This public feud between Tim Russert’s forces and Arianna Huffington should be fun to watch:
Somebody’s feeling the heat…
How else to explain the widely-off-the-mark responses from NBC’s PR department in Lloyd Grove’s column to our reporting on Russert’s multitude of journalistic ethical conflicts.
Instead of dealing with the charges head on, the media giant and its Washington bureau chief Tim Russert have astonishingly decided to get down and dirty, dredging up and faxing to at least one reporter a 12-year-old false claim that I hired a private detective to snoop on Russert’s wife Maureen Orth while she was preparing a hit piece on me for Vanity Fair in 1994.
If the past few days have been any indication, it looks like the first battle in the war to control Congress will be for perceived ‘control’ of the media. Of course, the National Review begs to differ with charges that Russert et. al are ‘too conservative’:
First, Matthews points out what appears to him to be a “contradiction” in Bush’s position on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (Bush’s position is that FISA is outdated but doesn’t require updating because the current surveillance program is legal). Russert agrees and argues that FISA is very clear on requiring new legislation authorizing the NSA to eavesdrop within the United States. Both miss the point that Bush has argued that the authorization to use military force after Sept. 11th gave him the authority to intercept suspected al Qaeda communications coming into the United States.
In the next clip, Matthews asks Dana Milbank what the headline for tomorrow will be. Milbank responds by quoting an LA Times reporter who compared Bush to Nixon in the press conference. Milbank says the reporter drew the comparison by saying that like Nixon, Bush seemed to be saying that his wiretapping activity was legal just because he said so — which completely ignores the complex legal arguments the administration has made supporting its position. Matthews and Milbank had a good laugh about the Bush-Nixon comparison.
Remember, the left-wing is arguing that these guys are too conservative.
Buckle up and enjoy.
srv
But even Airanna knows the genius behind this administration:
The Genius
I think maybe Russert is in on those sleeping parties.
Richard Bottoms
What we are arguing is that in the foggy distant past reports would do a story where:
– Event A happens
– The Left says it means X
– The Right says it means Y
Now here’s the tricky part:
– The reporter would dig up the facts and report when the Right said Y, that is was a lie and here why. You know like,we got warrants for all our tapped communications.
Now the reporting is the Left says X, but Bush smiled and was likeable. What’s wrong with the Left, why aren’t they likeable and besides they speak French.
Paddy O'Shea
Hunh. Maybe the so unfairly pressed Timmy and Chris should consider inviting Ann Coulter on sometime soon? She’s got plenty of yuks!
Coulter Jokes About Poisoning Justice
“We need someone to put rat poisoning in justice Stevens’ creme brulee,” Coulter said. “That’s a just a joke, for you in the media.”
Rightwing humor. So colorful!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060127/ap_on_re_us/brf_coulter_stevens
ppGaz
In the era of Personality, it’s how you “handle” the situation that counts. Not the fact that certain things happened.
The Mehlmannites just look better on tv, don’t you think? Who would rather buy equities from …. Mehlman, or Kerry? I mean, really?
Pooh
Look, we know she gets rich of crap like this, can we just, as Rasheed Wallace would say, “Cut the check” and have her go away? Quietly?
ppGaz
Tim Russert has “forces?”
I thought he was just the portly son of a sincere rube from upstate New York. A blue-collar tv guy who really enjoys his VIP seats at the Nationals and Redskins games, and eats lunch with the Powerazzi in DC? And stuff.
He has “forces?”
DougJ
I don’t think that the blogosphere should let itself be divided here. We should all be against the Russert-Matthews axis of idiocy. The point has neve been that these clowns are biased one way or another — the point is that all they do is repeat crap they heard at cocktail parties. They don’t ask tough questions, they show no interest in the details of any issue. They are a disgrace. And I’d like to think that if Stormy and Darrell were here, they’d agree with me.
You agree with me, John, don’t you?
DougJ
So good.
KC
I’m with you there, DougJ. I stopped O’Reilly and Matthews years ago once I realized they were just clowns who liked to hear themselves talk tough. What’s more, I just got tired of the yelling and screaming all the time. Generally, I find most cable news programs to be a waste altogether.
Don Surber
1. Russert uses his position to pimp a book co-authored by his son’s boss. Cute.
2. What’s with the Nixon reference? Wasn’t FISA post-Nixon? How could Nixon (prez from 1969-1974) violate a law passed in 1978? I guess that DeLorean-Time Machine really works.
