http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh120103.shtmlHow absurd is this chapter in Arrogance? (It’s called “A Conversation with Tim Russert.”) For most of their interview, the blubbering newsmen applaud themselves for their moral superiority—superiority which is said to derive from their shared working-class background. For example, here’s the first exchange from the chapter. No, we aren’t making this up:
GOLDBERG (page 79): I think a lot of people have seen a fairness in you that they’re not used to seeing on the networks, and I’m wondering how much you think your blue-collar background has to do with it.
RUSSERT: There’s no substitute for it, Bernie, believe me. I’ve worked on garbage trucks. I drove a taxi. I tended bar. I delivered pizzas. I worked with liberals, conservatives, blacks, whites; that’s how you grew up in this interesting world, and people were always simply judged on their quality as a person: Did they tell the truth? Did they honor their commitments? Did they show up for work on time?
There’s no substitute for it! Readers, did you know that only someone from a blue-collar background can show full fairness as a journalist? The notion, of course, is absurd on its face, but Bernie—inspired by Russert’s self-praise—begins to indulge himself too:
GOLDBERG (continuing directly): What I learned from my father, who worked in a factory, while I was growing up in the Bronx, was the same thing: You show up for work on time, and if you tell someone you’re going to do something you do it. Those are old-fashioned values.
RUSSERT: My dad said that all the time: People are people; they’ll treat you the way you treat them—and I’ve adhered to that the best I possibly can.
And now we find out that Russert has been nothing but a well paid errand boy for the Bush administration all along.
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