NBC Space Correspondent “Disturbed” By Pres. Obama’s NASA Cuts
President Barack Obama‘s NASA speech yesterday and new policy has seen its fair share of opinions from those in and around the program.
But one stood out – NBC’s 77-year-old space correspondent Jay Barbree, who very rarely goes political but certainly did yesterday.
Newsbusters caught the exchange during the NoonET hour on MSNBC with anchor Alex Witt, but it was a sentiment Barbree repeated throughout the day. “I’m a little disturbed right now, Alex,” said Barbree, before launching into his criticism of both the cuts and the stagecraft of the event:
The President came down here in his campaign and told these 15,000 workers here at the Space Center that if they would vote for him, that he would protect their jobs. 9,000 of them are about to lose their job. He is speaking before 200, extra hundred people here today only. It’s invitation only. He has not invited a single space worker from this space port to attend. It’s only academics and other high officials from outside of the country. Not one of them is invited to hear the President of the United States, on their own space port, speak today.
Witt, apparently looking for some sense of balance (or for MSNBC cynics, feeling a subconscious need to worship Obama), stepped up on and responded “on behalf of the Obama administration.” “They contend that 2500 new jobs will be created,” she said, but noted “understandably we get why you’re upset, right now.”
One of the reasons for the differing takes about what the result of Pres. Obama’s plan will be is because, so far, it appears very vague. But with Barbree’s pedigree and experience covering the space program – he has covered every manned space mission in the U.S. and has reported for NBC since 1958 – his critique is that much more pointed and important.
We may not see Barbree again until the NASA story is issue #1 for MSNBC, but his criticism will likely be echoed across the Sunday shows and beyond.
Here’s the exchange (via Newsbusters):
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