Oh, and how's the watermelon crop looking this year?

I'm getting pretty tired of writing stories about what complete jackasses prominent 'journalists' are shown to be on a regular basis. You'd think that this sort of fish-in-a-barrel story would be welcome easy pickings for a blogger, but this is just the sort of stupidity I wish I didn't have to write about. I honestly think that most of my conservative friends would be embarrassed by hearing the facts in the case of this story, minor though it may be. It's just one more example of the tone-deafness and pro-status quo thinking that goes into our corporate news.

What the hell is Tim Russert asking Barack Obama to express his opinion about Harry Belafonte for? Harry Belafonte said George Bush was the "greatest terrorist in the world" this week, but it was virtually identical to a comment he madetwo weeks ago in Chile. Russert has had two weeks to ask anybody on his show about it; why does he save this particular question for Obama? What sort of special expertise does Obama have about Harry Belafonte, a private citizen with no connetion to the Democratic party, that none of Russert's other guests would have?

It's interesting to note that the only other time Russert questioned anyone about Harry Belafonte before, according to what Gleen [sic] Greenwald (via email) could find was when he asked Colin Powell. I doubt if Timmeh thinks of himself as a racist. It doesn't mean he isn't one.

Is Russert a racist? Couldn't say. I think this is simply about one more blow-dried, primped and preening pseudo-journalist doing the bidding of his heafvily-invested and connected higher-ups. And they're the ones who suck butt. Although he sucks, too. Don't get me wrong.