Timmy Russert looked like he was about to cry on NBC

[Elwood P Dowd]

He could hardly talk during the Delay segment. BTW, Brian Williams had an excellent show today - Delay, prisoner abuse in Iraq, gas and home heating price increases, the dog they rescued in NOLA, etc.

[calico1]

1. I cried at the end of the newscast.

I thought I had read somewhere that that little boy had died. I am so glad he made it and that he and his mom got a new start. She's had a rough life and was on her own. Nice to see two happy endings in one newscast!

[TallahasseeGrannie]

4. which little boy? I missed it

I'm hoping you are talking about the baby that was unresponsive?

[Roland99]

14. Woman who was interviewed in NOLA...twice...days apart

1st time she was doing ok but worried.

2nd time she had been w/o food/water for days and her child looked unresponsive.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

15. That baby LIVED?

Gosh, that is good news. I have a grandson that age and that just tore me up.

[deadparrot]

21. Yeah, I think MSNBC corrected themselves today.

They were the ones who orginally reported him dead.

[snowbear]

2. Boy..... I dunno...

I've been watching him, and he's pretty much been all over the map.. I can't really say he's been letting DeLay off so far.

Dan Abrams is the one who pissed me off the most..

[Cha]

25. What did dan abrams have

to say?

[ChairmanAgnostic]

3. His bosses probably gave him more of a taste of his e-mails

and warned him about his future. More rumors abound that NBC never had so many adverse, angry and upset e-mails - ever.

[ClassWarrior]

5. Adverse, angry and upset about what?

NGU.

[spuddonna]

7. You mean about Lil Timmy trying to ambush Broussard? n/t

[ChairmanAgnostic]

8. precisely. He has already been on I-Must trying to rebuild his aura

That was a Waste 'O Thyme.

He may have even heard that with the GOoPers collapsing over their own indictments, his job security may be no better than Tom DeLay's

[spuddonna]

12. Yeah, I think Timmy will be trying to be seen as more "moderate" now...

He made the biggest mistake of his career when he tried to sneak attack Broussard on Sunday... Broussard handed him his ass...

Russert will be kissing asses to keep his high profile MTP hosting job...

[tinfoilinfor2005]

17. Yeah, I saw his pitiful crying to Iman. This time though he was among

his buddies and of course Broussard wasn't there to kick his ass again. Yup, I saw it exactly the same way you did, and I think anyone else who saw or heard it did too.

[calimary]

33. REALLY? No shit? He got deluged with angry emails over his

kerosene enema treatment of Broussard? I sent one myself, asking him to resign - that it was one of the most disgraceful displays I'd ever seen - trying to nitpick this guy. WHAT AN ASSHOLE. He CRIED? Aw pooooooooooooooooooooor baby.

He should cry himself to sleep EVERY NIGHT for all the blood and wreckage and desolation HE HAS ENABLED by being such a Monica to bush. He shares in the crimes and the sins, because he was so uniquely and perfectly positioned, as host of a show as prominent as "Meet the Press," to be holding these assholes' feet to the fire and questioning them and confronting them with the truth when they lie and lie and lie and lie and lie. He has done NONE of those things. Probably grilled Broussard because he wanted his audience to think he was being a tough, objective reporter. He was being a complete snake. A contemptible ASSHOLE. Just about as equally guilty as bush, cheney, rummy, wolfie, contradicta and the rest of 'em. He has a HUGE karmic debt to pay. COLLOSAL. So big he may not be able to pay it off in this life. It's one thing to be the perpetrator of the evil. It's quite another to be in a position to stop it or at least slow it down, and go the other way and just enable it to pieces without a moment's worth of serious, credible questioning. And believe me, Russert had/has the resources to know enough deep background about a story or an issue to see a larger picture beyond the talking points he's issued by the rove machine. PLENTY of resources to see the larger picture and the whole truth. And he chose to ignore every bit of it. Maybe because there wasn't any stained blue dress around, he just couldn't quite tell or something... I don't know. But there's no excuse for someone of his background and position. He's a big boy, and he's been a "journalist" long enough to know how you pursue a story, and how you play devil's advocate and how you try to cut through the bullshit especially if there are many signals to tip you off that it IS bullshit. NO EXCUSE. NONE. NONE WHATSOEVER. The absolute GROSSEST of Gross Dereliction of Duty. If I were his boss, I'd have fired him long ago and told him to go work for Pox "news" because he'd feel so much more at home there.

