Exclusive Interview with Dan Abrams: The Man Behind The Abrams Report

Originally Published November 28, 2005

Dan Abrams, host of MSNBC's The Abrams Report, is living his dream. When he graduated from Duke University in 1988, Court TV did not exist. (It launched July 1, 1991.) Television news legal reporters and analysts were rare. It would have been hard then for Abrams to picture himself hosting his own legal talk show, but he says that if his job had existed when he graduated, it would have been his dream job.

Abrams has worked hard to get to this point in his career. He began as a reporter for Court TV, covering trials from Dr. Jack Kevorkian to O.J. Simpson. He then joined NBC News in 1997. Abrams has since covered the Oklahoma City Bombing, President Clinton's impeachment trial, the Bush versus Gore post-election battle, and of course all present issues ranging from the war on terror to Natalee Holloway to Scott Peterson to Michael Jackson. When Abrams was covering his early cases, he knew they were big trials, but he did not know it would propel him to having his own talk show. Abrams recalled, "Certainly the O.J. Simpson case was a turning point in my career. The Bush v Gore legal battles were certainly a turning point as well. I think that in the end, a talk show is a very different animal. You can be a great reporter and not be such a great talk show host. So I think my success on our show has been in part luck and in part that there has been some level of connecting with the viewers."

And connecting with his viewers is exactly what Abrams is doing. He is compassionate, which seems to be rare for both reporters and news show hosts. If you watched the October 19th episode of The Abrams Report, you would recognize how evident it is that Abrams lets his feelings be shown. California attorney Daniel Horowitz went on the show for his first live interview since the murder of his wife Pam Vitale. Abrams began the interview by expressing his sorrow that the interview had to be under such circumstances and that he knew it was a hard topic for Horowitz to talk about. Abrams ended the interview with this statement: "Good luck. And as I say this to you, I say this on behalf of so many of my viewers who have written in to offer support to you, and my staff as well. They say that they are wishing you the best. That their thoughts and prayers are with you and we will do what we can to help catch Pamela's killer. I promise you that." It is refreshing for viewers to observe reporters acting in this manner, so that they realize reporters are human and do have emotions. They are not robots who regurgitate facts without a hint of emotion in order to remain completely neutral.

Abrams makes sure to follow this protocol. "At least what I try to do on my show is to be as honest as I can with the viewers, and say look here's where I'm coming at the story from, so there's no questions about, 'Well what's his bias?' I think by laying it out for the viewer I'm avoiding the issue of bias. Because no one can say I'm biased. They can say I have an opinion about something." As Abrams said, being a great reporter does not mean you can be a great talk show host. Yet Abrams handles both jobs elegantly. He has no problem interviewing people with opposing viewpoints. It is inaccuracy on the part of his guests that he refuses to stand for. "A lot of the time people will say, 'Why do you interrupt people? Why don't you just let them finish their thought?' Well the reason I do that sometimes is because I think it's important not to let people make some sort of inflammatory comment and then try and turn the corner and make it seem like they didn't make that comment - which is what you see on TV a lot, particularly these professional talking heads. You'll see them make an attack and say, 'But that's really...' and try and turn back. I'm not going to let them do that. I'm not going to let people get away with either a dishonest or inaccurate premise to what we're talking about because I think that does the viewer a disturbance," Dan said.

For Abrams, it is all about the viewers. Each night he wants his viewers to learn something from The Abrams Report. Abrams believes that the public trusts journalists a lot less now than they did 15 years ago. According to him, the media has become everyone's scapegoat - liberals think the media is too conservative and conservatives think the media is too liberal. Abrams also thinks it is because some members of the media like to think they are outsiders, so they criticize the media as well, which only adds to the problem.

In addition to presenting his own opinions, Abrams obtains the public's trust by encouraging them to express their opinions by emailing the show with their thoughts. The Abrams Report email box is filled with mail each night. Abrams, a truly dedicated host, reads the emails himself prior to the show. He stated, "Some people think I'm a total moron and I would hope most people think I'm very good at what I do. But doing what I do, you will never get unanimity of people. You will never get a unanimous vote of people saying, 'He's great.' I read our emails every day and I know there are people out there who think I'm awful. And you know, I'm okay with that. I think as long as the vast majority of people think I'm doing a good job, even if they don't agree with me, then I'm doing my job right."

Dan Abrams is not only following his dreams, but he is setting new standards in journalism as well.