OnPoint’s Tom Ashbrook interviewed NBC’s Tim Russert last Wednesday. I listened to a bit of this interview while running errands.
One segment, stuck: Russert described a recent Oval Office visit where the President hosted some baseball greats, and invited Russert and his son to participate. Ashbrook correctly asked Russert if this was an example of a cozy insider relationship (I’m paraphrasing) and therefore, can one be objective in covering politicians. Russert insisted that he of course, can……
This is a great example of a major problem today: the cozy relationships between major media and the political establishment. There’s also this: Meeting the press and surviving it; which describes Russert’s recent interview with Colin Powell. Powell’s press aide pulled the camera away when Russert evidently broke the interview’s ground rules.