PSoTD

Timmy Russert needs new friends. Can't somebody introduce him to some new and interesting people? Maybe he should join Toastmasters and mingle. I hear they serve real chocolate desserts there.

MEET THE PRESS WITH TIM RUSSERT
WEEKEND LISTINGS 3/2/08

JAMES CARVILLE
Democratic Strategist

MARY MATALIN
Republican Strategist

MIKE MURPHY
Republican Strategist

BOB SHRUM
Democratic Strategist

He's evolving as a journalist and as a questioner. He's 90 percent there... to being the William Shatner of debates. Answer me!

I have to say that last night, for the first time that I can ever remember, Saturday Night Live seemed a bit like a TV show for New Yorkers. Even though Tina Fey's bit about Hillary Clinton was kind of funny, the point is, she was also shilling for a candidate on the program. It's not that I wouldn't expect SNL to be rooting for Clinton - after all, they are in New York City and she's their U.S. Senator. But I would think they could be more subtle about it.

On the other hand, I quit watching SNL regularly a long time ago because they had lost their subtlety, and because in the past 10 years, at their very, very best, they could only achieve kind of funny. It is amazing that for over a decade, SNL has been unable to accomplish comedy at a weekly level reaching what The Daily Show or Conan O'Brien has done on a daily level. They get more time, and somehow, that time is wasted every week on horrible sketches and forgettable performers. It is time for NBC to give somebody else a chance at that time slot, and quit wasting it on a 21st Century Ed Sullivan Show.

Must be the news media's new favorite word of choice.

Peggy Noonan will surprise you, and suggest that somebody else is a snob. Really! Has she ever listened to herself speak? It's usually one of the first things that comes to mind when I hear her.

My name is Andrew Romano Eleanor Clift, and I'm going to ride the Loch Ness Monster to the North Pole so Santa can perform the wedding rights for me and Cinderella Prince Charming.

Note: My apologies to Andrew Romano. Eleanor Clift was the culprit of this article, and I didn't even notice it. I should have my blogging card taken away for 30 days. That was awful blogging.

One of the things that might make sense to study by a journalism or communications department at some highly appreciated university would be the blog links to various publications, and whether they increase or decrease over time. This would have to be somehow compared by taking a large population of blogs over time, maintaining a total population number to publication links for various time periods, and then measuring a percentage per publication of those links. In the political world, for example, the entire blogging spectrum would need to be covered, and the entire online political publication community should be measured.

My suspicion is that Slate would have a very ominous downward trend, because of newsworthiness and interest level in the quality of the articles.

Okay, I'll admit it, Russert bothers me on all sorts of levels. For all I know, he could be a great guy, just the kind of guy you'd like to talk to while carving Jack-O-Lanterns, or playing pumpkinball... okay, that was a cheap shot. Like I said, he bothers me. And I won't claim to know him, and I'll give him the benefit of the doubt that he's a great guy and all.

My problem with Russert is his job. There are jobs that require a person of scope and depth and intellectual curiousity to completely and appropriately fill the position. The job of hosting Meet the Press seems to me to be one such position. It should be a position that is seen as both challenge of humility, as it will always require the host to expand their mind (and no, a growing head does not count). And yet, almost every time I watch Tim Russert on this program - not HIS program, by the way, but a program that has a unique identity beyond him and shouldn't be seen as his - I am struck by all the corners and edges and angles and sheer vast territory in which Tim Russert does not seem to measure up to those requirements.

I am also struck by the egotistical prism that Tim Russert focuses the show through at this point. I do not care one whit about his books, or his background, or his Buffalo Bills. I do not care about his cozy relationships with other Washington insiders. I'm sure that is seen as building a personal bond with the audience. I do not think Meet the Press should strive for that. In fact, I think the hosting performance should be much more in line with the approach that Charlie Rose takes, at least in that it focuses on the guest, and not on himself.

These two components of Russert's job performance make it very, very difficult for me to watch MTP when he's on. I wish one of the other networks would give Charlie Rose a shot on Sundays, with his own program. I'd like to see a weekly political show that might present a forum in which the host is as big as the opportunity

That is exactly what Meet the Press is. Tim Russert is the detritus that molds around the guests, creating an unnatural history of formerly semi-important people. Just the mere act of having Russert Detritus accumulate around a guest begins the process. But from time to time, Meet the Press digs around in a previous era. To wit, this week's guests:

MEET THE PRESS WITH TIM RUSSERT WEEKEND LISTINGS 2/3/08

JAMES CARVILLE
Democratic Strategist

MARY MATALIN
Republican Strategist

MIKE MURPHY
Republican Strategist

BOB SHRUM
Democratic Strategist

Oh, man, does it get worse than that? Can it? Is it possible? When will these specimens completely turn to stone?