LITBMueller
I’m with you guys, DougJ and KC. The point of the cable news Blabathons is not to probe issues or creating better understanding, it is to argue. Making glancing passes at complex problems with catch phrases, or inciting anger by repeating talking points (Right or Left) is just a way to increase the pointless debate.
Guys like Matthews and O’Reilly know exactly what they’re doing: people are fascinated by train wrecks.
DwightKSchrute
I love the fact that we can now apply the Clinton Principal to all these journalists. In this case, what kind of scandal would Timmeh and company be calling it if…
Abramoff were a two time Clinton “Pioneer” personally raising over 100k for his 2000 and 2004 campaigns.
Abramoff and his wife had given personal donations only to Clinton and other Democrats.
Abramoff had met several times with Clinton staff members.
Abramoff worked hand-in-hand with one of Clinton’s top non-staff advisors.
The head of the DNC said “I know Jack Abramoff and I know Wayne Berman. They are Democrats; they were Democrats before they were lobbyists.”
Abramoff had been the head of the College Democrats.
After signing on with Abramoff, his clients across the board had significantly decreased their donations to Republicans and increased those to Democrats.
President Clinton refused to turn over to the press photos with Abramoff, records of his visits to the White House, and records of who he met with when there.
At least two major Democrats in the House were implicated in the initial plea entered by Abramoff.
The Democrat Majority Leader (who has since relinquished his title due to scandal) and his staff had gone on numerous lavish trips with Abramoff.
Yeah, I’m sure Pumkinhead and the rest of the liberal media would be calling this a “bipartisan” scandal. Those numbskulls would be scrapping and clawing at each other like fifth graders playing King of the Mountain to be the first one to shout “The Democrats are corrupt to the core!” from the rooftop.
ppGaz
Don Surber snarks on Tim Russert!
Now THAT’S cute.
Our very own Little Russ, who can be seen holding hands with George Bush in the MTP April 2004
bamboozlevideo.Lines
Ah, another piece of Don Surber wit and cunning insight. Thanks Don, would you like to compare Bush to George Washington, or maybe to Caesar?
The Nixon/Bush comparison is meant to look at the powers of the executive branch and how each has basically said “I can do it, I’m above the law”. How you try to cram specific details of both scandals and come away with anything coherent is an exercise for a warped and twisted mind.
Now can you please clarify how you can call yourself a Journalist? Generalizing situations and mischaracterizing arguments of your enemies is more for Protein Wisdom and the National Review. How do you continue to get away with it?
Richard Bottoms
Er, history?
Nixon said if the president does it, it’s not a crime.
President Vodka-Head said the same thing essentially.
Those who forget the past… I’m sorry what was I saying??
Barbar
I have to laugh at the NRO excerpt above. Yes, the media’s left-wing bias is revealed by reporters not fully embracing Bush’s “complex legal arguments.” No one objective would ever call the President a liar; that’s something only irrational hysterics like MoveOn would do. Therefore we have left-wing media bashers on one side complaining that reporters don’t challenge Bush’s words, and then you have right-wing media bashers on the other side complaining that reporters don’t believe every drop of BS that Bush spouts, and what’s an objective nonpartisan to do? Just sit in the middle and be amused!
Par R
Until I read Dwight’s lengthy post above, I hadn’t realized that Abramoff was so tied into the Clintons. Very interesting stuff.
Lines
Huh?
I’ll start out the bidding on this ridiculous statement with:
ppGaz
!
That’s right, because the whole world is being fucked up by stupid and crazy people just for our entertainment!
Time for Teletubbies!
Eh oh!
{ giggle }
Barbar
I was being sarcastic, folks. Or doing my John Cole impression, I figured you guys would know the drill.
Lines
Ah, a DougJ wannabe. Sorry, didn’t realize that. For some reason, anytime some right-wing wanker wants to make the absurd claim that Bush has never lied just makes me want to jump through my monitor and smack them upside the head with a rotting salmon (lame Chenowith reference).
Oh, and I’m not calling you a right-wing wanker, but your comment would easily fit into a Don Surber post.
Andrei
And that’s different than 90% of the Balloon-Juice post and comment threads how?
