Friday, June 13, 2008

Tim Russert, RIP

While there are always ways to find fault with the press (we've been known to engage in a little criticism ourselves,) there are some journalists who genuinely seem to want to just get the story right as best they can.

Tim Russert was one of those. Having him die at such a young age is a shock. He will be missed.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I remember hearing Russert once say that when he interviewed politicians he tried to come up with the positions that were the opposite of the persons he was interviewing, and then ask questions from that point of view. So he could ask tough questions, yet do it without being obnoxious. He was one of the rare national journalists who regularly asked tough questions of Democrats.

If you think about it, you don't see that much in Montana either. You see it on occasion, but not too often. Which is unfortunate since Democrats control most of the major offices now.

I was just thinking the other day about how rare it is to see an editorial in a Montana newspaper that it critical of a Democratic office holder. Five or ten years ago, you used to see them almost daily, it seemed. And many were vicious.

Another thing that is odd. Are the policies of Martz and Schweitzer really all that different? There are little differences, but not major ones. The state government, or the state in general, hasn't changed in any dramatic ways. It is spending more money, but the priorities haven't really changed. Martz had to cut spending, but had Schweitzer been in similar circumstances he would have had to do the same.

The two governors do have dramatically different personalities. Yet ironically the nice one is the one who got attacked most viciously. She did make some mistakes, but nothing that deserved the level of vitriol she got. And especially considering how standards seemed to have relaxed so much.