Russert Watch: 5-4-08: In Which we Propose a New Name for Meet the Press

[From the Columbia Journalism Review]

Some viewers are probably disappointed that Tim Russert devoted only the first fifteen minutes or so of Meet the Press to l’affaire Jeremiah Wright. (That’s by my count; Patrick Healy and Jeff Zeleny in The New York Times came up with eighteen minutes.) No surprise, Russert brought Wright up at the top of the show as if some impersonal mechanism had tossed him a ball and now it had to be kept in the air.

A generous interpretation would be that Russert felt obliged to keep after the Wright embarrassment because there were loose ends to tie up—and that, once they were tied up, Obama would be off the Wright hook unless any new muck rose to the surface.

It strikes me that Russert must think that he is obliged to rake through the muck when enough of it has piled up during the previous week. Here is how he broached the subject in his stentorian intro:

The epic Clinton and Obama battle continues. Issues such as the Reverend Jeremiah Wright and the soaring cost of gasoline and food prices dominate the debate.

“Dominate the debate” evidently means “dominate media coverage of the campaign.” So Russert must construe his role as channeling, compressing, and summarizing the state of play in the media. In this sense, giving him the benefit of the doubt, he volunteers to serve as an echo chamber. In which case the show might be renamed: The Press Meets the Press.

What struck me about Obama’s responses is how seriously he took the particulars of the massive derailment of recent weeks. He answered soberly—delivering, in Alessandra Stanley’s words in the morning Times, “long, thoughtful and professorial answers.” About “professorial,” I don’t know (but then I wouldn’t, would I?); to me, he sounded less smooth than that, more like wrestling with the questions, as opposed to delivering up textbook answers.

When Russert asked, “Is it fair for people to raise questions about your judgment for misjudging Reverend Wright?” Obama acknowledged that it was

fair for people to look at this episode—along with all the other things that I've done over the last twenty years. You know, when you're running for president, your life's an open book, and I think that people have a right to flip the hood and kick the tires—

and then struggled to bring the conversation back onto his terrain:

and this is one element of a much larger track record that has led me to not only run for president, but to help build a movement all across the country to bring about change.

For the rest of it, Russert mainly asked straightforward policy questions and Obama mainly came back with straightforward policy answers while voicing the magic word “values” eleven times. The response that made news concerned Hillary Clinton’s “We would be able to totally obliterate them,” when she was speaking of Iran if it attacked Israel with nuclear weapons. Obama called this

language that's reflective of George Bush. We have had a foreign policy of bluster and saber rattling and tough talk, and, in the meantime, we make a series of strategic decisions that actually strengthen Iran.

For some reason, Russert among other commentators, never asks why Israel’s own nuclear deterrent wouldn’t suffice in this case. I understand why Israel doesn’t come right out and say so, and why the U. S. government doesn’t either—they don’t want to have to invoke the Nonproliferation Treaty. But none of this reticence binds commentators, does it?

Russert did sensibly ask about Senator Clinton’s having

called for an umbrella of deterrence in the Middle East, defending not only Israel, but, she said, ‘other countries in the region,’ suggesting that perhaps Saudi Arabia, Jordan, other places in that region. Should the U.S. have an umbrella of deterrence to protect Arab nations?

It would be a small step forward for humanity, which is hanging on this election, if such questions could lead a session of Meet the Press rather than slot in toward the end.

But at least the subject of Obama’s missing flag pin didn’t come up. Perhaps Russert is saving the subject of empty lapels for coming interviews with the other candidates. Speaking of which, I await the arrival of the Straight Question Express to pick up John McCain at the station.

Comments

[eztempo]

I guess it's the very definition of "Conventional Wisdom" that leads Russert to "volunteer to serve as an echo chamber" of inside-the-beltway bloviation. After all, if he aspires to be the Dean of the Washington Press Corps, he can't stray very far into the unfamiliar territory of thinking for himself, can he?

[castlerider]

You're damn right the name should be changed.

It should be called "Meet The Lapdog".

[Star123]

Misjuding Rev Wright? Benefit of the doubt there. My read is Obama went to that church to get "in" with the black community for his organizing, then political ambitions. Then he and Rev Wright talked outside of the normal preacher/p­arishioner relationship and they became "friends." But this was two Alpha males, and when one vaulted ahead of the other (who had paid way more dues), Rev Wright got competitive, jealous, whatever you want to call it and started after Obama. Obama must have known this was coming--he disinvited Rev WRight to his announcement. He knew this was a "black power" church. But it no longer served his purposes. Now, he is staying, trying to look loyal and upstanding, and bec he knows Rev Wright won't be there. Pretty situational ethics all around. He got called on it and deserved to.

[Mojane]

I'm white. I'm guessing you're white. Neither one of us has the right to hold in judgment the black church, including Rev. Wright's Trinity church that Obama and thousands of others attend until you move to the Southside of Chicago, are new to town, black, and want to be welcomed into the community as a stranger. Until you have heard all 1500-plus sermons this man gave over his 30-year career and then listen to Rev. Haggy's sermons, Pat Robertson's sermons, and a few dozen other "radical" hateful white preachers, all of us white people need to shut the ***k up!

[dbrockx]

Another news caster trying to make himself a name. They all continue to run the same old snipit over and over again, and wonder why the american people are fed up. It's old, Why not report on valid info, not replay the same thing over and over again, what is wrong with hi,

[waarpe]

The continued Reverend Wright muckraking on NBC/MSNBC this past weekend made me wonder if I had tuned into FOX by mistake.

[lapdogs]

Liberal Media? What Liberal Media?

[Mickeleh]

Actually, Flag Pin did come up. Obama mentioned it first. Then Russert in outlining what Republican attack ads might look like in the general, said this:

"if you're the nominee...­and they talk about the flag pin and about your wife Michelle's comment about being proud for the first time in her adult life as an American, and talk about Reverend Wright saying, "God damn America," and talk about standing at the national anthem at the steak fry and not putting your hand over your heart, all those things, challenging your patriotism­...many superdelegates, undecided ones, have said to me, 'Is he tough enough?... How is he going to respond? How is he going to defend or define his patriotism?'"

[wearyvoter]

Why didn't Russert just say that the Republican talking points for their ads will be "OMIGOD!!!!!He's black. Run away. Run away!"

Never mind what they'll do to HRC.