Carl Bernstein was to have gone on the Today show next Tuesday, when his biography of Hillary Clinton is published; the competing book by Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta will be excerpted in the New York Times Magazine on Sunday. So who showed up on Today this morning? Bernstein, of course, in an interview with Matt Lauer.
Lauer’s questions were fairly general — and generally bland — but in the hours following, Bernstein’s book rose on Amazon’s list by about 90 positions and back into the top 100, where it was after last weekend’s publicity. Lauer is not the most incisive interviewer and follow-up is rare, although I will blame some of that on the “make it quick” nature of television and the sound bite mentality; my interest in this book lies in the fact that Hillary Clinton wants to be our next president. Who is she really? Bernstein himself had to make that point after several minutes, but right out of the gate he was able to say she “has led a camouflaged life and continues to and this book takes away the camouflage.”
It might also be the only Hillary book to mention Thucydides. Thank you for that, Carl Bernstein.
The clip of the interview and an excerpt of the book different from the one in the Times of London (see Bernstein Excerpt Available) can be found here. [link has expired.]
The Gerth and Van Natta excerpt is already on line here.
Photo © Gaspar Tringale
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