Who will replace Tim Russert?
June 15, 2008 | Chicago, Illinois | Vetting explained
First, let me say that Tim will truly be missed in my house, not only on Sundays, but everyday as I watch MSNBC to analyze the day's big events.
Everyone in TV and radio and blog land has talked about what a great man he was, so I will concentrate on what's next.
Tim would surely want to show to go on, especially during this exciting political season. So who can or should replace him in the big chair on Sundays?
MSNBC has three great contenders already in-house: David Gregory, Chuck Todd and David Schuster.
Gregory has years of experience going toe to toe with Presidents and their tough-as-nails press secretaries as Senior White House Correspondent. He also knows how to come at an issue from many differing angles, as demonstrated during Race to the White House every evening.
Chuck Todd is the new kid on the block, but hand-picked from Russert to join the NBC team. Todd has become one of the most popular figures during election night coverage as he brings numbers and analysis that are a cut above the rest.
David Schuster is a real old-school journalist. He researches his subjects prior to putting together a report. Forget about the "pimp" comment, as he was acting as a pundit at that moment, not a journalist. David truly is one of the most hard-hitting and thorough journalists NBC has on staff.
All three of these contenders are less known (than say Olbermann, Brokaw, etc), as was Tim when he first began. Further, they have managed to keep their personal views out of their reporting. Tim has made me question, on many occasions throughout the years, whether he was left or right leaning. Some weeks I would be angry for not hitting a conservative hard enough, the next he was and vice-versa with a liberal. He always kept me guessing. I feel the same about the above-mentioned possible replacements.
Finally, forget Matthews, Olbermann or Scarborough. All three of them, great as they are on MSNBC and with as much as they bring to the network, are all known to have their biases. Matthews has a tendancy to run at the mouth (and spit a lot), Olbermann is too controversial despite knowing SO much about everyone and every topic and Scarborough is too conservative to remain unbiased.
One final long-shot name I'd like to throw out there: Rachael Maddow. A Rhodes Scholar with a keen sense of political implications. Sadly, I believe she'd be considered too wet behind the ears as well as too left-leaning.
Who do you think would bring credibility to the new Meet The Press?
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- olbermann,
- msnbc
- Posted in Assignment:
- Remembering Tim Russert
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