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Russert Watch: No Tough Questions for McCain

By Jeralyn, Section Media
Posted on Sun Jun 19, 2005 at 03:33:12 PM EST
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The Huffington Post has begun a feature called "Russert Watch" in which "E-Z Pass" Tim is brought on the carpet for not asking the tough or important questions. Today's example: Senator John McCain was on the show, and after he mentioned all the failures of the Administration, Russert didn't follow up on any.

So after McCain ran down this laundry list of failures (and is there a more serious area for a president to fail than in war?), one would assume Russert would have asked him a question that would draw a conclusion of accountability for these mistakes. After all, these “mistakes” didn’t just happen. Shouldn’t Russert have pointed out, with all due respect to the senator, that “we” didn’t make these mistakes. That they were made, with not a small amount of hubris and incompetence, by specific people. And shouldn’t he have asked the “Straight Talk” senator to name these people?

Not that the piece sings the praises of McCain (or I probably wouldn't be highlighting it.)

How could Tim allow McCain to get away with using the words “fiscal discipline” and “Bush” in the same breath? And on the war? How could he allow him to get way with saying that he’s “totally in agreement and support of President Bush” on the war as if the first part of the show where he enumerated all the mistakes being made in Iraq meant nothing? How do you retain any credibility as a hard-hitting journalist after this?

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    Russert Watch: No Tough Questions for McCain | 7 comments (7 topical)
    Re: Russert Watch: No Tough Questions for McCain (none / 0) (#1)
    by DawesFred60 on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:14 PM EST
    Watch McCain he is not what you think he is, and is being made into a tool to be use against you. He may make the tombstone for this nation, do you understand that?

    Re: Russert Watch: No Tough Questions for McCain (none / 0) (#2)
    by Dadler on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:14 PM EST
    He's an icon who goes unquestioned. Because he spent five years in that prison no one thinks they can treat him like a normal human being. Truth is, he should be grateful to the Vietnamese for keeping him alive. If he'd have been a Vietnamese pilot dropping bombs on, say, Kansas City, I doubt the rednecks would have much use for jailing the pilot. They'd have roasted him and eaten him on a spit.

    Re: Russert Watch: No Tough Questions for McCain (none / 0) (#3)
    by Jlvngstn on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:15 PM EST
    Please send me a transcript, any transcript of a television news journalist asking "tough" questions in the past 15 years. NONE of them do. Too many networks, too much revenue at stake. It is silly to expect any MSM journalist to ask "tough" questions.

    Re: Russert Watch: No Tough Questions for McCain (none / 0) (#4)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:15 PM EST
    as a "maverick", he doesn't have to answer tough questions. As to gratitude to the Vietnamese for their gracious treatment, there you go again.

    Re: Russert Watch: No Tough Questions for McCain (none / 0) (#5)
    by Dadler on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:16 PM EST
    Ed, Address my point using something resembling an imagination? Can you imagine what would've happened to pilots shot down bombing THIS country? Since it has never happened, it REQUIRES an imagination. Remember, lynchings were still common at that time. I'm not excusing any torture committed by the Vietnamese, only playing devil's advocate with the context. As for being a maverick, I'll just say I respectfully disagree. There are many things about McCain I admire, but his politics are not one of them. He tends to be safe. Conservative. And I rarely see him genuinely buck the party when something is on the line.

    Re: Russert Watch: No Tough Questions for McCain (none / 0) (#6)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:16 PM EST
    I can point to McVeigh and Nichols as two bombers who managed to avoid lynching and were tried without mob rule. Same with the first WTC bombing and all sorts of other nasties. I think you underestimate your fellow citizens. the maverick tag always get stuck on McCain, usually when he is taking a position that aggrandizes himself.

    Re: Russert Watch: No Tough Questions for McCain (none / 0) (#7)
    by Dadler on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:16 PM EST
    Ed, Valid comparison to SOME degree, except I think it ignores the context of my hypothetical: I was talking a time of war between nations, in a certain era, in which Vietnamese would be reigning bombs on us from planes, a good number getting shot down. What would've happened when some perceived mass murder(ers), in the midst of their bombing, fell from the sky on the community they were killing? Perhaps we would've acted better than they acted toward McCain and other POW's, I can't claim certainty. But I certainly do, personally, doubt that we would've acted with any more humanity.

    Russert Watch: No Tough Questions for McCain | 7 comments (7 topical)