But to me, Russert is one of the damned. He's not first in line, but he's WAY up there toward the front.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

35. I also wrote, and know of 10 friends who complained as well.

I suspect that many people did the same.

[calimary]

37. Good. I swear, I have come to hate Tim Russert. You're just NOT

supposed to show bias like that. And if that were an isolated case, I could almost forgive it. But with that smug, partisan schmuck it's been over and over and over and over and over and over - as someone else pointed out here, softball questions for all things republi-CON and the frickin' inquisition for anyone who's a Dem or a liberal. Why doesn't he just move to the Pox "news" network and at least be somewhat honest about his complete bias?

HORRENDOUS. He should be ashamed of himself. I'm ashamed of him, on his behalf. As a retired reporter, I'm ashamed of him on behalf of my former industry. People like him are what give the rest of us a bad name.

Shit - I'm ashamed of my profession. I'm ashamed of my government. I'm ashamed of my country - because so many people are, or at least up til now have been, more or less okay with this - as long as gays can't get married, that is.

I'm delighted that you wrote. I hope it gives him MANY sleepless nights. I hope he gets MORE letters like this. In fact, I may write another one.

I swear he ought to just come clean completely and change his name to Monica. I mean, we can all see his "presidential kneepads."

[ChairmanAgnostic]

38. agreed. Hey, what media were you in?

Do you miss the deadlines, the idiot editors and the "what ifs" which necessarily follow a pro in that field?

I agree, though, shame is a powerful emotion, one which makes good things happen, and prevents bad things (often, not always) it seems to be missing in our MSM. I also feel shame about our country, and the harm we have done others.

On the other hand, we have to recognize that Osama bin Laden is a danger to us. Yes, we helped create him. Yes, there are elements, (wahabism in particular) in various religions which seek to harm us. Yes, we must protect ourselves, and where possible, go after our enemies.

But that being said, this government's approach has been worse than inept.

Oh my gosh. spouse and I just watched the end of PBS's News Hour. They showed - in silence - 14 young men's photos, the oldest being 37, the youngest being 20. Dead by Bush.

[calimary]

39. Sometimes I miss it a lot. Especially these days when sometimes I

flatter myself into thinking - "well, I (the great and powerful - HEAVY sarcasm here) would be on the air doing thus-n-such. But I worked for AP Radio and covered Hollywood, so I'd be assigned to get to the bottom of Demi and Ashton, and Renee and Kenny (although the rawther aggressive country music reporter might have tried to yank that one away from me and claim it as her story - sometimes the lines were pretty blurry as to which story was on whose beat). So I wouldn't have served this issue much. Besides, I was in L.A. I do see Mark Smith of the AP at some of the White House press briefings and he's just sitting there taking notes, and sometimes I shout at him - 'WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH YOU, LAZYBONES?!?!?!? You were supposed to be one of our hotshot reporters!!! Not a single question out of you? Why are you letting David Gregory do all the heavy lifting? Whatza matter - cold feet? Protecting the one-on-one you've booked with kkkarl rove or something?

REALLY makes me frustrated. Anyway, I was mainly radio, a little TV, a little print - since sometimes I was the only set of eyes on a celebrity story and if the a-wire needed a people item or something other than just the press release about so-n-so getting his/her star on the Walk of Fame or something, they'd take quotes from me. Sometimes they took so many quotes and other color stuff from me that they'd give me the byline, which was kinda cool.

