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UPDATE: Sources close to Arianna Huffington are claiming just that. Arianna Huffington is currently on book tour for her new political tome Right Is Wrong: How The Lunatic Fringe Hijacked America, Shredded The Constitution, And Made Us All Less Safe, in which she goes after Tim Russert (and justifiably so). 
She's booked all over CNN, ABC, and CBS (but not Fox News Channel because she chose not to go on there). And NBC? Well, one insider says she was booked on Keith Olberman and Morning Joe to talk about her tome -- and then unbooked. "These are shows that call her regularly to come on. And then the word came from on high that she had to be cancelled." Arianna's accolytes are pointing the finger at Tim Russert, well known to be ridiculously thin-skinned, for blackballing her internally at NBC and not permitting her on any of the NBC network or cable outlets.
It's certainly possible, considering how much clout the Washington bureau chief wields at the company (not to mention how much profit his Meet The Press yields for the company). NBC did confirm to me that Arianna Huffington won't be booked on any of the NBC network or cable shows past or present or future for her book. (Interestingly, a Knopf source says the publisher was never given a definitive no. "We were just told to 'Call back tomorrow.' There was never any explanation.") Granted Right Is Wrong is only #209 on Amazon.com, but Huffington pals are arguing to NBC it's a big book tour by a big name. "We get pitched countless books, and most of them don't make it on the air. And this one didn't," the network news spokesperson told me. The spokesperson points out that Huffington has had nasty things to say about Russert "for years" through HuffPo's RussertWatch but she's still been booked on NBC shows. "Arianna must be dialing for dollars again," the spokesperson snarked. Meanwhile, the respected Columbia Journalism Review just announced it will pick up HuffPo's RussertWatch as a regular online feature.
So what does Huffington say about Russert in her tome?
-- Russert's July 1, 2007, Meet The Press interview with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff "was about as priapic a display as you're ever likely to see outside of a porno film or the monkey cage at the zoo, with Russert desperately trying to get Chertoff to pump up the panic meter..."
-- Russert's Meet The Press has been the Bush-Cheney "administration's top choice for push-back as its lies about Iraq were unraveling, because the White House could 'control' the message more easily there."
-- Russert is "one of the temple guards of conventional wisdom" and "a conventional wisdom zombie".
-- A 7-page scathing analysis of Russert and Meet The Press, based on this premise: "The reason the conventional wisdom survives no matter how many times its lies are exposed is that shows like Meet The Press allow their guests to go unchallenged."
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She’s probably not invited to his birthday party either.
Russert’s a troll.
Ironically, NBC’s obstruction of Huffington proves her point about the deterioration of the Constitution and the lunatic fringe (the lunatic fringe exists on both ends of the spectrum.)
Russert loses ALL credibility, using the press to satisfy his own personal gripes.
NBC cannot afford to lose any more face.
During debates, he looked like he was going to lunge across the table and claw Clinton’s face off.
The more that comes out about this guy, the more loathsome he proves to be.
nikki–what does huffington go after russert for?
So…she trashed Russert/NBC in her book, then acts surprised when neither wants to give her airtime to plug said book? How is this surprising, or newsworthy, at all?
And like that, Tim Russert’s application to write a “Gay S&M And You” column for the Huffington Post was tossed into the circular file.
I don’t understand what she’s complaining about.
There’s no “constitutional right” to go on NBC. This isn’t about free speech; she published the book.
So if she attacked Russert, and he wants to keep her off, that’s entirely his privilege – just as it’s entirely her privilege to moan about this in order to get herself more publicity, which is the only thing she’s really interested in.
Let’s be adults and grown ups about this: If you insult letterman, you’re not getting on the show. If you piss on the New York Times, they’re not going to review your books. (See Hannity, O’Reilly, etc.) And if you ridicule the head of the NBC Washington bureau, you suffer the consequences.
Again, it’s not free speech. Commercial book promotion on television is not guaranteed by the US gov’t.
Of course… Tim Russert, former Chief of Staff to Democratic Senator Daniel Moynihan is another member of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy (c)
My guess is the reason Huffington wasn’t booked on the show is the same reason she’s not sitting in the Governor’s office in Sacramento… nobody cares what she thinks.
