He could have done better

I've got to say that I am a big fan of Providence Bishop Thomas Tobin who I think did reasonably well on his two recent TV interviews with Bill O'Reilly on Fox and Chris Matthews on MSNBC's Hardball. Here's the Matthew's interview. Keep in mind that Matthew's gets a thrill up his leg when he hears Obama speak.




The Catholic Civil Rights League in the United States was up in arms about the way Matthews treated the bishop.

Matthews proceeded with an extended and quite insulting lecture. He had absolutely no interest in a discussion on the question of the morality and legality of abortion—all he wanted to do was to make the bishop sit there and listen to his rant. Indeed, his tirade was simply over-the-top.

I think that every Catholic bishop who might do some media would do well to take a look at the Hardball interview and see what Bishop Tobin might have done better to prepare for it.

Matthews was tough and there was a point where he began interrupting and nailing Tobin with the same question about what laws would he support and how would he punish women who had abortions.

Sorry, bishops, but Matthews, as unpleasant as he was, was doing his job. He pushed on this point because he sensed weakness in the bishop's argument. It was Gotcha! The bishop was unprepared and Matthews struck.

The solution is not to duck these kinds of interviews, but to prepare for them.

This is war. This is battle. One must prepare for the fray. One must consider ahead of time what one's message is and hammer it home with the same force the interviewer is trying to hammer his or her opposite message.

Yes, the interviews have negative assumptions they set out to prove in these adversarial settings.

This is not going to change.

Now Bishop Tobin knows that he has to have something to say about what kind of legislation he and other bishops would support from a Catholic politician.

If abortion is to be illegal, exactly how? Would women be thrown in prison?

Or could he have said something about how the Church has a great deal of sympathy for women who believe they have no choice but abortion and as an institution does more than any other group to help women caught in these circumstances to give them a real choice: adoption, care during pregnancy and so on. As for the prospective laws---he has to have clearer messaging on what principles need to be involved in legislation against abortion.

I think Bishop Tobin came out standing after his Chris Matthews pummeling. But I hope he will not duck further confrontations but instead will be better prepared.

Do NOT expect time to be able to think on your feet in a segment like this. It is a good idea to have someone play devil's advocate with you in advance and think of the very toughest questions you can imagine with the nastiest tone you can imagine. Then craft IN ADVANCE your arguments and hone them until they become second nature.

Then trust the Holy Spirit to bring them to bear appropriately in the interview context.