The Truth will prevail, But only if we Demand it from Congress!
9-11 Inside Job and Neocons Hacked 2004
By Matthew Rothschild, June 14, 2008
Tim Russert, by all accounts I’ve heard, including from people on
the progressive side who knew him well, was a decent guy.
The news of his death came as a shock to me, as it did to everyone:
He was a fixture for those of us who are obsessed with politics. And
to be stricken of a heart attack at 58 is a fate that no one should
have to suffer.
I feel bad for his family, and for his colleagues.
For many years, I looked forward to watching him on Meet the Press.
But I stopped after September 11.
As the praise for Russert has overflowed, I just want to register,
even at the risk of showing bad manners, a discordant note.
I stopped watching him regularly after September 11 because he
became a cheerleader for war.
He festooned himself with red, white, and blue, and in one of the
first programs after the attack, he appallingly said that the Bush
Administration would have to prepare the American public for a
“disproportionate” response.
Such a response is, by definition, immoral under just war theory.
And he was essentially inviting Bush and Cheney to kill many times
more than the 3,000 people who died on September 11.
He also did not explore with Cheney the Vice President’s comment to
him that the United States would need to go to “the dark side.” Some
early skepticism about the torture and kidnapping that was to come
might have done the country good.
A year and a half later, right before the Iraq War, Russert let
Cheney get away with an outrageous comment that was pure propaganda.
It was March 16, 2003, less than a week before Bush and Cheney
started bombing.
Russert: And even though the International Atomic Energy Agency said
he does not have a nuclear program, we disagree.
[Note the pronoun “we.”]
Cheney: I disagree, yes. And you’ll find the CIA, for example, and
other key parts of our intelligence community, disagree. And we
believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons.
Russert didn’t challenge him on that bald-faced lie.
When Cheney came back on, almost two years later, Russert played the
videotape. But rather than aggressively going after Cheney, Russert
soft-pedaled.
Russert: Reconstituted nuclear weapons. You misspoke.
Cheney: Yeah, I did misspeak. I said repeatedly during the show
“weapons capability.” We never had any evidence that he had acquired
a nuclear weapon.
For Russert, who rightfully earned a reputation as a tough
questioner, to go easy on Cheney, well, this was not his finest
habit.
I bring all this up, even at this delicate moment, to point out
simply that even great mainstream journalists sometimes bow to
patriotism and to power, and when they do, our democracy, and the
cause of peace and justice, suffers.
