The Audacity of Tim Russert

Apparently, Tim Russert all of a sudden remembered what his role as a journalist and political pundit actually is. While on MSNBC last night with fellow talking head Chris Matthews, Russert openly discussed the role journalists can play in the upcoming general election between Barack Obama and John McCain (lest we forget Ralph Nader, Bob Barr, et al). The operative word obviously being "can."

Russert's full quote:

"But in an interesting way, based on our previous conversation, it's a role I think the media can play, in really trying to keep pushing this back to this big debate on big issues and not get caught up in a lot of this minor skirmishing that goes on and videotape that gets released where we just run wild with it and sit back and say, what happened? Why did we not cover some of these big differences like Iraq, like Iran, like negotiating around the world, like health care?"

Excellent questions, Timothy. In the words of Jon Stewart: "Shame on you!"

In all honesty though, it's absolutely time that the people who head discussion shows start acting as the moderators they're supposed to be and ask the questions the public expects them to ask. It's sad to think that The Daily Show and The Colbert Report may soon be the only places left to turn. At least, they're jokingly bias as opposed to inherently so.