Missing Tim Russert & CNN - the cost of poor leadership.

We deserve and should demand better.

I miss Tim Russert. And CNN. I miss CNN.

Okay. I miss Tim Russert AND CNN.

Last night’s CNN interview of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz by Dana Bash (D) should be used in the upper level journalism school classes.

J401 - “Ratings - How to Get The Big Interview Now and in the Future.” In this class, you will learn all the ins and outs of how to pay company overhead (your salary) while trying to look like you have a shred of journalistic integrity.

Can you imagine the negotiations behind the scenes between CNN and the Harris campaign?

CNN producer - “Look, we have to ask SOME hard questions…”

“We’ll allow two but no follow ups.”

“Sorry, no deal. This…is CNN.”

“We’re going to one of the Big Three (ABC/NBC/CBS)…”

“WHOA WHOA…okay…how about three hard questions and two follow ups?”

“Last and final offer - you get two hard questions and no follow ups.”

“Fine. But it has to air live.”

“NO. Pre-taped and we get to choose which clip goes out to tease the audience.”

“I don’t think we can allow…” <gets cut off>

“You want another interview in the future? We have options. Oh look! CBS on line 2…”

“Fine. Whatever you want.”

“Dana Bash. We want Dana.”

“GREAT!”

or some such…

Video links for Bash’s interviews with JD Vance and Kamala Harris/Tim Walz are posted below.

I have conducted more pressing interviews of uncontested state House races than what CNN dared to actually air last night; however…

Harris is a major party nominee for President of the United States.

And the circumstances in which she became the nominee HAVE YET to be examined.

Reminder - Harris was so convincing as a national candidate that her 2020 campaign for President ended in 2019.

Last night was yet another OBVIOUS example of the damage being done to the Republic by our corrupt duopoly.

Both sides have their own set of distribution channels designed to keep US all tuned in and pissed off at each other.

Our foreign adversaries LOVE LOVE LOVE it all. That’s their goal - our internal erosion and we are well ahead of schedule.

Performative politics is so reductive that we now identify using two primary colors - Red and Blue.

Not ideas. Not beliefs.

Colors.

Tim Russert was a Buffalo Bills fans. The Bills colors? Red AND Blue.

On his show - Meet the Press - Russert asked tough questions by doing his homework and pressing his guests using their previous statements against them. Brutal.

It’s called cross examination and in the end it yields, not only ratings, but more importantly - the TRUTH and a better informed electorate.

Last weekend, I spent time with a dear friend, Jack Mitchell of the Murfreesboro (TN) Mitchells. He’s a defense attorney in central Tennessee where the politics runs 60% for Republicans. That means the juries don’t take kindly to law breakers.

In my opinion, that construct would lead to prosecutors having the upper hand in legal negotiations. Conservative juries = harsher sentences.

Jack told me that very rarely do cases go to trial anymore with defense attorneys litigating maybe two times a year. Well this year, he’s gone to trial FIVE times and two in August alone.

Jack won both of his trials in August as his clients were found to be NOT GUILTY. One of them would have been thrown out of the country. Serious stuff on the line.

We discussed the cases at not great length, but I got the flavor of why he and his clients won - Jack is brutal on cross examination.

As a 40 year friend, I can speak it to personally. It’s not easy having besties call you out on your Bravo Sierra - but it IS ESSENTIAL. Hence - besties. #BestiesBeBrutal

“You seem pretty humble, Saxman.”

“Have you met my friends?”

Journalists are failing us by putting ratings and profits ahead of their mission - calling Bravo Sierra fairly.

They should be tough but fair and trust the voters.

Likewise, the two main political parties should also trust the voters.

When the elites in our political and journalist classes trust us, we in turn will trust them.

Until then, our divide and colors will deepen.

This poor leadership is unsustainable.

If you want to be a bestie for our nation, our cause, and our future - call them out.

Cross examine them.

All of them. All the time.

Be tough but fair.

NOW.

****

Here is Dana Bash with JD Vance:

https://x.com/mazemoore/status/1829543136340873582

Compare and contrast to last night’s conversation with Harris and Walz.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/30/politics/video/kamala-harris-tim-walz-full-interview-part-1-digvid

Dana, for the sake of the Republic - start a podcast. Stop this masquerade that you are a serious journalist.

You’re not.

You’re a partisan hack.

That’s okay.

Many are.

In fact, cable news is chock full of those nuts.

But that’s the problem.

RIP Tim Russert.

RIP CNN.