Coupla quick asides here on each snippet of video. For the in-studio segment, I can't help but marvel at how much better and insightful this interview is than the last one Joel did with Katie Couric trying to play "gotchya" with Bible quotes read from note cards.

For the second, I'll just add my two cents on what a great format this was for both Joel & Victoria. Mighta been nice to see a few more questions and perhaps a little less staged - not that I think you can get away from that notion entirely for this medium. Also ... Victoria homeschooling now? Interesting. We knew that Lisa Comes did the same and the two households live just down the street from one another.

And since this is the final media moment from the New York tour, one other comment: Joel definitely looks a lot stronger in the interviews he did this week. There was obviously some good prep work done in lining up some favorable media types (ex. - Robin Roberts/GMA) to balance out some of the more predictable pieces that promised to be more challenging (60 Minutes). In the end, I think it showed which media outlets and interviewers were approaching their time with Joel with a degree of understanding about his book, his background, Lakewood in general, etc ....

To the extent that 60 Minutes didn't, it still wasn't entirely awful by any means. It simply comes across looking a bit more like any of the other outlets' first interview with Joel or any other evangelical Christian that doesn't quite fit into one of the cookie-cutter formulas that are convenient to report.

I'd be shocked if Joel didn't get a bit of media prep done before this media swing. Such things are common. But still, when you've got a few Larry Kings to your credit, and numerous other major media outlets as well ... there's got to be a temptation to think you know enough to make the most of those appearances. About this time last year, I was wondering exactly what it was that anyone saw as beneficial to making some of the appearances out there (again, back to Katie Couric here ...). Obviously, someone saw a need to "come up higher" in the ability to sit through these types of interviews. Job well done.