Tim Russert: a cut above

It's the body language, stupid

By Wes Vernon

The media have been criticized for their wall-to-wall coverage of the death of NBC's Tim Russert. But in truth, the Meet the Press anchorman genuinely was one of a kind. Deep down, they know he had connectivity to the public that most others can only envy. And they respected him for that. That, I believe, is the reason for their intense coverage of his totally unexpected death at the peak of his career.

The son of a garbage man in Buffalo, N.Y., his whole approach reeked of a hometown boy's love of country, his Catholic faith, his spirit of good will that coexisted well with the necessary toughness for his job, and his humble roots, never forgetting his beloved Buffalo Bills. He didn't have to vocalize all those facets of his personality. They came through, and the five million Americans who watched his show every Sunday appreciated it — whether consciously or otherwise. It was the body language. Body language doesn't lie.

Fairness

In a mainstream media often mistrusted by Joe and Jane Six-Pack, the Russert era at MTP resonated with the bottom line word in TV news — believability.

In that respect, this column can do no better than to quote from Bernard Goldberg's Arrogance, the second of the ex-CBS newsman's piercing analyses of liberal bias in the media. Here it is:

"Watching Tim Russert, you get an idea of what a fair-minded mainstream media might look like. I know he used to work for Mario Cuomo, one of the most liberal Democrats around, as well as New York's longtime moderate Democratic Senator Pat Moynihan. So I might guess which way he leans politically, but I'd only be guessing. Because watching him on the air, you don't know what his personal politics are, since he gives all sides fair and equal say — and just as important, he challenges all sides with equal skepticism and vigor."

Peggy Noonan experienced that firsthand that when her 2000 book The Case Against Hillary Clinton was released (BTW, by far the best of all the dozens of books about Hillary before or since, in this column's view). Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Noonan recalls that after Russert gave her a grilling on MTP, a person from the other side immediately got time in the Russert hot seat.

New kid in town

My own personal interaction with Russert was fleeting. Most of my impressions of the man came for observing his work and noting his well-deserved reputation.

In early 1977, I picked up the phone to hear a voice at the other end of the line introduce himself as Tim Russert, the press man for the newly-elected Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. He said that Senator Moynihan intended to continue the practice of his defeated predecessor, Senator James Buckley (brother of the late William F.), of holding regular Tuesday morning briefings with a group of regional reporters, and I was invited.

Alas at the time, my then-supervisor at CBS Radio (a person with very good ideas about professional journalism) also had some very strange ones. He said the change of senators from New York was a good time to end our attendance at the Tuesday meetings, which he didn't really like with Jim Buckley either, but which had begun on another supervisor's watch.

For me, that was a jaw-dropper. Here was a "freshman" senator who was a superstar before arriving, having made his mark big-time in academia, as well as in top political leadership posts in both the Kennedy and Nixon administrations, and we were eschewing his weekly briefings because (paraphrasing here) "we'll cover him when we think he makes news, not when he wants to sit down with us and see what sticks in terms of news space."

Having a nose for hard news all the time is well and good, but an important ingredient in that endeavor is patient "networking," developing good sources over time. I can only imagine how many good stories I missed by not getting to know Russert better and through him, Moynihan. Others mined a wealth of tips that Tim had to offer. He was a politico who hit the ground running in this town.

The NewsMax article

Nonetheless, I was pleasantly surprised in 2001 when Russert — on Meet the Press — referenced an article I had written for NewsMax magazine. It was one of those speculative "what if" pieces (not a prediction) — positing a Hillary Clinton-John McCain (or McCain-H. Clinton) ticket for the Democrats to run against President Bush in 2004.

It was pure speculation, but not without some grounding in what was going on then (and transpired thereafter). Recall that McCain was extremely embittered at his loss to George W. Bush in the 2000 Republican primaries, and there had been rumors that at a weekend meeting with then-Senate Democrat leader Tom Daschle, McCain had spoken about switching parties, something McCain denied at the time. Following Bush's re-election in '04, some mainstream media outlets ran a story they had been sitting on during the campaign saying John Kerry had approached McCain about being his running mate. Other sources indicated it was the other way around — that McCain had made the first move. Denials of all this abounded. Apparently when Tim cited the magazine article on the air to question McCain, the idea of the Arizona senator's changing parties was not considered totally implausible.

"That's wonderful," Senator McCain responded at the time.

"So we can toss that one away?" was Russert's follow-up.

"I think so," the senator said.

The Plame game

Like other reporters caught up in the whole manufactured "story" of the leaking of CIA bureaucrat Valerie Plame's name to columnist Robert Novak, Tim Russert (along with Novak himself, among other journalists) did not enjoy becoming part of the story by having to testify in the trial of Scooter Libby. Journalists like to report news, not make it.

It was recalled (by administration sympathizers) at that time that Tim had advised Senator Moynihan in his first term to move left if he wanted the New York electorate to keep him on Capitol Hill. However, aside from Russert's own views, he was simply using his well-earned first-rate political expertise to keep his boss in office. That's something that goes with the paycheck of any officeholder's assistant. In his initial 1976 run, Moynihan had fought successfully a bitter Democrat primary battle against over-the-top leftist Bella Abzug, and New York liberals were vowing to take him on again in 1982. The senator glided through to another term, as he would again in 1988 and even in 1994, a Republican year.

The Rush Limbaugh appearance

Russert had fended off criticism of his putting Rush Limbaugh on Meet the Press. His answer was, "He [Limbaugh] has the most widely listened to radio program in America, he has done an enormous amount to engage and encourage political discussion around the country, he articulates a political philosophy as well as anyone in the country," and that to suggest Rush was not an appropriate MTP guest was "absurd." The MTP anchor also noted that the same complainers did not protest when he put Ralph Nader on the program.

A cut above

Some post-mortems on Russert have compared him to Ed Murrow and Walter Cronkite. Those two — and others — surely had their strengths and attained success in their own ways. But there was only one Tim Russert.

In the quest for fairness in journalism, viewers/readers/listeners (rightly) expect much. Let us understand, however, that anyone who covers news day in and day out, or has witnessed high political drama on life and death issues, and then says he has no opinions — is either a liar or a moron. Again, on television, it's the body language.

The late Allen Drury, in his political novels, posited a cartoonized version of one of the "Big Three" news anchors whom he named "Frankly Unctuous." That fictitious moniker tells you all you need to know about what Tim Russert definitely was not.

TV news as family conversation

Goldberg, in his book interview, mentioned the complaint that Russert in economic matters placed an undue emphasis on "affordable" tax cuts and not enough attention to government "spending too much."

Russert's answer was that "yes, I do think deficits matter. And you know where that comes from? [Laughing]. It comes from Mom and Dad's kitchen table. We never floated loans."

Now as one who believes the right tax cuts can bring in more revenue that can be applied to deficit-reduction (assuming some congressional willpower), this column would say Russert gave the wrong answer on that. But it comes from the heart of his life experience — being honest about who he is.

A replacement?

The guessing game is on as to who will be the next permanent host of Meet the Press. Eventually someone will take Tim Russert's place. No one — absolutely no one — will fill his shoes.

© Wes Vernon