People tried to get Russert to stop repeating the "Saddam threw out the weapons inspectors." lie

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080707/cockburn

The Canonization of St. Tim

beat the devil

By Alexander Cockburn
This article appeared in the July 7, 2008 edition of The Nation.

June 19, 2008


The delirium in the press at Tim Russert's passing has been strange. As a broadcaster he was not much better than average, which is saying very little. He could be a sharp questioner, but not when it really counted and when courage was required. He was tough with George Bush in a February 2004 interview. He taxed him with faking the reasons to attack Iraq. But in the years before the 2003 attack, I used to hear Russert being merciless to those questioning whether Saddam Hussein had the nukes and bioweapons alleged by the Bush Administration and its co-conspirators in the press, prominent among them Russert himself.

Russert and his staff ignored efforts by watchdogs like Sam Husseini and others to get him to stop telling lies to the effect that it was Saddam who threw out the UNSCOM weapons inspectors, whereas it was Richard Butler, the head of UNSCOM, who pulled out the inspectors, apparently at the instigation of the United States. As Husseini correctly writes, "This lie, echoed through much of the political-media system around the time Russert told it, helped set the stage for the invasion after 9/11."

If Russert had rocked the boat in any serious way he'd have had more enemies. The right-wingers didn't care for Walter Cronkite, but they had no problem with Russert. Rush Limbaugh nuzzled him respectfully on the air, and so did Don Imus. Russert was always there with his watering can to fertilize myths useful to the system. On Russert's memorial show Ronald Reagan glowed in memory, up there with FDR as the twentieth century's best-loved and most popular American President. Not true at all, as Russert--trained to read polls by years of working for Mario Cuomo and Daniel Patrick Moynihan--could have found out in five minutes if he'd wanted to. Reagan had a scrawny 52 percent average approval rating for his presidency, worse than JFK, LBJ, Eisenhower, Roosevelt and Johnson. His supposed "likability" was also hugely exaggerated. But the invention of RR as the toast of the ordinary folk was necessary to validate the disgusting pigout for the very rich he inaugurated, which continues to this day.

[truedelphi]

1. What can you say about this supposed "journalist" who

Stated openly that "Integrity is for paupers." !!!!

[barbtries]

3. hed said that?

link?

i found one: http://progressiveindependent.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=84844

googled it and the top 3 were all DU posts :7

[truedelphi]

17. A guy named David Podvin has a site that reports on

Big Media's shortcomings.

The link to his report on Russert and the "integrity and pauper" quote can be found here:
http://makethemaccountable.com/podvin/media/020109_Russert.htm

[caraher]

36. Podvin's quote is unverifiable

While Podvin writes the big-T "Truth" about the media, efforts to substantiate the "red meat" quotes he attributes to Russert have no substantiation beyond his word (and Carolyn Kay's). Read this account of an attempt at verifying the story and ask yourself whether the Russert quote would have any credibility to a disinterested observer.

The public words and actions of Russert and the "liberal media" are more than sufficient to condemn them. As an advocate of the "reality-based community" I would like to see a reasonable amount of skepticism regarding this one quote. We undermine our own credibility when we spread a "too good to be true" quote that resists independent substantiation.

[truedelphi]

39. Until the person that overheard this conversation comes forward,

I guess we have to take this wonderful quote with a grain of salt.

But as you yourself say, "The public words and actions of Russert and the "liberal media" are more than sufficient to condemn them. As an advocate of the "reality-based community" I would like to see a reasonable amount of skepticism regarding this one quote. "

[caraher]

42. I think we're on the same page here :)

[truedelphi]

40. Here's my existing my proof about how we have lost our media

The words "Associated Press" stand for "Applying Puke" to me.
Read why here:
http://tinyurl.com/3o6wvc

Nowadays our "Legitimate" mainstream media no longer even bothers to have state, national and international correspondants that work hard at their beat.

Instead the "reporters" just re-gurgitate whatever the "spokesperson" for whatever industry is fighting for whatever legislation happens to ahve as the talking points.

Why was the unpaid reporter for an independent monthly the ONLY person to uncover the Associated rRess's lies regarding MTBE? Didn't the SF Chronicle have the money to send one of its people to check on the AP article?

And why did it turn out that the entire AP article was one BIG LIE??

