Tim Russert Doesn't Want You to Read This
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Here is some of the stuff from Arianna Huffington's new book, Right is Wrong, that NBC's Tim Russert has worked himself into a lather over and doesn't want you to read.
On Russert pumping up the panic:
Take Tim Russert, whose July 1, 2007, Meet the Press interview with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff was about as priapic a display as you're ever likely to see outside of a porno film or the monkey cage at the zoo, with Russert desperately trying to get Chertoff to pump up the panic meter...You could almost hear the blood rushing to his loins--and the palpable sense of deflation when Chertoff refused to stroke his fantasy.
On Russert being the White House's "best format":
In the meantime, the White House adopted its standard operating procedure: farm out the really vile stuff to surrogate sleaze-peddlers while dispatching its press secretary to Meet the Press to take the high road...Tim Russert didn't blink an eye--proving once again why his show is your "best format," as former Cheney communications director Cathie Martin described Meet the Press while testifying during the Libby trial.
On Russert as a purveyor of conventional wisdom:
It's no secret why the arbiters of conventional wisdom get so defensive when these kinds of questions are raised: their opinions helped lead to the war in Iraq, so anytime the conventional wisdom is threatened, they rise in its defense...Exhibit A came during Barack Obama's appearance on Meet the Press on December 30, 2007. Tim Russert, one of the temple guards of conventional wisdom, used one of the classic weapons in its defense: the straw man.
On Russert's "EZ Pass" journalism:
On June 6, 2005, Meet the Press featured Ken Mehlman, then chairman of the Republican National Committee. It was another classic example of why host Tim Russert has become journalism's answer to the EZ Pass, those electronic tags that allow drivers to go through toll booths without having to stop. On the show, Mehlman was allowed to distort, twist, manipulate, obfuscate, and disssemble his way through every stop on the disinformation highway.
You can get the full details in Right Is Wrong.
Follow Jason Linkins on Twitter: www.twitter.com/dceiver
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OUR VERY OWN CHICAGO MAYOR RICHARD DALEY
[THE FATHER OF THE CURRANT ONE]
SAID IT BEST:
"THERE IS NOTHING LOWER THAN THE MEDIA"
I think all the crooks in Chicago area Gov't are much lower, like both Richard Daley and his crook son, Obama and his crooked buddy Tony Rezko and all the rest of the pols on trial this week.
If I wanted to get honest "news" without any spin, what television station could I watch?
FSTV ...Free Speech TV
go to democracynow.com and find a station.
DemocracyNOW! is a good start, and you can get both audio and video downloads automatically for daily viewing. Goodman addresses relevant issues without sensationalism.
Colbert, Stewart and Maher are welcome oases in our mainstream media desert, but they're not reliable sources of information since they don't cover all that many issues and often have to skew a story for the sake of humor or are simply providing the interview platform needed by the radical Right to promote their myths.
Being informed is not a passive endeavor, nowadays.
Comedy Central. Stewart and Colbert.
Anything else is garbage.
BBC NEWS AMERICA - one hour, every night, presented by matt frey, from bbc's studio in washington dc - also a great source of information for those americans who want to know what's happening in the rest of the world - without the spin
C-SPAN Washington Journal 7am-10am EST - On Television it is spin free as it gets. The viewers calling in give you a real view of America in place of media pundits. Beyond that all televison has spin, it seems to be a question of what spin you want. If you want spin free your gonna have to be your own reporter and go there.
Current TV is facsinating and underrated. Viewer created TV and viewers vote to pick what goes on. I dont think it gets bettter than that.
The Colbert Report opened my eyes to McCain's lack of faith in a higher power. If he thinks that he needs 6 lucky charms with him at all times and panics in their absence, that's a powerful statement of where he draws his strength from, and I would dare say that it isn't from a place of faith.
Mmmmmm, I'd say the source of religious faith is the same as the source of faith in fetishs and charms.
Exactly. If you're voting based on McCain's 'faith' , then you're the reason our economy is in the gutter.
Jason, His interview and questions of John McCain were pathetic. He ask McCain a straight question, McCain would flim flam, and then pull out his standard, "Look Tim, the American people don't care about that, what they want is blah, blah, blah. Russert lets himself play their fool, he's an embarrassment to his profession. Tim got an answer to HALF of the questions he asked McCain, and let him flim flam the hard ones.
What exactly would you like him to do? Start shouting McCain down? Grab him by the lapel and call him a liar? He asks a question. McCain answers. Russert asks a followup. McCain answers. It's up to the viewer to decide if McCain is being forthright or not.
Russert should tell him he did not answer the question. He should re-phrase the question and come at it from another perspective. Or he should ask about the assumptions that went into the initial answer or the logical extension of the answer. Often the follow-up questions would be the best part of an interview and cause the interview subject to think creatively. Charlie Rose is capable of asking insightful questions and Jon Stewart is an excellent interviewer who can really make subjects think on their feet.
Misses the point.
What Russert and the MSM want is "access". Access means viewers. Viewers mean ratings. Ratings mean profits for the corporate parent.