Whatever faults Tim Russert has — which are many, to be sure — let’s not go to the other extreme and buy into the deification of Arianna Huffington. For those who are interested, do a little googling about Arianna Huffington and you will find such interesting goodies as the fact that she made her living prior to her ill-fated marriage to Michael Huffington and the founding the Huffington Post by being nothing more nor less than a rank, intentional plagiarist — politely speaking, an intellectual thief — whose publisher(s) have had to pay very, very big bucks, not “nuisance-value” payments, to settle significant plagiarism lawsuits filed against her. Moreover, with a little investigation one can find on the internet the fact that this great liberal, populist Ms. Huffington showed that she stood lockstep and heart-and-soul with the little people she so avidly supports by one year making more than $900,000 in income but paying way, way way less than 10% of that in taxes. I don’t believe I do Ms. Huffington any injustice by saying that she seems only interested in advancing the greater glory and self-deification of Arianna Huffington.
Russert’s bias is a shame for him and an insult to his profession, but he’s not alone. Newspapers can pick and choose what they cover; it’s their First Amendment right. Broadcasters, however, are licensed to operate in the public interest, not to promote private agendas. (The fact that they do is the failing of the FCC and, of course, of the public’s tolerance of their corruption). Not all venues are alike: Letterman is entertainment; “Meet the Press” is news; the FCC defines them differently. In the broader view, a newspaper’s, a TV station’s, or a radio station’s legitimacy is defined by its ability to cover stories objectively regardless of the personal likes or dislikes of the people who run each. Clearly NBC’s alleged boycott of Ariana’s book — just as all three networks boycotted Ken Auletta’s 1991 book “Three Blind Mice,” which was about their corporate myopia — is further proof that the mass media add to the problem rather than the solution.
Russert has had a fine career as a journalist, Arianna is an absolute joke, about as intellectually deep and coherent in her beliefs as a Vassar freshman with a nasty bipolar disorder. Who buys her stale Champaign Socialist schtick is beyond me. But she’s in LA and gives much cooler parties (all that Michael Huffington loot!), so of course Nikki runs with this big (yawn) story.
Some of you are missing the point. She’s not only being kept off Russert’s show, which would be understandable, she’s also being silenced on the entire network because of that right wing jackass.
Arianna Huffington Versus Tim Russert? That’s what cops would call “No Humans Involved.” But at least Russert is amusing. Arianna almost bored me to death at last year’s LA Times Festival of Books.
“Lunatic fringe”, Arianna IS the lunatic fringe.
Her and Russert should make up and have a lunatic fringe tea party.
LETTERMAN IS NOT A JOURNALIST. THAT’S A STUPID ANALOGY.
DUH.
Inevitably, anyone who uses the term “grow up” and “be an adult” as the basis of their argument has no valid point to make.
Moreover, it’s one thing for Russert not to feature the book [though a true journalist with backbone would feature it and discuss it[, but it is entirely another when a whole network blackballs a book.
We rely upon the news outlets, utilizing public airwaves, for the flow of information. A network and a “journalist” having a personal hissy fit and obstructing free and open debate are whom the person above should be directing to “grow up.”
Huffington disses Russert and then doesn’t understand why they won’t book her? And to promote such a bat shit crazy book?
kudos ms huffington. kudos.
As usual, Nikki is right on.
Media news program showing bias.
The news here is what, exactly?
Nikki defending Arianna? What is this, Bizarro World? I seem to recall an article written by Nikki essentially eulogizing the Huffington Post before it started.
Actually, I too thought the Huffington Post was going to be a vanity project that would implode. Alas, it’s a vanity project that’s actually succeeded if you judge it in terms of clicks. I go by it once or twice a day because it has some good bloggers and links to news articles.
As for Tim Russett, he’s another one of those self-loathing media liberals who feels he needs to bash Democrats in order to prove to the rabid right that “See! I’m fair! I went after that feeble little lefty. Please accept me!” all the while letting right wingers run roughshod over domestic and foreign policy for fear they might be called *gulp* “liiiiiberrrralllls” if they ask relevant, tough questions. Of course, if you’re a liberal in the mainstream media who constantly hammers the right you’re liable to get canned, like Robert Scheer at the LA Times.
And this spurning of Adrianna isn’t a First Amendment issue. It has nothing to do with the federal government subjugating freedom of the press. It’s just about a wuss at NBC who can’t stand incisive criticism. It’s one thing to not allow her on that Sunday morning bukkake fest “Meet the Press” but to ban her from appearing on MSNBC is the height of sensitivity.
The less we see of Huffington in the media, the better off America is. Can HBO wake up and get rid of Bill Maher will we’re at it??? Pretty please?