[az chela]

11. I dont remember ever seeing him on tv altho the name is familiar but the last week he has risn to go

What is that about???

[Liberal Veteran]

2. I think it was largely just shock that led to the rather masturbatory coverage of his passing.

But he wasn't Edward R. Murrow.

[malaise]

23. I disagree with you

Yes his colleagues were rightly shocked, but the reason they spent six days deifying him was because M$M has unfettered control of the public airwaves and decide what is news simply because the FCC is controlled by hacks.

[KoKo]

4. kick....because Russert needs to be discussed........n/t

[Disturbed]

6. Now that Russert is actually buried I feel it is ok to discuss

his major failings as a Pundit. I never viewed him as a "Journalist" &/or Reporter. Whether he was a like able person, a wonderful family person & father is not the issue. The issue is what he represented as a powerful On Air Personality.

The following is the most accurate view of Tim Russert that I have read on the Net.

Russert exemplified everything that is wrong with journalism in America

Russert became a hollow caricature of the hard hitting journalist, by
knowing exactly how far to go in any encounter, with a keen
eye for just which players in the power structure could be challenged,
exactly how much he could pretend to challenge them, and above all,
those lines that must never be crossed.

By following these rules, he defined the modern millionaire
media star journalist -less the hard bitten investigator, and
more the courtier in the palace - laughing the loudest at the president's
jokes about missing WMD - making sure always to
be one of the in crowd, the coolest kids in school, and making his program the place to go
for an administration that wanted "message control", - saying in
a moment of candor, "principles are for paupers.." --
the tenet he lived by to the end.

The reason his death became a media festival far beyond it's importance,
like Reagan's funeral or OJ's trial - is that the tight knit society
of like minded journalistic shills, for the last several years a dark sense
has been growing, despite all attempts to ignore it, repress it, of
having crossed into a dark area of the soul, betraying their country, their
people, the constitution, the truth, and even the planet in selling
their souls to the journalist-as-celebrity culture that has
taken over New York and Washington.

So, here is their idol, their model, their archetype,
all too soon being called to final account, whether
in a spiritual judgement, or even if only that final
heart clutching moment, where, for Tim, there might have been a
flicker of recognition of just who he was, and what
he had become. greenman3610

BTW I am the first person to have posted the “Integrity is for paupers!” quote on DU & was never challenged on it.


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!”

http://makethemaccountable.com/podvin/media/020109_Russert.htm

[roguevalley]

12. I agree. after the funeral, have at it.

[orleans]

19. LOL n/t

[daleo]

5. Russertt's "state funeral" was a reward for being reliable

It was also a message to other "journalists" out there, that there are great rewards available to those that go along. I imagine the Soviet state did the same for the top Pravda journalists in the 1970's.

[Poll_Blind]

27. Yes.

PB

[KG]

7. it weren't by accident he repeated the lies.

[sam sarrha]

8. if i got as much money to say that as he did i'd be yell'n ftom the roof tops

[tabasco]

9. Russert sold his soul to Cheney (aka Satan) and has gone home to be with daddy.

He will be there to greet Chicken Dickie and Idiot AWOL.

[speedoo]

34. Let's hope so.

May he NOT rest in peace.

Fuck you Russert, you have plenty of blood on your hands.

[Patsy Stone]

10. Just what DU was missing...

another Tim Russert thread. Thanks.

[Stinky The Clown]

13. Jack Welch

[Major Hogwash]

14. NBC created the myth that Russert was a great journalist by having that funeral orgy.

In a lame attempt to claim they were always "telling the truth".

ABC is now trying to figure out who they will claim is the great, "truth telling" journalist for their channel.
CBS has given up and instead is trying to get rid of Katie Couric without her finding out about it first, and then they will claim later that they were all drinking heavily at the time they fired Dan Rather.

And the rest of the boob tube journalists - well, they were on cable, which pretty much means they lent their bullshit expertise to proving why the tv is referred to as "the boob tube" by many.

When MSNBC fired Phil Donahue just after the Iraq war started, I knew that the newspeak of "1984" was really here to stay.

Whoever made that tv ad parody of 1984 last summer of Hilary Clinton as the "talking head" on the screen, that winds up getting bashed in by the hammer thrower, should get a good position in the Obama administration. He earned it. That ad was so dead on, it wasn't even funny.
And although I enjoyed watching "Obama girl", I thought maybe there will be a day, someday, when we will actually get real news reports in this country again.

[truedelphi]

29. Here is my first hand account of how the Media will stop at nothing

To avoid the stating of truth. Can't diminish the sales of the main products, be they banking interests, oil and energy, Big Pharma, Big Pesticide or the War Machine itself.

http://tinyurl.com/3o6wvc

[hfojvt]

15. Cockburn is essentially wrong even if technically correct

http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1998/12/16/transcripts/clinton.html

Our own President Clinton lays the blame on Iraq, whereas Cockburn implies that we pulled them out for no reason.

"In four out of the five categories set forth, Iraq has failed to cooperate. Indeed, it actually has placed new restrictions on the inspectors. Here are some of the particulars.

Iraq repeatedly blocked UNSCOM from inspecting suspect sites. For example, it shut off access to the headquarters of its ruling party and said it will deny access to the party's other offices, even though UN resolutions make no exception for them and UNSCOM has inspected them in the past." Bill Clinton

Whatever his other faults, I don't fault Russert on the inspector's line. Saddam did stop cooperating with the inspectors, and I was not against getting inspectors back in

[many a good man]

22. To be even more accurate...

The US told the UN inspectors to leave because we were going to bomb the shit out of all the suspected sites to which Saddam was denying acccess. After the bombings Saddam refused to let the inspectors return.

Without knowing it for sure, those bombing raids destroyed all that was left of his weapons stockpiles and programs. Saddam didn't let the inspectors back in because it would show to his enemies, both internal and external, how weak he really was.

[YankmeCrankme]

33. To be even more accurate...

Saddam suspected the US was using spies (turned out he was correct) in with the weapons inspectors to gather intelligence on sites, since that wasn't part of the agreement he denied them access, which was his prerogative. The US didn't like that and decided to bomb him, thereby leading to the removal of the inspectors and after the bombing the refusal of Saddam to let them back in. With those facts, the lie was told and continually repeated by the media with Russert right there leading the way.

See downstairsparts and NNNOHLI posts below.

[Laughing Mirror]

24. some of those inspectors were spies working for US government

This was reported at the time by Washington Post, and also in the books by the excellent journalist Dilip Hiro, among others.

[NNN0LHI]

25. Saddam was worried the CIA infiltrators were mapping out the areas for future aerial bombardment

Turned out he was right.

Don

[lib2DaBone]

16. Rush Russert

Rush Limbaugh and Timmy.. sitting in a tree... K-I-S-S-I-N-G

[halliburtonsux]

37. LOLOL!! n/t

[New Dawn]

18. K&R

I was very tired of all the praising of that guy here. He was just another right-wing as far as I'm concerned.

[dbt]

20. 5, 6, 7, 8...

K & R

:evilgrin:

[Algorem]

21. sure russert is still dead?it's way over 3 days and 3 nights now.

[bluesmail]

26. Didn't Saddam Hussein throw BigOil out of Iraq, that got BigOil

so pissed we HAD to Invade and we HAD to hang him? (Speaking of ousting weapons inspectors)

[truedelphi]

28. He also was about to put Iraq into the Euro column of currency

Making our constantly deflating dollar worth even less. Weeks later, we started Shock and Awe.

[bluesmail]

30. Hi neighbor, I'm in Mendocino County.

:thumbsup:

[halliburtonsux]

31. Now we have to endure the hideous visage of that other Reichwing....

whackjob, Tom Brokaw.
:grr:

[speedoo]

35. No we don't. Just don't watch him.

I've watched MTP maybe 3 times in the past year. Only turned it on when specific people were on, and that's what I plan to do with Brokaw.

[halliburtonsux]

38. Well, the pathetic little troll is going to 'moderate' the presidential...

debates, unfortunately.

[AllentownJake]

32. All this showed

Was the media's view of their own self importance. Russert's legacy and the debate about it aside it was a celebration by them of how important they think they are and had very little to do with Tim Russert.

[Marr]

41. Yep-- it was the courtiers elevating themselves by praising one of their own.

That's all it was. These people aren't journalists-- they're professional sycophants.