:: The Rational Radical Blog ::

Sunday, October 05, 2003

I don't think I've ever watched Tim Russert before today. He has a reputation as one of the toughest interviewers. I watched the last 45 minutes of his interview with Bill O'Reilly. Russert was an ass-kisser who rarely challenged anything O'Reilly said. And what challenges there were, were pitty-pat timid queries that O'Reilly easily swatted down. Russert is supposed to prepare so carefully for interviews. Russert asked about some of Al Franken's charges against O'Reilly contained in "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them." O'Reilly responded with the exact further lies that Franken demolishes in his book. But Russert had either not read the book, or chose not to embarrass O'Reilly. On his program this week O'Reilly mentioned that Russert had conducted a "fair" interview. I knew what that meant: an interview where everything O'Reilly says is respected as the Gospel. I watched the Russert interview only because I was doing house cleaning and figured maybe I was wrong. I wasn't.

Jack Clark 11:45 PM [+]   
Post #106542273748789428