The Unbearable Inanity of Tim Russert

Washington Monthly: The Unbearable Inanity of Tim Russert
By Matthew Yglesias

....Unfortunately, Russert's brand of journalism, rather than being ghettoized as a pointless or perverse form of entertainment—like shoulder self-dislocation or cat surfing—has immense influence. Russert is frequently a debate moderator during high-profile political races. His strengths were on full display during a Democratic debate on October 30, when Russert focused intensely on the question of whether illegal immigrants should have driver's licenses. It's true, of course, that some symbolic yes-or-no answers really do reveal something useful. But sometimes they don't. Driver's licenses don't fall under federal jurisdiction, none of the candidates were proposing any federal legislation to change that fact, and any state's driver's license policy is shaped in response to our dysfunctional national immigration policy. (In theory, a governor who supported building a border fence might nevertheless favor licensing illegal immigrants because they are already here.) In short, a yes-or-no answer on this issue would genuinely be misleading. But Russertism doesn't care about that. "Do you consider drowning preferable to stoning? Yes or no?" "Well, Tim, the problem is with capital punishment." "Yes or no?"

To say that such exercises offer no information would be unfair. But the information is purely meta. Viewers watch a candidate getting grilled by Russert not to assess the candidate's views but to assess his or her ability to withstand the grilling. And, when this sort of toughness and sparring becomes its own reward, the vacuity of the questioning is almost guaranteed. After all, if you asked a politician a serious, important question and got a perfectly good answer, then maybe, for a moment, you couldn't be tough. Instead, Russert relies on his crutch of confronting politicians with allegedly contradictory statements they've made—to highly monotonous effect.

Worse, Russert has a legion of imitators. At the same debate in which Russert harangued Democrats about driver's licenses for illegal immigrants, audience member LaShannon Spencer came up with an intriguingly open-ended request for candidates to talk about the qualities they would look for in Supreme Court appointments. However, CNN's Suzanne Malveaux swiftly transformed this into a cliched question about "whether or not you would require your nominees to support abortion rights," even though everyone knows all the candidates are pro-choice. Under Russertism, that's a better question, because it's more likely to cause someone to stumble.

And that's really the game here. Russert's goal isn't to inform his audience. He's there to "make news" -— to get his guest to say something embarrassing that lands in the next day's papers or on the NBC Nightly News. The politicians, in turn, go on the show determined not to make news. And why do they bother? Because...it's a rite of passage, and any politician too chicken to play Russert's inane games would never garner the respect of the political class. And then, seven days later, it all happens again like clockwork. If it's Sunday, it's Meet the Press.

http://www2.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2007/0712.yglesias.html

He never was a journalst, and he never will be.

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!”

http://makethemaccountable.com/podvin/media/020109_Russert.htm

Now he seems like more of muckraker, auditioning for a job on Faux News.

He's the politician's sometime pal. What else can you say about a "journalist" whose default setting when he picks up his phone is "off the record"? No wonder everyone want to talk to him. Only the most rehearsed, most shop-worn crap gets on Timmy's show unless he stirs himself from his torpor to "bore in" on someone. And even then, he's not going to grill one of his many favorites, someone he might run into on the Vineyard or at a cocktail party. Wouldn't be seemly.

MTP Moderators

Martha Rountree 1947 - 1953
Ned Brooks 1953 - 1965
Lawrence Spivak 1966 - 1975
Bill Monroe 1975 - 1984
Roger Mudd / Marvin Kalb (co-moderators) 1984 - 1985
Marvin Kalb 1985 - 1987
Chris Wallace 1987 - 1988
Garrick Utley 1989 - 1991
Tim Russert 1991 - present

and, at times, made Joe McCarthy sound positively even-handed. He used to horribly grill anyone who ever even spoke with a citizen of the then USSR as though they should follow the Rosenbergs into the chair. Snidely Whiplash of the press.