Question for people who watch MTP and know how to read Kerry

[LittleClarkie]

Do he and Russert like each other? Do you think they both enjoyed the interview on Sunday. Tim was grinning, so I think he did.

Do you think Tim was just trying to be as tough as possible, or do you believe he's more right wing the way some on the main board do. I thought he was a Dem, myself. Maybe he's harder on his own.

Sometimes you can tell when Kerry likes an interviewer, and you can definitely tell when he doesn't. I thought he sorta enjoyed the cat and mouse game of being interviewed by a good reporter, but I don't watch Kerry interviews on MTP enough to know how these two are towards each other. I know Russert has had him on a couple times at least, and it does seem to say something that Kerry made this his first interview after the election. So I think that says he at least respects Russert.

What do y'all think?

[elshiva]

1. Russert is too RW. He was a Clinton sensationalist.

I had to read the transcript, I couldn't watch it. The transcript gave me little idea if Kerry likes Russert. Overall, Russert wasn't that bad with questions about abortion, Iraq, and Dean. I expected him to dwell too much on the election, but he did not, good on Russert. Kerry was in fine fettle, wasn't he just?

[JI7]

2. Tim is a whore like most big media types

i can't stand him. i don't think he is a good reporter also. he plays gotcha with things that aren't an issue.

if they were on things like taxes , health care etc i would understand. also many of the things he tries to gotcha thing with are things obviously taken out of context.

[elshiva]

3. Bartcop calls "Meet the Press," "Meet the Whore."

Personally, I think it's sexist to call him a whore. But, he is a greedy grabber if you want to get into it. He relished the whole Clinton scandal. I think he was trying to dig some dirt on Kerry by bringing up where he was when in Cambodia. Like, who cares, Tim?

[JI7]

4. hehhe, i call it "meet the whore" also

i wish he would grill Bush and Republicans about what is currently going on under their leadership with Iraq and other things the way he goes after Kerry over some stupid thing long time ago when he was a young man .

[WildEyedLiberal]

5. But that might require upsetting the balance! Can't have that!

We can't have journalists actually acting with integrity and honesty, can we?

[elshiva]

6. No we certainly, can't now that Bill Moyers has retired, but

Carlson Tucker gets his own show on PBS. WTF? God help us!

[JI7]

7. imagine how much better the world would be

if the whore media would just be truthful. they don't need to push democrats and liberals or take their side. just report the facts.

the majority of people who voted for Bush thought we had already found weapons of mass destruction, that Saddam was involved in 9/11 attacks and that most of the world supported the war in Iraq. and it's a Huge majority, like 70+ percent of Bush voters who believe these things.

so Bush gets about 70 percent of his supported based on people being uninformed alone.

[whometense]

8. My read was that

Russert respects Kerry, and Kerry has respect for Russert's clout. I don't sense any real warmth between them. Russert likes to play "gotcha," and Kerry enjoys the intellectual challenge of thwarting him. He also needs the air time.

Kerry's friendly with a lot of people, but he's not easy to get close to. He tends to attribute that quality to the childhood years he spent away at boarding school. He also has a lot of friends, but they are people he has a history with and who he knows he can trust.

Russert, if you watch him a lot, plays the media game. He does not strike me as a person of great intellect or great principle. He gave the commencement speech at my daughter's graduation last spring, and I came away unimpressed. Lots of platitudes, little depth. He yucks it up with people like Imus - he is a media whore, as JI7 says, in the sense the term was used by the late, lamented Media Whores Online.

On the other hand Kerry is a man of conviction and principle, and has never left me unimpressed.

[WildEyedLiberal]

10. What happened to Media Whores online?

:(

[saracat]

13. The gal doing it had to drop it to concentrate on her real job!

[angrydemocrat]

11. OMG I Can't Stand Imus

Sheeewww Nasstty! He is on early of the mornings here. I have a friend that likes to listen to him because he don't like Cheney he calls him pork chop, he don't like Dumbsfeld or Wolfiwitz and he calls them war criminals all the time. Plus she likes him cause he has the Imus Ranch where they have sick kids out there all the time. Some may have cancer, leukemia, MS, etc. Which I have to give the man credit for all him and his wife do there.

Other than that damn he is sickening! He is the ugliest one man I have ever seen in my life. And for someone to be on live TV he is the rudest crudest one bastard I ever listen to at times. And two faced as hell! Hell he was always saying he supported Kerry then turn right around and say nasty ass remarks about him. He claims he voted for Kerry. But now that this election is over OMG he has said really nasty ridiculous crap about Kerry. If it wasn't for my friend why I would never listen to that bastard but when she is here she always watches that bastard. She doesn't like him she just likes to sit around laughing at him over Cheney and the others. I think now she is ready to stop watching him because of what he says about Kerry. All I can say is I hope the hell so. That crap drives me nuts.

[ginnyinWI]

9. I'd say

that JK likes Russert, in the way that two people at the top of their fields have mutual respect for each other; of course JK is on guard with all of the media, but I felt like this time it was his ball game, his time to say some things that he wanted to say about the campaign and the world situation, and Russert was a good interviewer. He asked good questions. I don't think he is particularly right-wing; I've read that he is a liberal. But that should not enter into it, if you are a good journalist. Russert is better than a lot of them, and yeah I've heard some nasty comments from him, too, but overall, he could have been worse. JK chose him over others as his venue for what he wanted to say to the public.

Bottom line: yeah they like each other.

[saracat]

12. I actually thought Russert was respectful of Kerry. He was actually more

deferential than he was to Bush. I think Russert likes to stoke controversy but face it, if he didn't ,he would be gone. Russert is a survivor . He manages to do it while not being as bad as O'lielly. He isn't perfect but he is a damn site better than most of the ass bites. We can hark back to Clinton all we want but Clinton brought that on himself. Sex and politics are an ideal combo and he handed the story to them on a silver platter.
I definately felt Kerry respects Russert. They are both long time veterans and both of them know the game and that it isn't personal.

[sandnsea]

14. I think so too

But then, before this past year, all the tv people were good to Kerry. They geniunely respected him. Just shows what kind of hypocrites some of them are. Looked to me like Tim was trying to let Kerry do some clean-up. I thought it was a really good interview, much better to watch than to read. Although I disagree with the parental notification on abortion too, and I think we can change the discussion without going quite as far as he and Hillary seem to be going.

[TayTay]

15. I thought the interview was fine.

Russert sometimes looks like he's going to lean over and try to take a bite out of his guests. He just has that kind of leering grin and the eyes that seem to communicate that "I know what you really did" sense of the gotcha game.

Kerry made his first appearance on MTP 34 years ago. I think he knows far better than I do how the game is played and he has played it well. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that he is sought after by talking-heads shows all the time. He is a very, very smart man, thinks for himself and doesn't have to rely on talking points to get by in an interview. Russert knows this and can really open up and expect some great interplay. No fear, no need to pull your punches. No requests for questions in advance. I bet Russert considers it fun.