The Truth will prevail, But only if we Demand it from Congress!
9-11 Inside Job and Neocons Hacked 2004
How Tim Russert Sold Out to Corporate America
CHOCOLATES AND NYLONS, SIR?
By David Podvin
In 1992, shortly after being named moderator of Meet The Press, Tim
Russert was having lunch with a broadcast executive. The mealtime
conversation was about the pros and cons of working for General
Electric’s NBC subsidiary. Russert expounded on how being employed
by GE had brought him to the realization that things functioned
better when Republicans were in charge.
“You know, Tim, you used to be such a rabid Democrat when you worked
for Pat Moynihan,” said the executive. “But now that you’ve gotten a
glimpse of who’s handing out the money in this business, you’ve
become quite the Jaycee. Were you wrong about everything you used to
believe so strongly?”
“I still believe,” Russert said, leaning across the table. “I
believe in everything I ever did. But I also know that I never would
have become moderator on Meet The Press if my employers were
uncomfortable with me. And, given the amount of money at stake,
millions of dollars, I don’t blame them. This is business.”
The executive agreed. “But are you concerned about losing yourself?
You know, selling out?”
Russert pounded the table. “Integrity is for paupers!”
When Tim Russert joined NBC News in 1984, he began a personal
transformation from Democratic congressional aide to
broadcaster-in-charge of General Electric’s political interests. His
early efforts for the network drew some criticism from the GE
corporate suites as being “too knee jerk”, a euphemism for
“insufficiently pro-GE/ Republican”. The executives at General
Electric viewed with hostility the Democratic Party that wanted to
burden them with obeying laws that the company preferred to break
and complying with regulations that it preferred to ignore. While
Republicans turned a blind eye to the serial environmental crimes
and bribery committed by GE, the Democrats were less submissive. The
company was especially upset that the Democratic Party had taken a
position against transferring public ownership of the broadcast
airwaves to the media conglomerates.
The ambitious Russert soon learned that, in order to climb the
ladder at NBC News, he had to please two sets of managers: the news
executives who were ostensibly his bosses, and the employers of the
news executives. In the years that followed, he refined the strategy
to ingratiating himself to General Electric Chairman Jack Welch.
For much of the eighties, Russert coordinated specials on summits
and foreign policy related topics. His breakthrough performance
occurred in 1990, when he oversaw the production of the prime time
special, “A Day In The Life Of President Bush”. The show was so
worshipful and fawning that one embarrassed production assistant
referred to it as “Deep Throat: The Missing Footage”. By this time,
however, Russert had figured out that only one opinion counted. Jack
Welch loved the program, telling an associate that it “hit just the
right note”.
When the moderator position on Meet The Press needed to be filled in
1991, Russert was chosen from on high. The show had been struggling
in the ratings, earning less than a million dollars a year. The new
moderator changed the format, eliminating the panel and turning
America’s longest running program into The Tim Russert Show. The
revised philosophy of Meet The Press was borrowed from the book
Animal Farm: All Guests Are Equal, But Some Guests Are More Equal
Than Others. The more equal ones, who all coincidentally had an “R”
appear after their names on the show’s graphics, were asked
questions about policy and the moral shortcomings of the opposition
party. The lesser equals were usually challenged to disassociate
themselves from issues (liberal) and individuals (Democrats) that
Russert found to be lacking in virtue.
In 1992, Russert enthusiastically led the media frenzy about the
relationship between Gennifer Flowers and Democratic presidential
nominee Bill Clinton, but he refused to report about a similar
relationship between incumbent Republican President George Bush and
Jennifer Fitzgerald. Four years later, Russert focused on questions
about Clinton fundraising, while studiously ignoring the lengthy
record of well-documented influence peddling by Republican nominee
Bob Dole.
Throughout 2000, with less pretense of objectivity than ever,
Russert dutifully echoed the Republican theme that the Democratic
nominee was “dishonest”. Week after week, the topic on Meet The
Press was the “repeated lying” of Al Gore. One lowlight of Russert’s
descent into shameless propagandist occurred when it was revealed
that George W. Bush had been convicted of drunk driving in Maine,
thereby proving that the Republican candidate had been deceitful
when he was questioned about whether he had ever been arrested.
Russert’s immediate response on national television was, “The
question on everybody’s mind is, ‘Did the Gore campaign have
something to do with the release of this information?’”
That was not the question on everybody’s mind; a poll taken
immediately after the revelation showed that most Americans did not
believe that Gore was involved.
It was, however, the question being faxed nationally by the
Republicans in a memo circulated to their operatives who were
responsible for diverting attention from the fact that their
candidate was guilty of, for want of a better term, “repeated
lying”.
As media mogul and future Fox network founder Rupert Murdoch
noticed, Russert’s brazenly partisan approach attracted large
numbers of white male viewers. In 2000, Meet The Press earned a $50
million profit for General Electric, which was sixty times more than
when Russert was named moderator.
During the 2000 presidential campaign, Russert established a link
between Meet The Press and the G.O.P. opposition research team that
was responsible for digging up dirt/manufacturing dirt on Al Gore.
On election night, after conferring with Welch, Russert demanded
that Gore quit the race before the legally mandated recount took
place in Florida. The next morning, on the Today Show, he repeated
the demand. During the recount, Russert actively campaigned for
Bush, going so far as to insist that Democratic vice presidential
candidate Joe Lieberman endorse the counting of illegally cast
military ballots that would benefit George W.
