I am not saddened by the passing of Tim Russert, as I made known in the first diary announcing the news. (If you have TU status, you can see my comments, and maybe even help to ban me for being uncouth.) I did not wish him dead, but I do not mourn the loss of someone who gave much aid and comfort to the Bush administration over the past several years. As a reminder of what the world has lost, please consider the following:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
If you're a journalist, and a very senior White House official calls you up on the phone, what do you do? Do you try to get the official to address issues of urgent concern so that you can then relate that information to the public?
Not if you're NBC Washington bureau chief Tim Russert.
When then-vice presidential chief of staff Scooter Libby called Russert on July 10, 2003, to complain that his name was being unfairly bandied about by MSNBC host Chris Matthews, Russert apparently asked him nothing.
And get this: According to Russert's testimony yesterday at Libby's trial, when any senior government official calls him, they are presumptively off the record.
That's not reporting, that's enabling.
That's how you treat your friends when you're having an innocent chat, not the people you're supposed to be holding accountable.
I won't include a tip jar. If you want to give me a donut, go find some other comment to do it. But respect, even for the dead, is earned. Russert lost his claim to respect years ago, and I haven't seen any reason to think he earned it back. Being rich, famous and well-connected doesn't make you a good person, and Timmeh proved it in life.