So, Russert will rough up someone he doesn't think he needs--or that will need him. But, if he roughs up an Administration person, or a high level Member of Congress, they worry about access.
Sorry, but redefining "water carrying" as "concern over access" goes beyond mising the point, and is simply offering an excuse; take a good look in the mirror Mr. Abrams, and try to get a grip on the fact that you've been conditioned to the point of making excuses for MSM pundits and their lack of basic integrity.
Economic corporate considerations linked to government official access--despite the MSM moguls' constant obsession with such considerations--does not change the ethical ideal that supposedly drives journalistic integrity.
Botton Line: when you go "soft" on account of anyone's profit, you have SOLD OUT.
I still remember how annoyed I got two weeks ago when Russert kept saying that Obama "refuses to place his hand on his heart during the singing of the national anthem..."
Someone should tell this clown that placing your hand over your heart is required during the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance, not the national anthem. How many people do you see in football stadiums with their hands over their chests during the playing of the Star Spangled Banner? I guess they all are anti-American.
Tim knows. Believe me, he knows.
Distraction/deflection- political sleight of hand- oldest trick in the book and Americans fall for it time and time again.
Fact-checking 101 should be taught from the first grade on.
Ahhhh Jason is at it again. This time he jealously trashes Tim Russert. Why not talk about what a mean and terrible journalist Bill O'Reilly is? Not surprising there is not one word at this site about Hillary's interview with him. When good things happen to people you liberals hate, it's completely ignored. Let's see if lightweight Obama has the guts to do the same. Doubtful. This morning he sent his wife to explain what he can't seem to.
Mack20: 'he sent his wife to explain what he can't seem to'. Hillary Clinton sends her husband out to campaign because she's got no personality; everyone knows what a hustler Bill Clinton is. I'm glad to see Michelle and Obama being interviewed. She's fabulous and articulate. He should have brought her out a long time ago.
Maybe she should appear on The Factor for her husband?
Sheesh! Ok, he's a mean and terrible journalist. Satisfied? As for trashing Tim Russert, that master of feigned concern, well, it's a dirty job and all that.
"Liberals we hate"? Do you really think Hillary is still a liberal? After all the pandering and selling out about flag-burning, gun loving, and the vote for authorizing Iraq War? She's a Corporate Democrat. Look at the number of earmarks and the contributions she's received from the corporate benefactors of those earmarks.
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/favorfactory/
I donate $25.00 each time one of these patriotic pink white men start with the flag pins, and "bitter" crap Wright, Flag pins, what fools!
Was it not Obama that called those people you describe as bitter clingers? Keep throwing your money to a lost cause. Maybe you will gain some character from your experience.
My issue with the bitter & cling comments..... the phrasing was wrong but the sentiment is the essence of the point. Rural and Urban voters do tend to vote against there best interests and then vote on issues that aren't relevant to what will truly help them. And yes you must be living in a bubble if you don't think people are bitter with the policies of BUSH and the GOP.
Sometimes the truth hurts. Pain is temporary though. I've been bitter since 9-11-01, when my country failed me.
If people are not bitter after the incompetencies and failings of the Bush years, they have simply given up.
I donate 25 every time these media whores take the low road.
oh Yea, I am one of those hicks that grew up on a 100 acre dirt farm in Missouri.
On 9/11 our family set down for dinner and my boys ask me what I think, I said, our biggest problem is the federal government is in charge of our security......... might seem prophetic today but in reality I did my tours in Viet Nam with the 26th Marines.....it was just experience.
I'm going to donate $5.00 to the Obama campaign every time "the Big Head" mentions Rev. Wright, flag-pins/patriotism, elitism, and racism. It should be a decent donation if Tim keeps on the same track that he and every other gigantic mouth on NBC or MSNBC have been on for the past month.
Don't volunteer to send $5 every time Andrea Mitchell mentions Rev. Wright or you'll go broke! I'm beginning to think she has a crush on the guy.
or Chris Matthews.
Thanks Arianna
Tim-eh sold us out.
He should no longer be considered a journalist but rather just another shill.
Unfortunately, if you want an honest political round table, you have to pay for it, on HBO. However, we'll have to wait until August for "Real Time with Bill Maher" to return. Bill gives honest, intelligent conversation a chance, in the form of guests like, Arianna, Matt Taibbi, Jeremy Scahill, and others. Anyone that doesn't think the right wing has a stranglehold on the "free" media, is kidding themselves.
Russert is the male equivalent of that thing Randi Rhodes called HRC.
Nah, more like what McCain called his wife.
...allegedly.
Perhaps a bit of both!
when Obama goes on MTP this Sunday he should wear a flap pin that is like 8" x 10" and lights up. That would be hilarious! And when Porky Pig asks him about it he can just politely say: "I am just showing my patriotism". LOLOLOL!
All the candidates, and every American, should be required to have a full-color flag tattooed on their foreheads, That would solve all our problems.
You'd use up a whole lot of ink to cover that forehead of Tim's.
LOL!
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