MSNOW’s Morning Joe just wrapped up—as it frequently does—interviewing an actor. Today, it was Simu Liu talking about the science fictional ideas behind his new series, The Copenhagen Test. He did well, talking about the nature of privacy and hacking and trusting our own sense. But as he was talking, I wondered why they weren’t interviewing the writer who came up with the idea for the show. After all, their focus was on the concept underpinning it, so wouldn’t the best interview be the person who created that?

Intellectually, I know, they interview actors because viewers know the actors and don’t know the writers. But if they’re talking about the ideas, it occurred to me, they ought to be talking with the people whose ideas they are.