With Russert gone, will MSNBC move rightward?

[JDPriestly]

That leaves us with ABC -- nasty right-wing.
CBS -- namby pamby pudding - no view, no bite, not even much content
Fox -- extreme right-wing beyond the pale

Sorry, guys, 58 is very young. Russert is the kind of guy who would have had the very best healthcare. Hard to imagine that he was not taking his baby Aspirin every day, etc.

[MiniMe]

1. He just returned from Europe, long plane rides can lead to things that look

like a heart attack. I don't consider Russert to the left, in fact, I think he is mostly in the middle. He was fascinated by the process. I don't think that Olberman will let them move to the right though.

[calimary]

18. I would think it might move more to the center-left.

He gave so much time to Judy Miller's WMD reporting for the NY Times - with all the lies that she was being fed by dick cheney and the White House Iraq Group. He had cheney and contradicta and rummy and all those assholes on, week after week after week and fell directly into their shit, hardly EVER asking any challenging or probing questions - just sort of rubber-stamping it all. He was their stovepipe - perhaps their favorite one, and they repeatedly played him like a violin. We needed a towering journalistic figure like him to cut through the deceit and the crap and bring on more people who were telling a different story. And for whatever reason, he just wasn't willing.

I don't know. Probably shouldn't speak ill of the dead. So I apologize. May he rest in peace. But he, too, had a hand in the devastation that's come down, because he, too, was in a fabulous position to be able to debunk it all, or at least start punching a couple of holes in it. I would have loved to have seen him lead the way, back in 2002 and 2003. So many needlessly lost lives might have been spared. Sigh...

It's sad, really.

Vaya con Dios, Tim. I hope you are in a better place.

[ingac70]

2. His time was up...

He was fat, too. Then again, you can be a 28 year old pro ice skater and keel over of a massive heart attack.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Grinkov

[Berry Cool]

11. Sergei Grinkov inherited a heart deformity from his father and didn't know it.

His father also died young from a heart attack.

This is a little bit different...more like what happened to my mother, but she was in her 70s.

Damn.

ed. typo

[ingac70]

14. A propensity for...

clogged arteries IS genetic.

Sorry 'bout your Mom, but I don't generally count folks who have reached average life expectancy as sudden death, if ya know what I mean.

(Genetic issues with blot clotting that leads to heart attack and stroke runs in my family )

[KoKo]

3. Andrea Mitchell (Greenspan's Wife) was pushing Chuck Todd to take over for Russert..

There was an article posted on "DU" weeks ago that Chuck Todd and not Chris Matthews was the "Heir Apparent" to take over..(groomed by Russert)....Chuck was certainly VERY TEARFUL..on there after Andrea Mitchell supported him. I'm sure all of GE/MSNBC/CNBC are in Mourning............

It's a tough deal that came down on their heads with Russert's passing. I wish his family all condolences.. It' sad in many ways.

[Buttercup McToots]

5. Where's Tweety?

Everyone is on MSNBC talking about Tim...where is Tweety?

[Tangerine LaBamba]

8. In Paris, on vacation

He's supposed to issue a statement.

[Berry Cool]

13. He's on the phone with Andrea Mitchell right now. n/t

[SoCalDem]

9. Paris n/t

[DJ13]

4. Russert wasnt particulary left leaning, so if anything they might move farther left

:shrug:

[Submariner]

6. Rightward? They are there.

NBC is now GE, a part of the vast military industrial complex, thus they shape the news.

A few weeks ago I read where he admitted to someone in the Bush regime that he wore his Bush/Cheney 2000 button "under" his lapel. Tim was a DINO, but he died too young. RIP.

[Occam Bandage]

7. What do you mean by the last sentence there? Are you suggesting it wasn't natural?

[SoCalDem]

10. Probably a DVT

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3446355

[rocktivity]

12. The official version is now that it wasn't technically a heart attack

though his heart attacked him.

And it turns out that Tim, like Chris Matthews, is a diabetic.

:headbang:
rocknation

[JDPriestly]

17. I'm weighing what evidence I have at my disposal.

There would be motive and opportunity for a convenient exit by Russert.

There is no evidence of anyone actually doing anything to cause his death. He was 58 and under a lot of stress. I will be interested to find out what doctors and his family say.

So, I'm not counting out any possibility at this point.

As you remember from an earlier thread, Russert was the key witness against Libby and would a be a key witness in any further action on the Plame case. I am not drawing any conclusions one way or the other.

[calimary]

19. Well, one thing is certainly true, as you pointed out. That job he had - actually the

two jobs he had with NBC News - both HUGE jobs - those were nothing to sneeze at. Wouldn't surprise me if he was highly stressed out ALL THE TIME. Those aren't easy jobs, in the toughest town on earth.

[Occam Bandage]

21. And thank Mod almighty that thread was deleted.

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Occam Bandage]

16. ...

[KamaAina]

20. Move rightward? If it weren't for Keith, they'd already be into the guard rail.

:eyes: