The Tonight Show With … President Obama?

Posted by Philip Dru on 6/03/09 • Categorized as Brave New World, Obama Administration

NBC was clearly thrilled to have enough access to President Obama to base a two-part, prime-time special on it all this week (Part II runs Wednesday night.)

Mr. Obama, however, went even one step further for the network – participating in a spoof interview segment for “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien” during his formal question-and-answer session with the NBC News anchor Brian Williams at the White House.

In the segment, shown on “Tonight” late Tuesday, Mr. Williams asked Mr. Obama whether he almost canceled his overseas trip this week “to stay and watch” Mr. O’Brien’s “first week as host of ‘The Tonight Show.’’’

Mr. Obama was fully game and, referring to Mr. O’Brien’s succession this week of the former “Tonight” host Jay Leno, joked, “This is something we discussed several times in the Oval Office, how to manage this transition between Leno and Conan. And I think he’s up to the task. But I just want him to know that there is not going to any bailout coming out from Washington if he screws it up.”

There was a time when such cross promotion between a network news division and its corporate entertainment sibling – during a presidential interview, no less — would have caused rebellion in the newsroom. It will be interesting to see what reaction, if any, there will be to this bit of stunt programming at NBC News.

It will also be interesting to see if there is any political blowback, especially from those who believe that some in the news media are too chummy with the president and his administration.

NYT | Jim Rutenberg | Wednesday, June 3, 2009

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