Rachel Maddow is not only the queen of tough journalism, she's the new Tim Russert.

[LLStarks]

Who else on broadcast or cable TV could do what she does every night?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. Damn her with faint praise, eh?

[nashville_brook]

13. no doubt.

[calimary]

20. She's no Tim Russert. She's FAR superior.

Tim Russert sat there week after week after week after week and allowed dick cheney and contradicta and rummy and every bushie FOR MILES spew their shit and their lies about how and why we just HAD to go to war, and fed their "well, the New York Times reports in this Sunday's edition that..." while the same dick cheney and contradicta and rummy and every bushie FOR MILES were planting those stories with judith miller and other New York Times "journalists" who were living in the back pockets of the bush white house. Russert NEVER grilled them like this. Russert NEVER elicited this kind of thing from any of them. NEVER EVER cut through their crap, NEVER EVER even tried!!! He did, however, like sitting there at that big table with them, getting his picture and video clips galore taken with all these big names who gave him all this luxurious access. He liked that, a lot.

I do not share the idolization of Tim Russert. He was part of the PROBLEM in the last decade, AND for MANY years before that, even, when he was giving plenty of extra time to anyone who wanted to flay Bill Clinton alive for anything, and he wallowed in the Monica mess FOREVER.

NEVER EVER did I see him poke holes in anybody like Rachel did with rand paul last night. Although he did do his level best on ANY liberal or Democrat. Tim Russert was WHOLLY OWNED.

[Kitty Herder]

32. Amen.

[ejpoeta]

2. imagine if she were the moderator of meet the press.

[JerseygirlCT]

3. They couldn't let that happen.

Something might get done.

[arthritisR_US]

37. yep, she's based in reality and therein lies the problem. n/t

[Tippy]

4. K&R

[BellaLuna]

5. She's better than Russert

he panders too much to the right

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

6. Is that a complement? ;- )

[LLStarks]

10. Yeah. Someone like Keith would never have landed that interview. nt

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

19. You don't have to be Keith. But TIm Russert was just a lazy TV personality. At least

that's what he became en the end. And by lazy I mean he was unwilling or unable to do his due diligence when it came to important matters. One only has to watch his interview with Bill Moyers reg. the run up to the Iraq war. To see how utterly clueless this man was. Rachel Maddow is more interested in digging up the truth than being part of some country clubs where you get to hang out with the people you're supposed to be scrutinizing. If anything she might be closer to the Walter Cronkite NBC never had.

[Junkie Brewster]

7. Someone said it first, but she's better than Tim Russert

She doesn't have the cozy one-of-the-boys thing that Tim had. She might get it down the line , but she doesn't have it now. She's better than Russert.

[malaise]

Tim Russert was not even close to

Rachel Maddow's league. Plueeeeeeeeeeez - Timmy was a light weight.

[ShortnFiery]

17. But isn't GEMSNBC grooming Luke Russet to take over "Meet the Press?"

Nepotism at its finest. :P

[LLStarks]

22. David Gregory. Luke Russert. Pick you poison? nt

[foxfeet]

24. Lurch or Pugsley.

MTP couldn't get more cartoonish than it is.

[Quantess]

49. They had better make him lose some weight, at least.

A female in his position would never be allowed that much flab.

[Radical Activist]

29. Especially considering what Russert did to make the Iraq War happen.

He intentionally marginalized anti-war voices and the rest of the TV media followed his lead.

[EFerrari]

8. Tim Russert never was as good as Rachel is. n/t

[DURHAM D]

9. Its an insult to Rachel to make this comparison.

Tim Russert was a GE Jack Welch tool.

good grief

[LLStarks]

12. Really? So the whole family man from Buffalo thing was all a sham? nt

[joeybee12]

15. Time was a Repuke apologist...a worthless hack...

however, he did sort of define what Washington was talking about, so if Rachel becomes that, then it's a good comparison.

