My letter to Tim Russert (MTP) before his interview w/Bush (9AM ET Sun) [View All]

To : MTP@NBC.com
Subject: You can DO it, Tim!

Dear Mr. Russert -

You're probably quaking in your boots having to interview George Bush on NBC's "Meet the Press" this Sunday at 9AM ET.

You'll be damned if you do ask the hard questions (and you might want to avoid riding in any small planes afterwards) and damned if you don't (America and history will remember forever that you fiddled and fawned while the economy and the Constitution burned).

Well, if anyone ever was between a rock and a hard place, you sure are. But remember - the job of a journalist is to get at the truth - not to prop up a crumbling, corrupt regime.

In anticipation of your big interview, the internet is burning up this week with easy, urgent questions we're all just dying to see someone with balls ask Bush. Here's a sampling:

http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh020704.shtml
http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/2004_archives/000220.html
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0206-12.htm

Admittedly, you're in a tight spot here:

- On the one hand, the viewers aren't just couch potatoes anymore. In the age of the internet, everyone's an armchair pundit now, and high-quality information, argument and consensus circulates and consolidates faster now than anytime in history - far outside the confines of Pravda on the Potomac and Isvestia on the Hudson. If you do a puff-piece, lobbing him easy questions and meekly backing down from his lies, the whole country's gonna notice instantly and rip what's left of your (and NBC's) reputation to shreds - maybe start lumping you guys in with laughingstocks Fox and CBS.

- On the other hand, the Bush dynasty is ruthless, and if you dare point out that the Boy Emperor has no clothes, there's no telling what his henchmen will do to you or your loved ones. (Exhibit A: the Valerie Plame affair.)

One big thing you've got going for you though is this: you've got visibility and credibility. You're not some third-rate internet-based conspiracy-theorist liable to wind up killed in some freak accident once you land your punches. You're Tim Russert of "Meet the Press"; you're a high-profile guy with lots of respect and standing in the profession and among the viewers, and you've got lots more friends than Bush and his cabal of cronies do.

So here's my suggestion: Show some spunk. (The country likes testosterone these days anyways, as all the ads on the Superbowl showed.) Bush is on the run, he's starting to go into meltdown, he's not very bright, and more than half the country has noticed by now that he's destroying our economy and our democracy with his cowardice and lies. Go for the jugular Tim! One-on-one, talking off the cuff, Bush is gonna be easy prey - he's a liar with a horrible record for the past thirty years, and he can't think or talk quick on his feet. You could mop the floor with him just like you've done with countless other guests when they stumble and prevaricate - and you and the viewers know it.

That's what's so exciting about this matchup - we all KNOW you can take Bush - the question is, WILL you?

If you come out swinging, you could score an easy KO against the AWOL Cheerleader-in-Chief. And you could go down in history as the guy who saved the Republic from ruin.

- Scott ___
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