Is Rachel Maddow selling out? Rachel is one of my favorite progressive journalists.

[rhett o rick]

But listening to her fawning over Russert makes me wonder. I am sorry for Mr. Russert's untimely death, but he was no journalist. He was an enabler of the neocon cabal that has almost destroyed this country.

Please read Nance's post: http://journals.democraticunderground.com/NanceGreggs/399.

It seem that Rachel might have a chance at a show on MSNBC. I hope she maintains her principles and doesn't sell out to get the job.

[Gabi Hayes]

1. sigh....Jon Stewart and Colbert

did Steven forget that amazing, powerful slap in the FACE of the RUSSERTs of the world?

the one that had B*** looking daggers at him?

what happened, Steven?

[ben_meyers]

2. Rachel is now dead to me, along with Keith!

Who is left that passes your purity test?

edit to remove sarcasm tag. Olberman was practically in tears, Maddow is fawning, Steph miller gave quite the eulogy this morning. But you know who agrees with you? Limbaugh was complaining today about the media going overboard on the Russert orgy.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. My lord even a stuck clock is right twice a day!

[Richardo]

24. Excellent post.

THe best I've seen on the whole matter. Thank you. :patriot:

[rhett o rick]

41. I am sure that Limpballs didn't like Russert because he was nasty enough for Limpballs. nm

[az chela]

3. I was thinking the same thing!!!!

I hope she doesnt do that

[live love laugh]

27. So was I. I had to turn the channel Friday because she talked of little else. n/t

[Rick Myers]

4. Russert believed MTP was 'the show of record'...

He thought it might be a good idea to see what these ;leaders' had to say, years later, without commentary.

He worked for one of the greatest Dem legislators EVER.

He was a good guy.

And, I, for one, THANK him for getting Cheney 'on the record.'

Any many more.

[rhett o rick]

5. Ok he was a good guy, but he kissed the ass of Bush/Cheney. nm

[SwiperFox]

6. Russert...

...sick toadie.

[Rick Myers]

7. I don't think he"kissed their asses''

He was in the middle of a shit sandwich...

I don't want sanctify or crucify him.

He also kissed Clinton's ass.

[rhett o rick]

11. If he kissed any of their asses he did us a great disservice.

He and the media was to help keep them from screwing us. But he was their toady.

[napi21]

8. I think you're misunderstanding Russert and how he did his job.

I always listened to him, and many times was upset with how I percieved his questioning of his guests, but tonight, after listening to Dan Abrams, I realized what he really was doing. I didn't even realize that Tim was a lawyer until he died.

Dan explained that Tim used MTP as his court room. He interrogated his guests as whitnesses in a courtroom. If you've ever had to testify in court you will recognize that to be true. I've had to testify too many times, and a GOOD advarsarial attornet tries to trap the whitness. Demand explainations for things that don't make sense. If you have the chance, listen to the clips that Abrams played on his show. Tim was good a what he did, and although he did sometimes seem harder on Dems, Tim was a Dem and he didn't want to appear biased, so he WAS harder on them. If you believe in what you say, and you have nothing to hide, you would still come out of a TR interview just fine.

[Skittles]

9. how does that explain his obsession with Bill's penis? n/t

[rhett o rick]

12. I watched him and he always let the crooks off. He mite ask a tough question

but when they gave a bullshit answer, he never followed up.

[Gabi Hayes]

15. that's exactly it. almost NEVER, EVER a followup to the likes of Cheney, Condi, the

rest of the crooks

and how on EARTH do these apologists explain Cathie Martin?

do they even know who she is?

hint: think Mary Matalin w/o the visibility

[leftchick]

29. neocon bush recalls Russert as 'thorough, decent man'

I mean look at these lovely words from the warmongers for their man Russert. And you are exactly right, he NEVER fucking challenged bush or cheney and is a huge part of the US occupying Iraq today.

:puke:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080614/ap_en_ce/bush_russert


PARIS - President Bush mourned NBC correspondent Tim Russert at a news conference Saturday with France's president, calling the veteran newsman who died of a heart attack "a hard-working, thorough and decent man."

<snip>

"We're going to miss him," Bush said of Russert, saying he had been privileged to be interviewed by the NBC correspondent and Washington bureau chief for the network.

