Everyone knows about Congressman Todd Akin’s grave misstatements on KTVI St. Louis’s Jaco Report Sunday, but he’s not the only one who dropped the ball big-time. How about host Charles Jaco for failing to push Akin on a response that anyone and everyone knew right off the bat was way, way off base? Where was the follow-up question(s)?
If you watch the clip from Sunday–it’s about four minutes into the linked video–after Akin’s fateful statement about “legitimate rape” and a woman’s reproductive system supposedly shutting down in that situation, Jaco looks down at his notes and moves on to the next question.
“Let’s go to the economy,” he says, and a chat about Paul Ryan’s fiscal policy ensues.
As the interview wraps, Akin and Jaco are chummy, with a hearty handshake, a “good to see you” from Jaco, and an invitation to come back.
It seems as though Jaco completely missed the fact that his interview would dominate the news cycle for the following week.
Jaco did not respond to an email for comment this morning. But he did acknowledge not being “fully engaged” during the interview on Talking Points Memo:
In hindsight, Jaco said he should have taken a deep breath and asked the congressman if he believes women’s bodies somehow prevent them from becoming pregnant after a rape. A number of viewers wrote in to express their disappointment that Jaco didn’t follow up. Jaco said he has apologized to each of them.
“When you’re not 100 percent fully engaged, and you’ve got anything else on your mind, you’ll miss stuff,” Jaco said. “We all brain fart sooner or later, and this is mine.”
Jaco’s reporting chops, listed on the Fox2Now.com site, are stellar: three George Foster Peabody awards, two Edward R. Murrow Awards, author of four books and a masters from Columbia.
We’ll give him credit for breaking a major story. But nothing more than that.
