It's too bad he couldn't follow his own advice.
Not long into the debate, the "Meet
the Press" host and South Buffalo
native leveled an astonishingly cheap
shot at Democratic candidate Hillary
Rodham Clinton. Russert dredged up
footage of an interview she gave on
the "Today" show in January 1998,
which aired shortly after reports of
the Monica Lewinsky scandal first
surfaced. Then he asked if Clinton
"regretted misleading the American
people." Not that there seemed to be
a need to ask the question, since
Clinton has already answered similar
questions before.
Like a bull in a china shop, Russert
proceeded to challenge Clinton to
"apologize for branding" anyone who
had criticized the president as part of
" "a vast right-wing conspiracy' "
(which misrepresented her original
statement that had alluded to an
orchestrated effort).
The problem is that there was no
need for Russert to revisit the sex scandal. It seems only TV news
- where the
line between legitimate and tabloid news coverage grows blurrier by the
day -
never grows tired of it.
At least Russert could have raised the sex scandal - and its painful
consequences for Clinton - with greater sensitivity and tact. But he didn't.
Instead, he chose pyrotechnics over illumination, sensationalism over
substance.
That's because Russert knew his bottom feeding approach guaranteed
headlines
- even if it did so by taking the focus of the debate between Clinton and
Republican rival Rick Lazio away from the needs of Western New York.
Russert's "Monica" questions stood in stark contrast to the questions posed
by
The News' political reporter Robert McCarthy and WGRZ-TV anchorman Scott
Levin. Their questions concerned issues people in Western New York are
concerned
about, such as the upstate economy, education and affordable health care.
Russert's performance was a disappointment for a journalist proclaimed
by Brill's
Content magazine to be the nation's most influential talk show host. But
it
certainly wasn't out of character.
After all, during the media's coverage of the Lewinsky scandal throughout
1998 -
dubbed by New York Times columnist Frank Rich as "All Monica All The Time"
-
"Meet the Press" continually wallowed in the sex scandal. In a black
mark for
network news programming, Russert's show was the first to heap respectability
upon notorious Internet smut sleuth Matt Drudge by having him on as a guest.
Certainly not everyone considered Russert's "Monica" interrogation of Clinton
out
of bounds. In a phone interview the day after the debate, James Carville,
President Clinton's former campaign manager and a close friend of both
the
Clintons, declined to criticize Russert.
"The rule of thumb in politics is there are no bad questions, only bad
answers. He
asked the question, she gave a very good answer to it and he (Lazio) gave
a
horrible answer," said Carville. "I'm sure she would have preferred (Russert)
didn't
do it. But then, my guess is that's the last time it's going to get asked."
Before the debate, Russert told the studio audience that journalists need
to be
balanced and objective. There was some irony to his words because the issue
of
"a vast right-wing conspiracy" is something Russert, in his inside-the-Beltway
thinking, has belittled on more than one occasion on "Meet the Press."
Danny Schechter, a former producer for ABC's "20/20" and executive producer
of
Globalvision, says Clinton's charge was outside of what the Washington
establishment considers acceptable boundaries of political discourse.
"When Hillary made the accusation, she was saying what's happening in politics
is not what you're seeing, but in fact there are interests behind what
you're seeing.
As a keeper of political orthodoxy, Russert invariably dismisses such ideas."
Russert also warned the studio audience beforehand that Buffalo needed
to
behave appropriately once the debate got under way, so that we would come
across as a city to be proud of.
He shouldn't have been worried about us. We did fine. Native son Russert,
on the
other hand, embarrassed himself and his profession.