[DURHAM D]

27. yes

[annabanana]

50. According to sworn testimony in the Plame case... MTP was Cheney's

"favored outlet" for getting his message out. He knew he & his minions could go there and everything they said would be accepted as fact.

[meegbear]

11. SHE'S THE GREATEST HUMAN BEING ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH SINCE THE DAWNING OF TIME!!1!

She's God, Joyce DeWitt and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel all wrapped into one! She SHITS Tim Russert for breakfast!

[ShortnFiery]

18. What meegbear said!

:spray: :toast:

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

21. Well, she's no Bill Brasky I'll tell you that much. nt

[Bunny]

41. .

:spray: :rofl:

[Gidney N Cloyd]

44. To Bill Brasky!

[Gold Metal Flake]

14. Your analogy is fail.

Unless you meant to call her a corporate whore.

[LLStarks]

16. Ya know what? Fuck it. I'm tired of trying to please you guys. nt

[Bunny]

40. If you'd just get to know us better, you'd begin to understand what

pleases us and what does not. Tim Russert had very limited support here. Comparing Rachel Maddow to Russert really is an insult to Maddow.

[Gold Metal Flake]

46. What forum are you talking to?

Cuz it ain't DU.

[UTUSN]

23. G.E. Russert: "Integrity is for paupers!1" He's the opposite of PRAISE for MADDOW

**********QUOTE********

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

CHOCOLATES AND NYLONS, SIR?

....
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”. ....

********UNQUOTE********

[wellst0nev0ter]

28. And Who Can Forget During The Scooter Libby Trial

When he admit that anytime a government official calls him up he immediately assumes everthings off the record? Now that's some real muck-raking journamalisming he was doing.

[gratuitous]

36. I know I certainly can't

Imagine a journalist whose default setting is "off the record"? It's like a guard dog who treats everyone as a friend; utterly useless. "Oh boy, looks like I'm in hot water now! What'll I do, what'll I do? The media are going to have me for lunch! Oh wait, here's Tim Russert's number. He'll give me a free trial run on talking points, green light the spin that works best, and do his darnedest to set the narrative just the way I need it to go!"

[Sebastian Doyle]

25. Please don't insult Rachel like that

Russert was a corporate media hack. Slightly better than the Douche who replaced him on Press The Meat, but not by much.

[truebrit71]

26. Tim Russert wasn't as smart or as good as Rachel is..he was a stoolie...Rachel is anything but that.

..eom

[devilgrrl]

30. Tim Russert was a tool

eom

[arthritisR_US]

34. shill and tool are the words that come to my mind when I think of him. n/t

[Radical Activist]

31. She's the only corporate cable news personality I enjoy watching.

I wonder how long before they give her the Donahue treatment.

[Berry Cool]

51. Donahue didn't get "the Donahue treatment."

Ask Keith Olbermann.

[arthritisR_US]

33. Russert was a shill for the right IMO, and Rachel Maddow is definitely not that. n/t

[Ganja Ninja]

35. Tim Russert couldn't carry Rachel's ... laptop!

He was a tool.

[Mopar151]

38. She could be our new Murrow, or Cronkite

But she's already our Maddow, and that may be the best. Her coverage of the Haitian earthquake had all the more impact for not being sensational, but personal and substantive.

[asdjrocky]

39. Tim Russert was no Rachel Maddow.

She outshines Russert time and time again.

[Bluenorthwest]

42. Tim Russert was not fit to shine Maddow's shoes

[Raineyb]

43. Please do not insult Ms. Maddow by equating her with that hack Tim Russert. n/t

[mitchum]

45. What? She's some sentimental drunk who sucks up to power?

[Warren Stupidity]

47. I find that comparison insulting to Maddow.

Russert was an ass-wipe.

[WinkyDink]

48. Wait; RM is a fat treasonous bloviator? (Sorry if you're miffed; it's called "knowledge".)