Since when has Russert been a right-winger? Are you serious? I’m no conservative loon… but it’s pretty common knowledge that (besides Fox News) television news is dominated by the liberal media. Why do you think Tucker’s show got the axe and poor Joe Scarborough has a winning 5 a.m. time slot? It isn’t because MSNBC is part of the vast right-wing conspiracy. Some of you California libs need to get in touch with the real world. That means you too Nikki…
Whaaaa? Did I miss something. Tim Russert grills the hell out of his guests. In fact, he holds every guest, be it Left or Right, to everything they’ve ever said in their entire life. How many times have we seen him ask a guest a question (the set-up) wait for an answer, and then roll video footage from said guests elementary school graduation telling his home room teacher the exact opposite of what he just told Russert? Point is, the guy does his homework and is one of the most prepared interviewers I have ever seen.
Huffington is only where she is because of her ex-husbands money. Without that, she’s just a screeching loon. To accuse Russert of being a tool for the conservatives is absurd to the point of mindlessness. Of course Nikki would side with her, they are all part of the beautiful people crowd living the dream of promoting a dream in which they are all dreaming.
It’s about time BOTH the right wing and left wing fanatics get off our airwaves. They foster hate, confusion and lies. What the American people need is the truth and honest reporting of the facts (think Joe Friday, just the facts, please). We are one people being torn apart by both the left and the right fringes.
Enough is enough.
This is so typical Arianna. She is constantly trashing people and then complains if they won’t go along with her agenda. And Arianna ALWAYS has an agenda. Her web site is becoming a joke because it’s the world according to Arianna which basically means it’s an anti-Clinton/ pro Huffington world. As an avid TV viewer I’m grateful that she’s being denied more time on the air. We’ve heard emough from her. She should take the advice she is so fond of giving when it comes to Hillary Clinton and she, Arianna, should just shut up and go away.
I think I missed the part in the Bill of Rights that guarantees barely known authors who don’t sell books a spot on NBC news programs.
GROW UP–yes, it’s a valid argument here. Somebody insults me in their book, I’m not gonna let ‘em on my show, and I’m gonna use my influence to reduce THEIR influence. Anyone on this board who imagines this is some free speech issue simply does not understand the difference between the public and private spheres. Read the Constitution, okay?
“There’s no “constitutional right” to go on NBC. This isn’t about free speech; she published the book.”
Of course it’s not, but who ever said it was? Certainly not Huffington and I don’t see anyone here making that claim either.
You’re making a strawman argument.
The point is that NEWS organizations shouldn’t base their coverage on petty things like hurt feelings. If everyone else is covering it but NBC, it sure looks like they’re letting bias rule over impartial coverage.
NBC has been struggling for a long time overall, and loss of credibility for their news team certainly isn’t going to help matters.
AH is a blogger < TR is a reporter.
Guess who has the better ad rate?
Guess who is more beholden to their advertisers?
Guess who is going to make more money in the end.
Russert constantly demonstrates limited knowledge of the subjects on which he “grills” his guests. Is is any wonder he ’s a favorite Bush admin patsy, and the right wing monkeys are here to protect what is left of his reputation? Years ago, if it came out in court that the administration had memorialized in writing that they could control the message on a journalist’s show, that journalist would have slunk out of DC in shame. Instead, now everyone pretends that what came out in the Libby trial never happened.
Word is that they couldn’t arrange for a translator.
So much for show hosts getting to decide who is on their show and who is not.
These hosts can’t wipe their own asses if the higher ups disapprove.
Why again do we watch these toadies?
Why again do we vote Democrat or Republican when all the main Presidential candidates have continually voted to fund the war in Iraq? And when Clinton and McCain both voted for the Iraq War resolution?
Oh yeah… people are stupid.
Am I wrong? Go watch the videos on Youtube where they ask the average person which candidate they support, what their favorite policy of the candidate is, and a specific element of that policy.
Watch them stand there dumbfounded with a glazed over look in their eyes.
Democracy will never work because the people have no idea what the voting records are of the candidates that are running.
Russert is, without a doubt, a major tool, but Huffington is using the oldest trick from Michael Moore’s playbook, claiming victimhood and making the story about her, obscuring all content in favor of sales. A pox on both their houses.
Arianna was a right-wing shill not so long ago, and was pathetically looking for a mike when Arnold was running for guv. She is a total fraud.
Russert has a scintilla of integrity, which is more than Stassinopoulos has.
Russert is too involved with his dinner pals Matlin and Carvill to be objective
Why are so many leftists afraid to go on Fox?
It could be that the book just was not very good and that the other networks are putting her on as a swipe to NBC. After all, Huffington is not that bright.
