Saturday, June 14, 2008
RIP Tim Russert
It still pains me that "Meet the Press" will no longer have Tim Russert at the helm--that political journalism will be without Russert. He was by far my favorite of the Sunday talk show hosts and I faithfully watched him when he took over the helm in the early 1990s to make MTP competitive with "This Week with David Brinkley." He didn't just make it competitive, but instead set the standard, leaving all other talk shows in the dust. In fact, the other talk shows now have an advantage in the fact that NBC lost such an asset, and while the choice to replace Russert has not been announced, I am willing to bet that I know one person in the hunt, and I can't say if he gets the nod that I will watch the program any longer. But this point does not intend to be critical.
There are a lot of praises about the passing of Russert and it shows just what kind of presence he had throughout the world. Probably one of the better newspaper pieces is this one by Jim Rutenberg of the New York Times. Rutenberg notes how the sort of power that Russert had which is unrivaled by any other reporters--that President Bush had his dinner interrupted last night while dining with the French President to be told of Russert's passing. Now that is importance. Russert noted that the Oval Office interview he did with President Bush back in 2004 was one of the toughest he had ever done not because of the brilliance of Bush but because of being present in the Oval Office. It was an interview deliberately designed by the White House to give Bush an advantage.
What I found interesting about this article was a passage regarding how the Bush White House had its own staff to track and prepare for the Russert interview. Rutenberg writes:
Mr. Bush’s White House eventually assigned a press aide, Adam Levine, to focus specifically on preparing its officials for interviews with Mr. Russert. Mr. Levine was an expert on Russert interviews, which included the now widely used presenting subjects with their words and asking them about apparent contradictions.
What other journalist anywhere in the World has a division in the White House devoted to reading and watching every interview in order to give your side an advantage when you go toe to toe with him or her? That was Tim Russert.
I certainly hope that other hosts of their political talk shows look to Russert for guidance, but I seriously doubt it. I think the Russert era is one that will fade to the annals of history as television talk shows move towards flash over substance.
RIP Tim Russert
|
There are a lot of praises about the passing of Russert and it shows just what kind of presence he had throughout the world. Probably one of the better newspaper pieces is this one by Jim Rutenberg of the New York Times. Rutenberg notes how the sort of power that Russert had which is unrivaled by any other reporters--that President Bush had his dinner interrupted last night while dining with the French President to be told of Russert's passing. Now that is importance. Russert noted that the Oval Office interview he did with President Bush back in 2004 was one of the toughest he had ever done not because of the brilliance of Bush but because of being present in the Oval Office. It was an interview deliberately designed by the White House to give Bush an advantage.
What I found interesting about this article was a passage regarding how the Bush White House had its own staff to track and prepare for the Russert interview. Rutenberg writes:
Mr. Bush’s White House eventually assigned a press aide, Adam Levine, to focus specifically on preparing its officials for interviews with Mr. Russert. Mr. Levine was an expert on Russert interviews, which included the now widely used presenting subjects with their words and asking them about apparent contradictions.
What other journalist anywhere in the World has a division in the White House devoted to reading and watching every interview in order to give your side an advantage when you go toe to toe with him or her? That was Tim Russert.
I certainly hope that other hosts of their political talk shows look to Russert for guidance, but I seriously doubt it. I think the Russert era is one that will fade to the annals of history as television talk shows move towards flash over substance.
RIP Tim Russert
