CNN’s Larry King hosted NBC’s Tim Russert for the hour on Wednesday. Here’s a nugget from their conversation:
| KING: Why are we such an easy target? RUSSERT: Well, shoot the messenger. Both sides will go out of their way to say, well, you know, that’s the media. But Larry, we can’t let ourselves be in a situation where we’re trying to win a popularity contest. Every Sunday morning, I will interview somebody, and if it’s a Republican or a Democrat, I’ll get a thousand e-mails and there will be hundreds saying, you left-wing lapdog and a 100 saying you right-wing madman, and it will be the same question to the same guest. People look at things through their own ideological prism. We now are so divided politically that people want to confirm their own beliefs, and when they watch an interview, where you’re asking tough questions of a Democrat or Republican, it bothers them. But when they take a deep breath and they step back, they’ll say, you know what? That’s what we really need in this country. You can’t make tough decisions unless you answer tough questions. I’ve been all over the world. I’ve to be a lot of countries where you pick up a newspaper and turn on the TV and it is nothing but happy news. You know what? You don’t want to live there. |
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