Posts Tagged ‘today show’

Five years ago I sat down with Matt Lauer on NBC’s The Today Show for a three-part interview.  Go here to MSNBC to revisit the entire interview (there’s video too).  Among the exchanges, here is one of my favorites:

Lauer: “What about the timing of this book? You’ve been working on it for four years.”

Kelley: “I have.”

Lauer: “Why release it 50 days before what is a hotly contested, incredibly divided election?”

Kelley: “Why not?”

Lauer: “Well, I’m asking why?”

Kelley: “I mean, why not? It’s relevant.”

Lauer: “Do you want people to read this and do you want it to influence their choices as they go to the polls on November 2nd?”

Kelley: “Matt, I want them to read this book. It’s an important book. There are relevant themes here. Is it going to change an election? No. I wrote a book about Frank Sinatra; I still love his singing.”

Lauer: “He’s an entertainer.”

Kelley: “I wrote a book about the British royal family. The queen still sits.”

Lauer: “Nobody goes to the polls to vote for them.”

Kelley: “I wrote a book about the Kennedy family. There’s no more revered family…”

Lauer: “They weren’t in office at the time.”

Kelley: “…in the country. No, they weren’t in office.”

Lauer: “Ronald Reagan was out of office when you wrote about him.”

Kelley: “True.”

It should be an entertaining April.