<snip>

Vice President Dick Cheney called his passing "a great tragedy."

Cheney, who has suffered from heart ailments in recent years, said, "I remember many occasions when we did the show when he would ask me about my health. But he never commented on his own; I was unaware that he had coronary artery disease. We could have compared notes. But it's a tremendous loss."

"One of the great things about 'Meet the Press' and the way Tim ran it was that you got an hour sometimes, if you had a big subject like we did in September of '01, where you could devote the whole hour to getting into a subject in depth," Cheney said in an NBC interview Saturday. "And Tim was never into 'gotcha' journalism. He would ask you tough questions, he would remind you of quotes you made previously in other settings or on earlier shows, so you never got away with anything going up vis-à-vis Tim."



Cheney had more hours with russert to spew his LIES than any other neocon.

:puke:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=3465689&mesg_id=3465689

[27inCali]

10. yeah

everyone is selling out except for you...........

[rhett o rick]

13. So make me guess. You don't think she is selling out? nm

[Quantess]

20. Hi & welcome to DU!

Around here, it helps to have a really good response, especially when you're a newbie. :hi:

Edit: I happen to agree with you, but your post doesn't really cut it, without some more information.

[bigwillq]

39. Hello.

Welcome to DU! :hi:

[disunderestimated]

16. Bit of an overreaction don't you think?

Rachel's entire history of courageous reporting is discarded because she's not taking this opportunity to rip into Russert? You have to give good people passes when they don't agree with you.

[rhett o rick]

18. Speaking of over reaction. Wow. I just asked. I guess you don't agree. nm

[TheKentuckian]

17. You guys are too damn hard on these journalists

I think it's got to be clear as day that even Russert was pretty much riding the envelope as far as what he was going to get away with.

The news media must produce profits, they are therefore a part of the system. Oberman can do his thing only because his program is more or less looked at like "The Daily Show". He'd have to tighten up quite a bit to do Meet the Press, I think too many aren't "seeing the conditions on the ground".

The talking heads are right to lament Russert's passing because what little drips of information that are distributed to mainstream audiences will in all likelihood, be much more watered down. Guys there is no one with the clout in both elite circles and with the public to ask serious questions about serious issues. Russert wasn't what we needed him to be but he was about all the public had in any effective way as a voice in this arena. Those that don't see how WE are worse off are blinded by idealism and a world that is gone, replaced by a shadow of it's self dedicated to selling ad space.

The only way to beat this is to demonstrate an ad receptive demographic that wants good impartial data from all sides, hard questions, and a responsibility to the public inform. Sadly, that may be too little too late, we have little data or credibility to challenge those who hold it.

[live love laugh]

28. What journalists? Russert certainly wasn't one. n/t

[Quantess]

19. You know.... it is possible to like someone who has differing opinions than your own.

Is it possible that Tim Russert had likeable qualities, even though he's not progressive?

I would bet that she enjoyed her conversations with him, while he was among the living.

[Berry Cool]

21. Rachel Maddow is NOT selling out, for F's sake.

She is just being a human being.

And not everything Nance says is the Word of God.

[rhett o rick]

22. I certainly hope not. But it happens. When she is on MSNBC she seems to walk softer.

I think it is great that you express your feelings like: "And not everything Nance says is the Word of God". Of course not, and I hope you weren't implying that I though so. But beyond your reaction, what specifically in her article did you disagree with.

[mmonk]

23. Me thinks thy doth protest too much.

[Bucky]

25. Is criticizing a guy after he's dead your measure of "selling out"?

The time to pop Russert's balloon was when he was a working journalist, not after he was gone. I don't think Maddow (or Stewart or Colbert, who both gave fitting and in-proportion tributes to Tim Russert) loses any street cred for joining in saying goodbye to a professional colleague. Sure, the good-byes were over the top, but she's hardly a gatekeeper of network airtime policy. Olbermann, Abrams, and Matthews (among the on-air personalities) have input into how time gets spent; Maddow is a junior partner in this business. Sitting down with the senior partners while they blow a rather minor decision is not the same thing as selling out.

Tim Russert's death is a tragedy, but obviously not as big a news deal as they're making out of it. But then again, them making too big a deal about his death isn't too big a deal either.

