade publication, Perry spent years in radio working as a Program Director and Operations Manager for KLSX and KLYY in Los Angeles and New Jersey 101.5 in Trenton. He can be found on X (formerly Twitter) @PMSimon.
