Jalopnik: matt lauer

Ford CEO Hits Today Show, Says Nothing

Ray Wert — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 13:40:00 EDT

Ford CEO Alan Mulally was up early for a Today Show interview in New York with NBC's Matt Lauer. Lauer fearlessly probed Mulally, peppering him with a slew questions. Smiling like a Cheshire cat, Mulally non-answered every one of them.

The only real answer Alan "Boeing! Boeing!" Mulally gave was when Matt Lauer asked the question of whether Ford's the underdog with federal help. He claims they support the decision. But then when Matt asked Mulally whether he believed GM could turn into a Vietnam-type situation for President Obama. Alan answered only by saying "We are focused on Ford and we're making the best cars and trucks consumers...will value..." Then something like "Have you seen the new Ford Taurus outside?" Decline to answer and then...pivot back to message. This guy's pretty good with the whole "message" thing, ain't he?Here's the video of Alan "Message" Mulally parrying, pivoting and answering absolutely nothing on the Today Show today.

Today Show's Matt Lauer First Journalist To Drive Chevy Volt

Ray Wert — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 12:30:00 EST

We knew the Chevy Volt would increase global levels of smugness. Here's Matt Lauer, crowing about being the first to drive it to CNBC's Phil LeBeau — and that was only a test vehicle!

VIDEO: Chevy Beat Today Show Skirt-Lift

Ray Wert — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 10:00:00 EST

We showed you the little screen cap earlier, but here's the full video of this morning's Today Show Lauer skirt-lift on the Chevy Beat.

John McCain Thinks We'll Have 100-Mile-Per-Charge Batteries By Election?

Ray Wert — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 10:20:00 EDT

So we had the Today Show on in the background this morning while getting ready to run over to NPR when we heard some story about gas prices. We glanced up and noticed a guy who looked exactly like John McCain talking to Matt Lauer. We mean, it looked like McCain, it sounded like McCain — he even moved his cheeks like McCain! But the words coming from his mouth were like those from a crazy man. This nutty doppelgänger told Lauer he thought the possibility existed that we could have a car battery capable of running a car for...wait for it...100 miles on one charge. By November. And, of course, that this new "magic superbattery" would change the gas prices game. Huh? Wait. What? Does he know something we don't? Who is this crazy old coot? We've got the transcript below from the above clip — judge for yourself.

Matt: Come November, what do you think we'll be paying for a gallon of gasoline?
Crazy Old Coot: I'm not sure. Part of it depends on how it looks like we are making advances to alternative energy.
Matt: Can we make advances in that short time?
Crazy Old Coot: I think we can certainly show some progress in development of a battery that'll take us 100 miles or so before we have to plug it in. We need concrete plans with nuclear power. I don't think it'll [gas prices] be dramatically changed [in November], but...I don't think it's going much lower.