"My concern was, is that there were concerns expressed by other government officials. And to this day, I wish my phone had rung, or I had access to them."- Tim Russert explaining how "journalism" works

russertx.gif

Politico and the rest of the highly-paid self-involved Villagers mourn the one year passing of one of their own:

This weekend marks the one year anniversary of when "Meet the Press" host and NBC Washington Bureau Chief Tim Russert died — and, by most measures, a natural successor to his vaunted position in both journalism and the nation’s heart has yet to emerge. 

Despite the water cooler chatter of who might be "the next Russert," it’s clear to most everyone that Russert will always be irreplaceable.

"Of course, there’s a void," says CNN’s John King, who hosts the network’s Sunday program "State of the Union." "He was a legendary figure in town, and he made that show. He took what was a very valued franchise at NBC and in the Sunday realm of journalism and he made it the gold standard."

"I still, on Sunday mornings, look up at the wall of monitors we have at CBS," said Bob Schieffer of "Face the Nation." "And, when he’s not on that NBC monitor, it just doesn’t seem right to me."

[...]

The dilemma Gregory and NBC face is that filling Russert’s shoes is about more than journalism; the beefy Buffalo native had become an iconic figure in American culture, as well.

[...]

As evidenced by the outpouring of support and media coverage following Russert’s sudden death, the former New York political operative had achieved an enviable status in American journalism that only a few enjoy. It’s also clear that the influence Russert wielded remains unmatched not because of the shortcomings of others but, rather, because he was an exceptional character and presence.  

Well, not so much… This is the man who invited Matt Drudge on to talk about interns:

Former congressional staffer Tim Russert, elevated to host of NBC’s Meet the Press, invited internet gossip columnist Matt Drudge to be a commentator on the scandal on his January 25 show. Last fall, Drudge printed an entirely unsubstantiated rumor that there were "court records" showing White House aide Sidney Blumenthal guilty of wife beating. It was a classic case of libel that should have ended Drudge’s career on the spot, but Russert greeted him as an equal to the New York Times’s William Safire and asked him for information about the Lewinsky scandal, as if Drudge had conducted his own investigation of the principals. (Russert: "Matt Drudge of the Drudge Report, you’ve been covering this rather aggressively on the Internet. What’s your take?")

Meet the Press was the go-to show for the Bush Administration to drum up support, based upon lies, about Iraq:

…Russert’s tenacious interviewing style would alternate with a much more deferential one–depending on who was being interviewed. Surprisingly, some of Russert’s journalistic colleagues praised him for being tough on the Bush administration over the Iraq War. CBS Evening News correspondent Anthony Mason said (6/13/08), "In 2003, as the United States prepared to go to war in Iraq, Russert pressed Vice President Dick Cheney about White House assumptions."

In reality, Meet the Press was the venue for some of the White House’s most audacious lies about the Iraq War–most of which went unchallenged by Russert. On the morning that the New York Times published a front-page article falsely touting the now-famous "aluminum tubes" as components of an alleged Iraqi nuclear weapons program, Vice President Dick Cheney appeared on Meet the Press (9/8/02), where Russert pursued open-ended questions that seemed to invite spin from the vice president on Iraqi nuclear weapons.

Recalling such softball questioning, it’s easy to believe the advice that Cheney press aide Cathie Martin says she gave when the Bush administration had to respond to charges that it manipulated pre-Iraq War intelligence: "I suggested we put the vice president on Meet the Press, which was a tactic we often used," she said (Salon, 1/26/07). "It’s our best format."

Here’s what Russert’s replacement, David Gregory, has to say about filling Russert’s shoes:

 "I’ve spent so much time and so much of my energy — and this will continue — living up to the legacy of this program, living up to the standards of the program that Tim Russert put in place, and I think our audience expects that and that’s a major thrust of what I’m doing," Gregory told POLITICO in March. "But, at the same time — and again, slowly and without any sense of real tumult — I can put my stamp on the program."

You can go here to see Gregory snatch the inanity from Russert’s hand when discussing the all-important question of whether Hillary Clinton will "support" the Cubs or the Yankees in an imaginary World Series:

MR. RUSSERT: Well, the Cubs are in the playoffs, David.

MR. GREGORY: Yeah.

MR. RUSSERT: Cubs, Yankees. You going to seat—sit behind each dugout?

MR. GREGORY: You can’t have it all. In the sports world, you can’t have it all.

MR. BUCHANAN: But, Tim…

MR. GREGORY: That reeks of calculation, which is a potential downside for her.

Well done, Grasshopper.

It goes without saying that the Sunday Gasbag shows aren’t about "journalism" so much as turning cocktail party bullshit into conventional wisdom gold. I mean, why hit the phones and ask carefully researched and phrased questions when you can just relate what Cokie Roberts told you over crab puffs? It’s so much easier and it still leaves time for a run out to the house in the Nantucket.

The Sunday Bobbleheads exist to allow media celebrities with dubious work habits  set  the tone for the coming week by using nothing more than their putative "insider" credibility.

One function of the Sunday shows is to make certain notions thinkable. Between his Sunday punditry and nightly reports, no one bulldogs America’s political conversation more than ABC’s Sam Donaldson. Donaldson’s repute rests not on his reporting, not on his preparation, but on his leather lungs, his selective bullying and his bellow. He jeers the big cheese in charge, whoever it is, because ideology matters less than attitude. On "This Week," the emphatic Donaldson makes George Will look thoughtful, the studious boy who does his homework as opposed to the loudmouth pumped up on attitude. Here was Donaldson on Jan. 25: "If he’s not telling the truth, I think his presidency is numbered in days. This isn’t going to drag out. We’re not going to be here three months from now talking about this."

Of course more than nine months later Donaldson, Roberts, Will & Co. were still talking about "this." But Donaldson, Roberts, Will, Tim Russert and the rest matter not because of their acumen, let alone their accuracy, but because powerful people think that what they say matters–because official Washington and its eavesdroppers watch the Sunday shows in order to know what they had better take into account as they plot their own moves. Like prosecutors talking about "this case" as if they were observers from the far reaches of outer space, journalists like to talk as though "this story" had a life of its own, as if it landed and stayed on front pages and Sunday morning shows by itself. Already, on Jan. 25, Donaldson was declaring, "I’m amazed at the speed with which this story is going." Of course it all depends what the meaning of "this story" is. On Jan. 21, the day the Monica story broke, it was Donaldson–not "this story"–who, at the White House press briefing, asked whether Clinton would cooperate with an impeachment inquiry.

The ardor of the barking heads even makes straight news people squeamish at times. Chris Vlasto, an ABC News producer who, as we shall see, cannot be accused of excessive tenderness toward the White House, told me: "The night Jackie [Judd] and I broke the story, Jan. 21, impeachment never crossed our minds. It only came up that Sunday on `This Week.’ I think it’s unfair that the talking heads on MSNBC, on our own network and the rest, have stoked the flames."

Here’s an idea: Let’s please stop calling Sunday gasbaggery "journalism" as well as calling Tim Russert "one of the most important journalists of our age."

After all, you don’t have to be a  J-school graduate to know garden variety bullshit when you step in it.