There have been reports from those who were present that journalist
Tim Russert was wearing a Bush For President lapel pin when he
attended the traditional Al Smith Dinner in New York shortly before
the election. This should be interpreted as less of an endorsement
than a brownnosing. Russert was accompanied by Welch, who was a
strong supporter of Bush and completely intolerant of dissent on the
matter.
During the Lewinsky episode, Russert latched onto the sexual aspect
of the scandal with obsessive fervor. When the story appeared to be
running out of steam, he showed America his creative side. The
following was written by Martin Schram of the Nando Times:
I was especially dismayed to hear Russert present what sounded like
a misbegotten Virtual Scoop:
"There are lots of suggestions coming out of people close to Ken
Starr that perhaps the Secret Service 'facilitated' for President
Clinton. Remember that code word -- it was used about the state
troopers in Little Rock ... Was the Secret Service -- was a Secret
Service agent -- an accomplice in trying to cover up a relationship
with Monica Lewinsky?"
Sounds like a major, unsavory exclusive report from a source in the
independent counsel's office -- that the Secret Service was pimping
for a president of the United States.
But rewind and rethink. We only heard Russert say there were
"suggestions" from people "close to" Starr that "perhaps" an agent
had facilitated in the president's philandering. Were these
"suggestions" based on any substantial evidence or proof obtained by
the independent counsel? Or was it just a prayerful hope of someone
in Starr's office who hates Clinton but has not a shred of evidence
that this might have happened? Which of course means that it would
be a journalistic outrage to air the story if that was all it was.
Now fast-forward. It is midday, on MSNBC, the all-news cable
channel. Behind the scenes, Starr's spokesman, Charles Bakaly, has
called Russert, and Russert has conceded the source wasn't in
Starr's office; it was a congressional source. Which means it may
have been a political opponent of the president -- who may or may
not know if there is any substantive indication that such a thing
had occurred.
Now, on MSNBC's regular noontime show, "Investigating the
President," Russert sounds like he is just repeating his morning
scoop. But he actually tells a much different, much weaker version
-- while never indicating that he is issuing a correction:
"This morning I reported that congressional sources had told NBC
News that Ken Starr is very interested in finding out" what Secret
Service agents may have done -- as "accomplices" in a "cover-up."
Wait! This is more than just saying the source was "congressional";
now Russert is saying that Starr is merely "interested in finding
out" if any agent had facilitated on behalf of the president. Well,
of course he is! And so am I! But it is not newsworthy that either
Starr or I want to ask these questions. It would only be news if
either Starr or I had proof that this happened.
Fast-forward again. On NBC's "Nightly News," Russert reports live
from the White House lawn: "Members of Congress have been talking to
investigators, people, lawyers associated with the grand jury,
people who are free to talk"-- what the heck does all that mean? --
"and they are coming to some conclusions that perhaps Secret Service
agents may have been, quote, facilitating." (Again, just perhaps.)
"We don't know whether that's Republican spin, partisan spin,
ideological spin, or there's a germ of evidence."
Translation: We don't have any idea whether any of this is true. But
we've spent all day raising the smarmy specter that the Secret
Service may have been pimping for the president -- just as the
president's political opponents hoped we would. Even though we
didn't have a germ of evidence that it was true.
Mr. Schram is an excessively generous man, lavishing the undeserved
benefit of the doubt on Russert in a situation where there is no
doubt. This was not a “misbegotten virtual scoop”. It was a lie.
What was happening has been on public display countless times
before: Tim Russert was acting as an operative for the political
interests of the multinational corporation that keeps him fat and
happy.
The spectacular rewards of manipulating the public for GE were
realized in 2001, when Russert received a new contract worth tens of
millions of dollars. The wages of sin have been huge, while the cost
has been the negligible loss of whatever integrity he might have
once possessed. He is not an objective journalist; he is a partisan
deceiver. He exaggerates Democratic wrongdoing, going to the extreme
of inventing criminal behavior. Conversely, he has been
unrelentingly oblivious to all Republican scandals; his infinite
fascination with the missing intern in the case of Democrat Gary
Condit was accompanied by total disinterest in the dead intern who
was found on the office floor of Republican Joe Scarborough. Russert
spent years obsessing about an ill fated land deal called Whitewater
that involved a couple of hundred thousand dollars, but he remains
indifferent to the multi-trillion dollar taxpayer funded kickbacks
that George W. Bush has been ladling out to his campaign
contributors.
Russert has every right to serve General Electric and its chosen
political party, but truth in advertising mandates that he should
never appear on television without having “We Bring Good Things To
Life” emblazoned on his forehead.
The saga of Tim Russert is not unique, or even uncommon. With minor
changes, it could be the story of Peter Jennings, or Brit Hume, or
Jim Lehrer, ad nauseum. This is the modern reality of the mainstream
media: those who dutifully conform to the company line and
deceitfully ignore any facts that are incompatible with increasing
corporate profits are compensated with vast fortunes, while whatever
democracy remains in this country struggles to survive without a
free press and an informed electorate.
The founders of America conceived of a nation with an unregulated
flow of information that would provide the citizenry with access to
the knowledge they needed to govern themselves. That patriotic
vision has been distorted by the huge conglomerates that control the
mainstream media, and by journalistic prostitutes like Tim Russert,
who corrupt our society with their eagerness to pervert the truth in
exchange for personal wealth.
http://makethemaccountable.com/podvin/media/020109_Russert.htm
