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Kyra Phillips' "Doh!" Moment (Or, "Was there a question in there?")
CNN's Kyra Phillips would do well to track-down Bonnie Anderson and BEG for a lesson-or-two in preparation before embarking on her next assignment. While she's at it, she might also consider taking notes and tucking them under her pillow before retiring for the night. Finally, someone needs to teach her (and, for that matter, most of her colleagues) how to pose a question calculated to draw information and relevant responses from her subject. (Sadly for her, Ms. Phillips seems to have watched one-too-many Tim Russert interviews during the course of her training.)
Memo to Kyra: It is NOT about you! Watching the video of her Fox-News-Moment with Gen. Petraeus was painful, but regrettably familiar, as she posed her "question" (such as it was). Her O'Reillyesque preface was so laden with editorial comment, regurgitated second-hand hearsay, and erroneous premises that when the General finally had a chance to respond, I almost expected him to say: "I'm sorry. What was your question, exactly?" Fortunately for her and CNN, he kept his dignity, passing up what must have seemed an almost irresistible chance to humiliate her. (One imagines that the almost incomprehensible question presented what soldiers refer to as "a target-rich environment.")
At least one of the two people on-camera knew how to handle the moment.
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