More on Peter Beinart. Doesn’t anyone remember that Beinart was one of the biggest cheerleaders urging us to go to war against Iraq?

David Sirota skewers Beinart wonderfully in the Huffington Post:

“Peter Beinart As Cautionary Tale In Journalism History”

Just eight months ago, PBS’s Bill Moyers aired perhaps the single most devastating indictment of the Washington press corps that I have ever seen. In his documentary, which looked at how the media cheered on President Bush’s push for a war with Iraq, Moyers interviewed one of the key cheerleaders: then-New Republic editor Peter Beinart….

THIS is not the person we want to replace Russert — unless we want someone even worse than Russert.

LINK to article:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-sirota/peter-beinart-as-cautiona_b_76340.html

Peter Beinart is too pro-Israel.

Brian Williams is way too vanilla to be on Meet the Press in other than a fill-In capacity. The MSM and Cable Networks are either filled with pretty faces and/or tilt right commentators, or extreme right such as almost everyone on Fox News. There are only two progressive commentators who could fill the bill on a permanent basis: Keith Olbermann or Bill Moyers. I like the latter better as I think his shows go into more depth on interviews than Olbermann does. I don’t think being a Democrat would hurt as Russert was also middle-left in his thinking. Moyers also has that southern charm which would help him. That said, I rely more on magazines like “The Nation” to get any real information, or I do my own research using the internet. The TV media is almost insufferable in its superficiality. Their horrible performance in hosting primary debates was a real disservice to this country. McClellan is correct - journalists are not earning their pay in this country.

As many here have said, we cannot expect MSM to contribute to meaningful, substantive dialogue and therefore it doesn’t matter what “personality” sits in for the venerable Tim Russert.

Hell, I could go on there and ask inane questions. 

Welcome, Osama.  Nice to have you here.  I’m going to ask you about your many years in hiding in Afganistan, but, first, we have to take a break.

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Thanks for coming, Osama.  What did you eat all those years holed up in those caves?  Weren’t you cold?

Do you ever see your family?

You know, a lot of Americans are pretty upset with you.  Can you tell us anything that might help us to understand why you took out the twin towers? 

Well, we have to take a break.  We’ll be right back.

etc, etc

But what will the show, meet the press, accomplish? How will they do something even close to what 60 minutes does, and this is still low in reporting. I don’t think mtp will ever be more than retalking points and no where will an elected official be asked hard questions that would make him stutter and squirm and lick his lips trying to come up with the truth.
This is why tim can be given some leeway in being a journalist but definitely not an investigative journalist who would ask hard questions that a lot of people want answers to. That is not how the msm works.

Here’s an example of David Gregory at his best, grilling Bush pretty good (but then not really following up effectively, I must say - although this IS already a follow-up to a previous question, and maybe you only get one follow-up at these press conferences, I dunno):

Q Mr. President, thank you. I’d like to follow on that. When you talked about Iraq, you and others in the administration talked about a mushroom cloud; then there were no WMD in Iraq. When it came to Iran, you said in October, on October 17th, you warned about the prospect of World War III, when months before you made that statement, this intelligence about them suspending their weapons program back in ‘03 had already come to light to this administration. So can’t you be accused of hyping this threat? And don’t you worry that that undermines U.S. credibility?

THE PRESIDENT: David, I don’t want to contradict an August reporter such as yourself, but I was made aware of the NIE last week. In August, I think it was Mike McConnell came in and said, we have some new information. He didn’t tell me what the information was; he did tell me it was going to take a while to analyze. Why would you take time to analyze new information? One, you want to make sure it’s not disinformation. You want to make sure the piece of intelligence you have is real. And secondly, they want to make sure they understand the intelligence they gathered: If they think it’s real, then what does it mean? And it wasn’t until last week that I was briefed on the NIE that is now public.

the video is here:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/12/04/george-bush-says-he-got-the-new-nie-report-last-week-oh-really/

re: WriterOnTheStorm, June 20 at 9:17 am # :

“David Gregory—isn’t he the guy who said that media had no responsibility in the lead up to the Iraqi invasion?”

Yes, sadly. He was one of several news “stars”, including Brian Williams and ABC’s Charles Gibson, who professed to be mystified by McClellan’s charge that they didn’t do their job in the runup to the Iraq war.

I only proposed Gregory as the least bad choice in the MSNB/NBC lineup.

(I assume Keith Olberman is out of the running since he’s made his career as a partisan commentator, but obviously he’d be better still than the flawed Gregory.)

David Gregory—isn’t he the guy who said that media had no responsibility in the lead up to the Iraqi invasion?

This is ridiculous. BW is a mere news reader who has shown if anything an even more deferential attitude towards powerful politicians than did Russert.

David Gregory comes to mind as a better replacement for Russert. Unlike BW, Gregory has actually shown some admirable temerity and persistence at times during White House press conferences, daring to ask the unpleasant questions, and refusing to let administration hacks off the hook.

Williams has some Huge Shoes to fill,but I think he will do well.
since he already has his own gig on the Network, I’d rather see a ‘new ‘face fro MTP.
Gwen Eiffle has done a great job while Lehr has bee out recovering from Heart surgery.she also hosts her own show similar to MTP on PBS. Her Style and professionalism should afford her the opportunity to at least be considered. I think she would be Perfect.
Not to mention the Benefit for NBC to Reach other demographics,bringing them a show which embraces diversity by the mere fact of the Host.She’s Earned her place at the table - she deserves a chance sit at the head of it.Great Moderator and Professional Interviewing techniques.
Tim’s Shoes will be hard to fill,So why try.Maybe it’s time for a pair of Pumps instead.