[lamp_shade]

31. Here...

I've always had the highest regard for Mr. Russert. However, after reading all the negative posts from a small handful of folks here at DU, I've changed my mind and decided that I've been wrong all these years. He really was just a useless piece of crap. Happy? Now get over yourself and post something useful. Tim's dead.

[rhett o rick]

33. I think tributes are fitting and appropriate. And I am not suggesting he be trashed.

However, the hours and hours of worship is sickening.

[KharmaTrain]

26. Dealing With Death

Seems some here can't separate the grieving with the media circus around it. Or maybe it's that some here have never been exposed to a sudden death and the hole it creates in the people who are directly affected. The bubbleworld that is NBC News is a small one...it's rareified air. The people who get gigs there work their way up to the "bigs" and then are put in a fishbowl that cranks out "product" 24/7. Rachel is now part of this meatgrinder. She's had a personal and virtual bond to all the people she works with...right, left, up and down...in a knetic world that now demands these people spend endless hours with one another. It's almost like being in a combat zone. Russert, being one of the bosses, and, I'm sure a genuniely nice guy, was a big presence in this world...a world that she now lives in as well...and how can a human being not be affected by such a sudden loss.

That said...there's also the way this death is being dealt with that deserves criticism that some claim to be "callous" or "grave dancing". The public display of grief of a personality in this bubbleworld far outweighs the mission of what a news channel is supposed to be. It's gone from covering the world around it to wallowing in its own little fishbowl...and expecting the rest of us to feel the loss of some tribal elder. The grief that usually plays out privately has taken on a public synergy...or a manufactured one. If calling this excessive coverage as "grave dancing"...then so be it.

[rusty fender]

30. Rachel's greatest dream is to be a TV game show host

so don't you think she would do anything to be a TV star? I wouldn't criticize her for wanting a TV show; if that's what she wants, why should we care one way or the other? It's her life.

[hisownpetard]

32. What a ridiculous thing to say. She is a Rhodes Scholar and probably more intelligent than

any 4 or 5 talking heads put together.

What a gratuitous insult.

[Musty]

36. It's true, she has said it several times on her radio show.

It isn't an insult if she, herself, said it and means it.

[Cleita]

34. You know what? I'm beginning to see why we have so few of them who

speak for us. We just chew them up and spit them out every time they don't jump through the hoops we want them to. Respecting a dead colleague's family by not condemning him in death is what decent people do.

[rhett o rick]

37. What? I didn't chew her up. I agree that "decent" people should respect Mr. Russert in death. You

missed the point altogether. What I object to is the canonization and the "way overboard" blubbering that the corporate media has done.

I feel that Mr. Russert was an enabler of the fascist Bush administration. I am not asking people to say that about him in his death, but please, please don't blabber on and on and on about what a great journalist he was. You see I strongly feel we are fighting for our freedom's life. While the Bush administration was shredding the Constitution, the so called great journalists on the corp-media (in the corporations pocket) were going along and not asking the tough questions. Never asking why it was necessary to suspend habeas corpus, while the Constitution specifically PROHIBITS it, for example.

I have been a huge fan of Rachel Maddows for years. But it seems to me, and I may be wrong, that she has softened her commentary now that she is vying for a job with MSNBC. I hope like hell I am wrong.

[Seabiscuit]

35. Both Rachel and KO have sold out to the MSNBC bigwigs.

They're both hollow shells of their former selves. They don't care so long as the money keeps rolling in. KO's even stooped to lashing out at anyone who dares to make the slightest critical comment about Tim Russert. Was his righteous anger towards Bushco last fall also just an act to please his bosses? He's turned himself into an actor who likes to pretend he's Edward R. Murrow, yet could never begin to hold a candle to Mr. Murrow in the real world.

Guess their spines weren't fully formed after all. Now their spines have turned to putty in the hands of their corporate bosses.

[bigwillq]

38. makes you wonder what?

That she may actually have liked Russert...maybe not agree with everything he said, but liked him as a human being?!?!?!?

What, is that not possible?

:shrug:

[rhett o rick]

40. It is fine with me if she liked him as a human being. But she went on and on beyond just liking him

as a human being. He wasn't a saint, but to listen to the corporate media and George Bush, you'd think he was. I am just hoping that Rachel isn't softening her progressive edge to get a job with the corporate media.