Tim Russert question

In 1992, shortly after being named moderator of Meet The
Press, Tim Russert was having lunch with a broadcast
executive. The mealtime conversation was about the pros and
cons of working for General Electric’s NBC subsidiary. Russert
expounded on how being employed by GE had brought him to the
realization that things functioned better when Republicans
were in charge.

“You know, Tim, you used to be such a rabid Democrat when you
worked for Pat Moynihan,” said the executive. “But now that
you’ve gotten a glimpse of who’s handing out the money in this
business, you’ve become quite the Jaycee. Were you wrong about
everything you used to believe so strongly?”

“I still believe,” Russert said, leaning across the table. “I
believe in everything I ever did. But I also know that I never
would have become moderator on Meet The Press if my employers
were uncomfortable with me. And, given the amount of money at
stake, millions of dollars, I don’t blame them. This is
business.”

The executive agreed. “But are you concerned about losing
yourself? You know, selling out?”

Russert pounded the table. “Integrity is for paupers!”

When Tim Russert joined NBC News in 1984, he began a personal
transformation from Democratic congressional aide to
broadcaster-in-charge of General Electric’s political
interests. His early efforts for the network drew some
criticism from the GE corporate suites as being “too knee
jerk”, a euphemism for “insufficiently pro-GE/ Republican”.
The executives at General Electric viewed with hostility the
Democratic Party that wanted to burden them with obeying laws
that the company preferred to break and complying with
regulations that it preferred to ignore. While Republicans
turned a blind eye to the serial environmental crimes and
bribery committed by GE, the Democrats were less submissive.
The company was especially upset that the Democratic Party had
taken a position against transferring public ownership of the
broadcast airwaves to the media conglomerates.

The ambitious Russert soon learned that, in order to climb the
ladder at NBC News, he had to please two sets of managers: the
news executives who were ostensibly his bosses, and the
employers of the news executives. In the years that followed,
he refined the strategy to ingratiating himself to General
Electric Chairman Jack Welch.

For much of the eighties, Russert coordinated specials on
summits and foreign policy related topics. His breakthrough
performance occurred in 1990, when he oversaw the production
of the prime time special, “A Day In The Life Of President
Bush”. The show was so worshipful and fawning that one
embarrassed production assistant referred to it as “Deep
Throat: The Missing Footage”. By this time, however, Russert
had figured out that only one opinion counted. Jack Welch
loved the program, telling an associate that it “hit just the
right note”.

When the moderator position on Meet The Press needed to be
filled in 1991, Russert was chosen from on high. The show had
been struggling in the ratings, earning less than a million
dollars a year. The new moderator changed the format,
eliminating the panel and turning America’s longest running
program into The Tim Russert Show. The revised philosophy of
Meet The Press was borrowed from the book Animal Farm: All
Guests Are Equal, But Some Guests Are More Equal Than Others.
The more equal ones, who all coincidentally had an “R” appear
after their names on the show’s graphics, were asked questions
about policy and the moral shortcomings of the opposition
party. The lesser equals were usually challenged to
disassociate themselves from issues (liberal) and individuals
(Democrats) that Russert found to be lacking in virtue.

In 1992, Russert enthusiastically led the media frenzy about
the relationship between Gennifer Flowers and Democratic
presidential nominee Bill Clinton, but he refused to report
about a similar relationship between incumbent Republican
President George Bush and Jennifer Fitzgerald. Four years
later, Russert focused on questions about Clinton fundraising,
while studiously ignoring the lengthy record of
well-documented influence peddling by Republican nominee Bob
Dole.

Throughout 2000, with less pretense of objectivity than ever,
Russert dutifully echoed the Republican theme that the
Democratic nominee was “dishonest”. Week after week, the topic
on Meet The Press was the “repeated lying” of Al Gore. One
lowlight of Russert’s descent into shameless propagandist
occurred when it was revealed that George W. Bush had been
convicted of drunk driving in Maine, thereby proving that the
Republican candidate had been deceitful when he was questioned
about whether he had ever been arrested.

Russert’s immediate response on national television was, “The
question on everybody’s mind is, ‘Did the Gore campaign have
something to do with the release of this information?’”

That was not the question on everybody’s mind; a poll taken
immediately after the revelation showed that most Americans
did not believe that Gore was involved.

It was, however, the question being faxed nationally by the
Republicans in a memo circulated to their operatives who were
responsible for diverting attention from the fact that their
candidate was guilty of, for want of a better term, “repeated
lying”.

As media mogul and future Fox network founder Rupert Murdoch
noticed, Russert’s brazenly partisan approach attracted large
numbers of white male viewers. In 2000, Meet The Press earned
a $50 million profit for General Electric, which was sixty
times more than when Russert was named moderator.

During the 2000 presidential campaign, Russert established a
link between Meet The Press and the G.O.P. opposition research
team that was responsible for digging up dirt/manufacturing
dirt on Al Gore. On election night, after conferring with
Welch, Russert demanded that Gore quit the race before the
legally mandated recount took place in Florida. The next
morning, on the Today Show, he repeated the demand. During the
recount, Russert actively campaigned for Bush, going so far as
to insist that Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe
Lieberman endorse the counting of illegally cast military
ballots that would benefit George W.

