Tim Russert and David Duke: the Distortions Continue

Tim Russert’s passing has most national media singing his praises by pointing out his over-the-top,  ineffective attack on David Duke on Meet the Press in 1991. Here is another example from People magazine. It claimed that Russert stumped Duke on his question of naming the three companies with the highest number of employees in Louisiana.  In fact, the question of naming the largest employers of any state is a trivia question that hardly gets to the important issues of a candidate’s positions or policies. In fact, there are dozens of businesses in every state that employ thousands of people. Anyone can name large employers in a state, but hardly anyone would be able to name the top three. How many people could name even the three largest employers in the United States? It is doubtful that the chairman of the Federal Reserve or the Treasury Department could, and certainly not without time for some thought on the issue, time that they wouldn’t have in a rapid fire interview. Whether a company is in the top three of employee numbers or the top six or the top ten is irrelevant to the issues of taxation and other government policy.

It  is quite revealing when the media sites Russert’s supposed stumping David Duke with a single irrelevant question as his most important claim to fame! The media is right. Coming out ahead of Duke, even on a single point of argument, is a rare and major achievement. Ask the likes of Wolf Blitzer, Barbara Walters, Tom Brokaw, Phil Donahue, Bill O’Reilly and Hannity and Colmes how they fared against David Duke.

In fact, even Tim Russert himself in his book admitted that he thought he showed up badly in that same interview of David Duke. That he came off not like a professional journalist but a “prosecutor.” To quote newsman Alan Pergament,  “He (Russert)told me in 1997 he felt he only lost his objectivity once, during a program in which he interrogated David Duke…”

In 2003 David Duke appeared on Meet the Press again and so thoroughly out-debated Russert that people used Duke’s masterful appearance on Meet the Press as the best guide of how to defeat Tim Russert!  In the anti-Duke fervor of the controlled media, the remembrances of Tim Russert don’t seem to remember the worst loss of Russert’s career as a journalist.

Dr. David Duke’s arguments and ideas, reason and research, books and articles are a real threat to the establishment. The Israeli partisans who dominate the media seek to ridicule or demonize him at every opportunity. The media obituaries of Tim Russert have afforded one more opportunity to distort the record. David Duke, the man who handed Russert his biggest defeat, is portrayed as “stumped by Tim Russert.” Such is the state of big media. –staff