I worked with two Pulitzer Prize winners, too. They were the guys in the photo department next to our studio in the AP bureau. One of 'em, Reed Saxon, took the photo of Clinton playing sax on Arsenio Hall's show - which, along with a package of campaign photos won a group Pulitzer. The other was Nick Ut - whose name you may not recognize but whose work EVERYONE will remember as long as they live. He took the photo of that screaming girl running naked down the road after having been napalmed in Vietnam. That was such a stop-in-your-tracks photo. I remember Nick talking about the arguments that were held in the Saigon bureau where he then worked - over whether to use the photo because of the little girl's nudity. They finally decided to go with it because of the anguish it depicted - you could NOT get a clearer and starker and more horrendous smack-in-the-face view of what that war did to innocent civilians if you'd custom-designed it. THERE were the horrors of war in those open-mouthed screams - hers and that of a little boy in the foreground. I'd see him at all the celeb stuff, crouching down on the floor in the front, getting the shot, while I was standing usually just behind him, holding my mike out to grab some soundbite. They were both the nicest guys, as was everyone else in the place. I STILL see bylines on some stories of people I worked with, and it's interesting to see where some of them have been transfered around to different and unexpected places. I saw something written by Deborah Hastings on some angle of Katrina, she was in or near New Orleans. She used to write the TV beat in the L.A. bureau. She was a good friend, too.

THAT stuff I miss. A LOT. THOSE people I miss. And I miss the gallows humor in the newsroom that would erupt at the height of almost EVERY big story. Most of it was truly horrible, tasteless, raunchy, disgraceful, the you-should-be-ashamed-of-yourselves type of thing. And I loved EVERY bit! :evilgrin:

[Jawja]

6. Lou Dobbs,

who I normally don't watch, had an excellent show today, too on CNN.

He covered the war on the middle class, the irresponsibility of the new bankruptcy bill, and the failure of FEMA to make us safe.

[chicagiana]

10. Dobbs is a paleo-con ...

Although I agree with his illegal immigration stance, I understand that MANY, MANY people here do not.

Lou Dobbs is pretty close to us on MANY, MANY issues. Overall he's a good guy.

I DO NOT approve of his Hugo Chavez bashing. Nor do I like his freeper #2 woman reporter who takes over his chair when he is gone.

Dobbs has a value system and he follows them. This is a person you can legitmitely disagree with. He doesn't kiss GOP ass.

[samsingh]

24. dobbs is like Senator McCain

he sometimes comes across as decent, but deep inside, i don't think either really are. at the very least, they will kiss butt for their own purpose.

[PurityOfEssence]

31. Damn straight; good point, too!

Why the hell do so many suckers here and elsewhere on the left think McCain or this clown are "good" or "their friends"?

Dobbs is a "real" conservative, as opposed to a "values reactionary" or a power mad "neocon" who's bent on world domination and the shoring up of Israel at all costs. Lou is truly an old-style American conservative: he's classic white-bread and a fuck-the-poor, union-busting, balanced-budget money whore. He's got a bee in his bonnet about immigration--which is certainly something that needs to be addressed--and he calls the islamists as what they are.

Take it in toto, though, and he's a self-proclaimed aristocrat who's led a life of privilege and doesn't really give two pins for those not to the manor born. He's smug, smarmy and the twinkle in his eye is as friendly and disarming as McCain's; they truly are two pissants in a pod.

Lou will suck up to the party and trumpet the reactionary line when he needs to, and is consistent about sneering at anything progressive ALL the time. Frankness is not totally posturing on his part, but it mostly is.

He is not our friend. To the degree that he will speak out against certain party-line policies he is useful, but if that's any litmus test for morality, then we should all kiss Bob Novak's ass for being consistently against the Iraq war.

McCain disgusts me; mercifully, the Bushies and other power brokers will never let him get the nomination unless the party's so disgraced that he's their only hope to technically retain power. Why are so many so fooled? The only answer I can come up with is that he's got a cheery innocence about him and so many people are so damned facile that they'll believe that schtick just as they did from Reagan.

[chicagiana]

40. Lou is against off-shoring ...

The reason I like Lou Dobbs is because he has a segment EVERY day about sending so many jobs overseas. Dobbs seems to be the only person allowed on TV who will talk about this issue so plainly and so bluntly.

Neither political party has the balls to stand up to corporate America's treasonous sell-out of the American worker. Ultimately, it's a national security issue. And perhaps this is where Dobbs concern really is. But I really can't think of any more important issue than making sure Americans have good jobs and a healthy manufacturing base.

