King Tim

Over the weekend Tim Russert interviewed Colin Powell. At some point, an overzealous staffer tried to cut off the interview by moving the television camera. Powell basically kept talking to Russert and ordered his aide to stop interfering with the camera. Russert made sure to state how "inappropriate" he thought it was that the interview should be interrupted. The interview itself went on and Powell was able to actually address some foreign policy issues. Afterward, Powell telephoned Russert and apologized for the incident. However, it was too late. Russert decided to leave the whole thing in the taped interview because it was "unacceptable"...

In other words, how dare anyone try to step in the way of one of Tim Russert's interviews. Nevermind the fact that the interviewee was clearly cooperating and obviously not complicit in cutting off the interview, Mr. Russert was going to show the whole thing anyway. In The Washington Times Mr. Russert is quoted,

"Now, this is someone paid by the U.S. taxpayers, trying to cut off an interview with an American journalist and the American secretary of state," Mr. Russert said. "I've been in countries where staffers pull the plug on people. This is the United States of America. It really is unacceptable."[Source]

By Russert's tone you would think some great miscarriage of justice had occured. Cutting off an interview mid-question isn't exactly polite, but it isn't exactly like Russert's constitutional rights were violated. Especially when it was obvious to all involved that Powell was more than happy to answer the question. It isn't polite to carry on in an interview past the allotted time period either and it would've been nice of Russert to apologize for hogging Powell's time.

I'm not sure of Russert's politics but this isn't yet another case of liberal media bias. I have no doubt that the Secretary of State would've been treated the same way if it had been Madeleine Albright. Guys like Russert seem to think that it's all about them. They suffer from a common problem that journalists and especially television reporters all experience. They seem to think that because they are interviewing great leaders and have their face splashed all over the news with these leaders, that somehow it makes them great too. In a sense, I think they feel that they're even greater than these leaders because great leaders come and go, but a successful reporter's career lasts a very long time.

Russert is guilty of arrogance and of being petty. This is something we've come to expect from news celebrities.

Posted by jdmays at May 17, 2004 06:52 PM | TrackBack