CBS NFL host James Brown will soon be in the spotlight, thanks to his 60 Minutes interview with Eagles QB Michael Vick.
Sunday’s interview with Vick will be Brown’s 60 Minutes debut. While Brown has guest-hosted The Early Show and was once the host of a primetime show on FOX, this easily gives him his most non-sports exposure.
With that exposure comes scrutiny. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel says Brown will be the “second most-scrutinized person” during Sunday’s interview, arguing that if “the tone of the interview is at all soft or appears to let Vick off the hook in any manner, Brown is going to be skewered by observers.”
A New York Daily News column asserts that it will be “extremely difficult for Brown to emerge from the interview unscathed,” due to the perception that he will be too sympathetic. The Daily News notes that Brown’s “role at CBS Sports leaves a clear perception that he is a player’s guy, someone who wants to see Vick get a second chance. Vick’s selection of Brown as his personal interviewer underscores that notion.”
Brown visited Vick in prison and during home confinement, both for “background information” and to ask about a potential interview. But Brown told USA Today that “any relationship [he] has with Vick” did not make the interview “less hard-hitting.” In a separate interview with NFL Network, Brown said the interview was “not a puff piece.”
Still, Brown will face a very critical audience on Sunday. Just the fact that Brown, a sportscaster, is conducting the interview rather than one of the 60 Minutes regulars will likely be a cause for criticism. Quoting the Daily News, “[a]ccording to the drivel delivered by some critics, only a regular member of the “60 Minutes” cast is qualified, and tough enough, to make Vick squirm.”
Even if Brown conducts a fair interview, that may not be tough enough for some viewers. But despite any unfair perception that Brown is either unqualified or not objective enough for the job of interviewing Vick, the most important opinion in the matter may belong to CBS Sports and News president Sean McManus — who “never considered another reporter” for the interview, and hopes to use Brown more frequently in news coverage. McManus: “[Brown] worked this story for two years. I’m not sure anybody else could have gotten it without the legwork and constant contact.”
