- In the old days, when a journalist met his final deadline,
friends would gather round the grave, toss in a few memories, then make
off to the bar for liquid comfort and disrespectful stories about the dear
departed. Contrast this with the send-off for Tim Russert, NBC's Washington
Bureau Chief and 17-year maestro of "Meet the Press", who dropped
dead of a heart attack last week.
-
- He got funeral ceremonies a pope and most U.S. presidents
would envy: a private funeral with this year's two presidential nominees
sitting side by side on Russert family orders, with the Congressional leadership
in the neighboring pews; George and Laura Bush at the public wake; thousands
at the memorial in the Kennedy Center, with Washington and New York's media
and political elites massed in respectful homage.
-
- Was Russert so extraordinary a fellow, to elicit so tumultuous
a farewell? Surely not. He could be a sharp interviewer, but I can't remember
any occasions when I said to myself, " Russert has given me a whole
new insight into the way the world works." There are many journalists
and broadcasters I would put miles ahead of him.
-
- Russert was a protege of Moynihan and a very close personal
friend-- many have said they were like father and son. Carl Ginsberg,
who's done excellent work on Moynihan down the years, sent me the following
note on this relationship.
-
- "A few years ago, in the course of promoting his
book, Russert said that he -- Russert -- always made a point of getting
home for dinner when in town to be with his son, Luke. The point was
that even a busy and powerful dad can - and should - be attentive to his
child. This was part of the Moynihan-tainted dogma about family Russert
recycled for years: if poor blacks just made more of an effort with their
families they could set their lives straight, help the kids and join respectable
society. Moynihan once told me regarding black conditions, 'it's beyond
economics... we can't help them.'
-
- It's interesting that no matter how many sub-prime mortgages
were sold through financial sleight of hand, packaged and resold (at a
reported profit of 40per cent every two months at its height) and how
many somersaults Moody's did to give those mortgages -- dubbed "collateralized
debt obligations"-- AAA rating (the rating agency 20 per cent owned
by Oracle of Omaha Warren Buffett, who today is sitting on $35 billion
in cash)... and no matter the simple fact that the reason that poor people
stretched for those mortgages was in desperation to get out of the clutches
of miserable landlords...no matter what, the purveyors of capital never
seem to be characterized as being "irresponsibility"; nor are
their families ever scrutinized for their behavior.
-
- But Moynihan -- and Russert -- couldn't stop pointing
the finger at irresponsible blacks."
-
- Russert was an insider, with a useful line in presenting
himself somewhat to be an ordinary Joe from Buffalo (his hometown, where
the flags have been flying at half mast). He didn't have enemies, (which
for a journalist is not an impressive credential). So this nice, popular
insider was a fine advertisement for two professions journalism and
politics -- whose collective ranking in public esteem is down there with
salesfolk for subprime mortgages. No wonder they made haste to offer Russert
to the people as the hero-journalist In hailing Russert, they got to hail
and to ennoble themselves.
-
- I was in Virginia the weekend after he died and the lead
editorial in a local paper had this to say: "Tim Russert was the kind
of newsman to which every journalist aspires; which every journalist wishes
to emulate." His conduct on Meet the Press was "fair and courageous,
balanced and tenacious. Liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican,
Russert held everyone accountable to the people of America. He demonstrated
the highest qualities of professional journalism as well as the highest
qualities of humanity.... a deeply religious man, a dedicated family man,
a true American patriot."
-
- Now Russert had the power, the clout and the venue to
ask tough questions in the run-up to the war in Iraq which began in March,
2003. There were plenty of serious people with informed views about whether
or not Saddam Hussein really had nuclear missile to level London and bio-weapons
to kill millions. But Russert was part of the Amen Chorus for a war that
sent countless men, women and children to their deaths. When it mattered,
he entertained no dangerous differences with the White House line. Was
this a performance worthy of "a true American patriot"?
-
- Did this "true American patriot" commanding
the attention of millions every week not open his mouth to lament the fact
that the U.S. government has been trashing the Constitution and tossing
the Bill of Rights in the toilet? Negative on that one too.
-
- We've had seven years of craven, culpable journalism
- across the mainstream board. No one honors the reporters at Knight Ridder
newspapers, who were among the few ones in the mainstream press, pre-war,
to hammer away at the WMD lies. They never led off Russert's or anyone
else's show. Russert was managing editor and host of Meet the Press, host
of The Tim Russert Show on MSNBC, senior vp of NBC News, NBC Washington
Bureau Chief, and regular political analyst on the Today Show, The Nightly
News. So he was as responsible as anyone for the press collusion with the
Administration. But now that the administration is looking bad, he's not
a collaborator but a tenacious knight, jousting with them, 'truth-telling',
getting 'the bad guys' for 'we, the people.'
-
- Final question: Since NBC had a huge stake in Tim Russert's
future ("Meet the Press" brought in $50 million a year and they
paid him around $5 million a year) you'd have thought the network's executives
would have taken a look at the tv screen and raised the alarm. Across the
past three months he looked in increasingly awful shape, bright red in
the face, overweight and sometimes with a slightly glazed, sad look. I
told people I thought he was set to die of a heart attack right there in
the studio, which is exactly what happened. On one sighting recently he
didn't take his loafers off in the gym, and when pressed about this casual
approach to vitally needed exercise, gave a wink.
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- http://www.counterpunch.com/cockburn06212008.html
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