Katrina Vanden Heuvel: Big Russ and the VP (The Nation)

[marmar]

BLOG | Posted 01/30/2007 @ 2:05pm
Big Russ and the VP


If I were Tim Russert I'd be as hopping mad as a Buffalo Bills fan on any given Sunday. First, Dick Cheney's office tried to scapegoat him in the Plamegate scandal and then Cheney's staff wanted to book the VP on Meet the Press specifically because they found it easy to "control the message" on Russert's show.

To recap: Cheney's former chief of staff Scooter Libby is on trial for perjury, specifically for falsely claiming that he first learned about Joe Wilson's wife from Tim Russert. (Read David Corn's Capital Games for a full account of the trial so far.) According to former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer's testimony, Libby knew about Valerie Plame before he talked to Russert.

If Fleischer is correct and Libby was lying, the interesting question is not why (to protect himself and his boss) but why out of all the people in the media business Scooter picked Tim Russert to blame.

Former Cheney communications director Cathie Martin, who was tasked with containing the Plame scandal after it broke, shed some light on this question. "I suggested we put the vice president on 'Meet the Press' which was a tactic we often used," Martin revealed in recent testimony. "It's our best format."

There is clearly only one way this convoluted circle can be complete. Tim Russert needs to invite Cathie Martin on Meet the Press, read that quote back to her, and ask her to explain.

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut?bid=7&pid=161755

[Captain Hilts]

1. Excellent! nt

[Vinnie From Indy]

2. Timmy Russert is in it up to his neck!

He has been enabling this band of criminals from the start. It has become almost comical how he contorts to deliver softball questions to his GOP guests.


The usual corporate media suspects stand naked AGAIN by never delving into the area of Bush's previous pledge to fire the culprits. It is as though Smirky never uttered that pledge.

[C_U_L8R]

3. Is big Russ going to be a little wuss?

Or is he gonna act like a journalist... with integrity and you know... balls

[Captain Hilts]

5. What do 'balls' have to do with it? You don't need them to have moral fortitude. nt

[C_U_L8R]

6. y'know what i mean

guts, courage, huevos grande... :-)

[Captain Hilts]

7. But lots of people with "balls" don't have "guts, courage...." nt

[C_U_L8R]

8. Exactly my point :-)

[Captain Hilts]

9. So, clearly, there is not direct, positive correlation between having "balls" and having "courage."

[depakid]

4. I think this poster got it exactly right:

Why would Russert complain about the WH tactic? He probably knew completely what was going on and in fact was colluding with it. It was good for him, good for his show, good for his producers.

The same is undoubtedly true with Fox "News", which is essentially a propaganda arm of the Bush administration.

The problem is only half a problem of the exploitation of media by the Bush team - the other half of the problem is that so many fools tune in to the dreck and watch it as if it is serious news and commentary.