Steve
Uh, maybe if you read it in total isolation, but the fact that his post was attacking Republicans was very, very clear. It was not some subtle DougJ thing. It starts by saying “I have to laugh at the NRO excerpt” and concludes by referring to “every drop of BS that Bush spouts.”
Lines
The comment I highlighted, Steve
Thems just fightin words
Sock Puppet
But isn’t Nixon a Republican?
He couldn’t possibly have done anything wrong.
It was all politics. See what happens when Democrats get control of Congress?
Lines
Nixon’s whole problem was that the Democrats were so ready to criminalize politics, politics they themselves have probably done as well.
Ancient Purple
Why anyone would think that Russert is an actual journalist anymore is beyond me.
rilkefan
“They don’t ask tough questions”
I seem to remember Russet giving Dean a hard time. E.g., “So your son got indicted [sic]”, “How many service members are there to the nearest 100k?”
Rob
DwightKSchrute:
I think he was part of the transition team also.
ppGaz
We do indeed. You have descended into a pit of snark/spoof/sarcasm.
It’s …. wonderful. And compliant with our Master Theme, Hot Air.
ppGaz
Let’s try to remember who the potatoheads really are, rilkeman.
Mac Buckets
Proof that there are parallel universes: all the commenters on HuffPo (is that thing still around?) whining that Russert — he of the Cuomo-Moynihan background — is a one-sided tool of the GOP.
Sock Puppet
This guy John Boehner that might get Tom DeLay’s old job in the GOP controlled House O’ Representitives …
There is a blog rumor making the rounds today that he used to pronounce his name “Bohn-air” until someone told him it sounded much too French.
He apparently is now opting for the more American “Bo-ner.”
Pretty vicious stuff.
The Other Steve
Boehner is a German name.
Pooh
Andrei, you mean we get PAID for this? John, where’s my check?
BadTux
I don’t think anybody will ever argue that Russert or the vast majority of “reporters” nowdays are anything other than gossip-mongering stenographers. They don’t care about truth nowdays, they only care about “balance”, which is about taking lies from person A, putting them beside truth from person B, and never telling the public which one is telling the truth because to do so would be “analysis”.
Stenographers. Feh.
BTW, I don’t consider reporters for the mainstream media to be either conservative or liberal. They do a pretty good job of stenography. The liberals whine mostly because the liberals tend to be boy scouts about the truth (they think it actually matters, imagine that!) and get upset when Rovian agents spew bald-faced lies with a straight face and the lies are reported as factual news. And the conservatives whine mostly when the facts reported by the media don’t make their Lord and Savior George W. Bush look good. Both whine, they just have different reasons for doing so, but both of their reasons are related to the same thing: today’s American press is about stenography, not truth.
– BT
Shalimar
So let me get this straight: conservatives hate Russert and liberals hate Russert. Doesn’t that mean that a joint effort from the blogosphere to get Russert fired for bias and general corruption is in order?
BadTux
Shal, journalists think that if both “sides” are complaining, that means they’re doing their job of being “balanced”. Since they don’t view their job as involving that nasty “truth” stuff, they don’t view the general impression of not reporting the truth as a problem.
Moral relativism — the notion that there is no such thing as “truth”, and thus truth is irrelevant — has permeated the news media to the point where it’s all about stenography and nothing about truth. The problem is, democracy cannot function in the absence of truth. Most people simply do not have the time or ability to dig up the truth on their own, thus turning politics over to charlatans and liars in the absence of a media which reports the truth.
But today’s mainstream media doesn’t appear to care about democracy, only about ratings, which go up if charlatans and liars do colorful things for them to report upon. Sort of like the whole pre-Iraqi-invasion feeding frenzie, where it was pretty obvious that the majority of the media was all behind Bush’s invasion of Iraq because it would give great opportunities for brave reporters to stand in the field and gravely shoot for higher ratings for their network. The job of educating Americans with reasons and facts for going to war (or not) never was undertaken by the mainstream media, because they simply do not view the search for truth to be part of their job.
-BT
DougJ
These Beltway assholes are screwing us all while we fight about bias. I have one three words for them: “Do your fucking job”.
Steve
I believe the words DougJ is look for are “Stop hurting America!”
Steve
I believe the words DougJ is looking for are “Stop hurting America!”
Steve
Whoops! Stop double posting.