[ClintonTyree]

11. Saw that, was quite impressed as well..........

he and "Kitty Pilgrim" :eyes: When Dobbs says there's a war on against the middle class you can bet there's a war on against the middle class. He said the new bankruptcy bill will destroy America, and it will. He was VERY harsh to the bushies tonight (not like they don't deserve it). Welcome to the second great depression, courtesy of george w. bush.
This country is in for one hell of a ride, hang on.

[Julius Civitatus]

9. Timmy is a known Republican supporter

HE was outed by the BBC in the 2000 Elections calling RNC headquarters for dirt on Al Gore. A D.C. journalist around the same time reported seen Tim Russert at a Washington cocktail with a Bush/Cheney button on his lapel. This was widely reported here at DU.

Week after week he shows his bias in is show: nasty "gotcha" questions for Democrats, softballs for Republicans.

No wonder Timmy is sad. Delay is his pal and his idol.

F*ck you, Timmy Taterhead!

I bet you'll cry yourself to sleep tonight, beeyoch!

:kick:

[The Kicker]

13. Tim "pumpkinhead" Russert's family.

Isn't Russert the cousin of Mary "lipless" Matalin?

[karynnj]

18. Didn't he work for Mario Coumo and Sen Moynahan

Wouldn't he more likely be a Democrat?

[peacetalksforall]

19. karynn.... there is no employee of NBC who is a Democrat. Tweety

once worked for Pat Moynihan. Every one of them who used to be a Democrat has morphed. The NBC's are not a news network, they are a propaganda machine for the right wing owned by GE - one of the biggest contract benefactors of war.

Just listen to what they say day after day - it is all propaganda on a par with or exceeding Izvetzia and Pravda of the old USSR.

They are not journalists. They are part of the war machine against the people of the U.S. and the world. NBC ceased to exist when bought out by GE.

[OrangeCountyDemocrat]

27. Keith Olbermann n/t

[bunny planet]

36. Keith Olbermann does not vote. He doesn't want to be considered

partisan.

[Zen Democrat]

20. Just like Tweety worked for Tip O'Neill and Jimmy Carter.

So wha happent?

[gratuitous]

22. Pocketing those fat network paychecks pulled them to the right

Now they're more worried about getting invites to the best cocktail parties and who's banging who on Martha's Vineyard than they are about anything else. If the country goes down the toilet, they figure they're the turds on top and will last the longest.

They're sadly mistaken, of course. Russert and Matthews may be rich, but the guys who write their paychecks are wealthy. And like any other commodity, they're fungible.

[mrdmk]

28. Just think of the old saying

When they were poor, they were Democrats. When they became rich, they became Republicans!

Groucho Marx

[PurityOfEssence]

32. Richard Perle used to work for Democrat "Scoop" Jackson; so what?

The list of reactionary southerners who used to be Democrats is mighty damned long, too, including ones who were elected as Dems and then switched. (The hypocrisy when Jeffords went independent was breathtaking.)

What I'd like to do is see some of the libertarians like Ron Paul go independent and caucus with the Dems, but I'm not holding my breath; the only thing that would cause that is if we have more and worse foreign adventures.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

16. DeLay's looking like HE wants to cry, too...

:evilgrin:

[MissMarple]

29. Or hit someone and throw things.

He probably experienced too much corporal punishment as a child. I heard yesterday, maybe from Randy Rhodes, that he comes from a family of alcoholics. He used to drink martinis like some people drink sweet tea. :nopity:

[ChairmanAgnostic]

34. Man, I need a slug of dioxin!

these people are naughty and mean to me. Don't they know WHO I AM? I PUT THE PRESIDENT INTO OFFICE! I AM THE MOST POWERFUL MAN IN CONGRESS! I AM WHAT I YAM!

[AtomicKitten]

23. Oh, boo-fucking-hoo.

The evil, corrupt, hypocritical Republican is going down.
Maybe Russert might want to re-think his party allegiance.

[Cha]

26. One of the Mean ones is

going DOWN..does that mean there's a chance for timmy to be indicted in our future?

[realFedUp]

30. I monitor the bags under Jim Lehrer's eyes...

the bigger, the worse the Republicans are doing that week.

When will these guys realize that Republicans are
a crime family and are turning this country into
their own corrupt and lawless territory.

Thank God we still have prosecutors who have the
balls to take these guys on.

and when is that trial for Ken Lay?