There have been reports from those who were present that
journalist Tim Russert was wearing a Bush For President lapel
pin when he attended the traditional Al Smith Dinner in New
York shortly before the election. This should be interpreted
as less of an endorsement than a brownnosing. Russert was
accompanied by Welch, who was a strong supporter of Bush and
completely intolerant of dissent on the matter.

During the Lewinsky episode, Russert latched onto the sexual
aspect of the scandal with obsessive fervor. When the story
appeared to be running out of steam, he showed America his
creative side. The following was written by Martin Schram of
the Nando Times:

 I was especially dismayed to hear Russert present what
sounded like a misbegotten Virtual Scoop:

"There are lots of suggestions coming out of people close
to Ken Starr that perhaps the Secret Service 'facilitated' for
President Clinton. Remember that code word -- it was used
about the state troopers in Little Rock ... Was the Secret
Service -- was a Secret Service agent -- an accomplice in
trying to cover up a relationship with Monica Lewinsky?"

Sounds like a major, unsavory exclusive report from a source
in the independent counsel's office -- that the Secret Service
was pimping for a president of the United States.

But rewind and rethink. We only heard Russert say there were
"suggestions" from people "close to" Starr
that "perhaps" an agent had facilitated in the
president's philandering. Were these "suggestions"
based on any substantial evidence or proof obtained by the
independent counsel? Or was it just a prayerful hope of
someone in Starr's office who hates Clinton but has not a
shred of evidence that this might have happened? Which of
course means that it would be a journalistic outrage to air
the story if that was all it was.

Now fast-forward. It is midday, on MSNBC, the all-news cable
channel. Behind the scenes, Starr's spokesman, Charles Bakaly,
has called Russert, and Russert has conceded the source wasn't
in Starr's office; it was a congressional source. Which means
it may have been a political opponent of the president -- who
may or may not know if there is any substantive indication
that such a thing had occurred.

Now, on MSNBC's regular noontime show, "Investigating the
President," Russert sounds like he is just repeating his
morning scoop. But he actually tells a much different, much
weaker version -- while never indicating that he is issuing a
correction:

"This morning I reported that congressional sources had
told NBC News that Ken Starr is very interested in finding
out" what Secret Service agents may have done -- as
"accomplices" in a "cover-up."

Wait! This is more than just saying the source was
"congressional"; now Russert is saying that Starr is
merely "interested in finding out" if any agent had
facilitated on behalf of the president. Well, of course he is!
And so am I! But it is not newsworthy that either Starr or I
want to ask these questions. It would only be news if either
Starr or I had proof that this happened.

Fast-forward again. On NBC's "Nightly News," Russert
reports live from the White House lawn: "Members of
Congress have been talking to investigators, people, lawyers
associated with the grand jury, people who are free to
talk"-- what the heck does all that mean? -- "and
they are coming to some conclusions that perhaps Secret
Service agents may have been, quote, facilitating."
(Again, just perhaps.)

"We don't know whether that's Republican spin, partisan
spin, ideological spin, or there's a germ of evidence."

Translation: We don't have any idea whether any of this is
true. But we've spent all day raising the smarmy specter that
the Secret Service may have been pimping for the president --
just as the president's political opponents hoped we would.
Even though we didn't have a germ of evidence that it was
true. 

Mr. Schram is an excessively generous man, lavishing the
undeserved benefit of the doubt on Russert in a situation
where there is no doubt. This was not a “misbegotten virtual
scoop”. It was a lie. What was happening has been on public
display countless times before: Tim Russert was acting as an
operative for the political interests of the multinational
corporation that keeps him fat and happy.

The spectacular rewards of manipulating the public for GE were
realized in 2001, when Russert received a new contract worth
tens of millions of dollars. The wages of sin have been huge,
while the cost has been the negligible loss of whatever
integrity he might have once possessed. He is not an objective
journalist; he is a partisan deceiver. He exaggerates
Democratic wrongdoing, going to the extreme of inventing
criminal behavior. Conversely, he has been unrelentingly
oblivious to all Republican scandals; his infinite fascination
with the missing intern in the case of Democrat Gary Condit
was accompanied by total disinterest in the dead intern who
was found on the office floor of Republican Joe Scarbrough.
Russert spent years obsessing about an ill fated land deal
called Whitewater that involved a couple of hundred thousand
dollars, but he remains indifferent to the multi-trillion
dollar taxpayer funded kickbacks that George W. Bush has been
ladling out to his campaign contributors.

Russert has every right to serve General Electric and its
chosen political party, but truth in advertising mandates that
he should never appear on television without having “We Bring
Good Things To Life” emblazoned on his forehead.

The saga of Tim Russert is not unique, or even uncommon. With
minor changes, it could be the story of Peter Jennings, or
Brit Hume, or Jim Lehrer, ad nauseum. This is the modern
reality of the mainstream media: those who dutifully conform
to the company line and deceitfully ignore any facts that are
incompatible with increasing corporate profits are compensated
with vast fortunes, while whatever democracy remains in this
country struggles to survive without a free press and an
informed electorate.

The founders of America conceived of a nation with an
unregulated flow of information that would provide the
citizenry with access to the knowledge they needed to govern
themselves. That patriotic vision has been distorted by the
huge conglomerates that control the mainstream media, and by
journalistic prostitutes like Tim Russert, who corrupt our
society with their eagerness to pervert the truth in exchange
for personal wealth. 
Podvin on the Media

CHOCOLATES AND NYLONS, SIR? 

By David Podvin