Dave gets serious

There are a lot of people who can't stand watching David Letterman. He's cranky, they say. I don't get his humor, others say. He keeps repeating these bits that aren't funny, still others say.

I can see where they are coming from. After 23 years, Dave has firmly established his fanbase, and it is unlikely to grow or change. I happen to be a fan; his absurdist takes on the late-night talk show genre -- silly stuff like "Will It Float?" -- still make me laugh, even if he isn't as consistently funny as he once was.

But even Dave's detractors can agree on one thing: he is the best interviewer on the late-night scene. On the occasions where he wants to conduct a serious interview, whether it's with a government official or a network news anchor, he does so with curiosity and a desire to get a satisfying answer, just like a reporter might do. He doesn't mug for the camera like Conan, or sit there blankly thinking of his next question like Leno. Dave's engaged and it shows.

Take his interview with Shepard Smith on last night's edition of the Late Show. Dave probed the Fox News Channel anchor, who had just gotten back from the devastation in New Orleans, about what the conditions were like down there and how reporters were able to get down to the areas where people needed the most help and the relief workers could not. Smith did not lighten or varnish his remarks; he went into detail about some of the horrors he saw and marveled that the scenes he witnessed could happen in the United States. It was a remarkable interview, one that I'm not sure any of the late-night hosts -- even Jon Stewart -- could have accomplished. You can see a snippet of the interview here, under the "Big Show Highlight".