I suppose NBC could make amends by agreeing to a prime-time revival of “Green Acres”.
If Arianna Huffington can’t get on Meet “the Press” to pimp her book, then the terrorist have already won.
Russert is a hapless Republitard with a perpetual grin in his face , even if he is talking about genocide.We need new blood at NBC.
Tim Russert is still honoring the memory of Zsa Zsa Gabor as he refuses to suffer a cheap imitation.
She wouldn’t go on Fox? What a pussy.
She deserves to be blackballed on NBC.
Arianna is useless. Russert may have deficiencies, but they pale in comparison to the extravagant uselessness that comes out of Arianna.
This spat could potentially be as nearly entertaining as the squawl between The Donald and Rosie — two utterly contemptible and irritating snoots firing volleys of noisy, but obviously unloaded blanks at one another.
Even though you must quickly and ruefully conclude that neither one has the intelligence or the instinct to inflict any real or lasting damage on the other, you still are tempted to take odds that one of them will eventually get a wee bit of “the better” of the other, and somehow be declared the winner.”
Meanwhile, it is the mere fact of the fight that is none the less entertaining.
Sadly, my guess would be that Russert will be struck silent out of an irrational fear of her, and will be very reluctant to engage — a possum in the headlights. She should look for some really sensitive subject to needle him about, and drive it hard until he reacts.
“Russert constantly demonstrates limited knowledge of the subjects on which he “grills” his guests. Is is any wonder he ’s a favorite Bush admin patsy, and the right wing monkeys are here to protect what is left of his reputation? Years ago, if it came out in court that the administration had memorialized in writing that they could control the message on a journalist’s show, that journalist would have slunk out of DC in shame. Instead, now everyone pretends that what came out in the Libby trial never happened.
Comment by John Dillinger — April 30, 2008 @ 9:00 am ”
All I can say is…Huh???? Tard
Typical leftards. Name calling (yep, I lowered myself to your substandards by name calling too) and character assisinations. Not much constructive to say, just bash blindly. Again, tards!
Let us not forget that when the administration was rolling out and co-ordinating the so-called “intelligence” on Iraq to the various press outlets, ie the Iraqi National Congress, the New York Times, the retired generals “message force multipliers” etc etc – Dick Cheney’s Sunday talk show of “choice” was Tim Russert’s. In fact, a go-over of many of the most misleading (ie untue) statements the VP has ever made -are actually from Meet the Press. Was that just a coincidence?
Note also the curious “timing” of much of the intelligence – ie the NY Times reports on yellow cake on Friday, then Cheney goes on Meet the Press on Sunday to remind everyone how the New York Times is now reporting on Saddam’s WMD’s. And the beauty of it is it all comes from one source- often times Mr. Chalabi’s dubious Iraqi National Congress. Chalabi tells Cheney about supposed WMD’s, Cheney’s office tells NY Times about said WMD’s, and then Cheney himself makes it look “independent” by announcing it on Meet the Press via the Times. Now that’s one nice circle. Of course, Meet the Press may certainly not be as explicitly guilty as the NY Times, but they are certainly (unintentionally or not) complicit in the propaganda campaign -and were actively sought out to be a major part of that campaign whethere they knew it or not. At best, they are just rubes in the campaign, at worst, contributors to it.
And that is the essence of this notion of “message force multipliers” -if enough “different” sources are reporting it, it must be true!
daveinboca writes: “Arianna was a right-wing shill not so long ago, and was pathetically looking for a mike when Arnold was running for guv. She is a total fraud.”
I beg you pardon, daveinboca! I am a right wing nut and Arianna has never been a simple, wall, rim, winged or any other kind of nut. The best classical entry which illustrates Arianna’s career is Vanity Fair’s Becky Sharp – she is a crass & cynical arrivist. I remember her op-eds in LA Times some years ago, I wasn’t ever, never been able to figure out what her position was on one or other issue – and I still am at loss how she got syndication for her crap.
She’s a total fraud, fiction, her book about Picasso (my! my! Picasso! I’m so impressed!) can be best described as printed matter, her mighty crappy accent (and I DO HAVE AN ACCENT!) does not betray years of studies at Cambridge but a Pireus sly strumpet, her family is not of shipping magnates. Somehow washed upon this country’s shores in the eighties, she married one Michael Huffington, a Colorado zillionaire met at a John-Roger retreat, descended together in LA to buy a Calif. US senatorship, lost the bid and the money (40 mils. plus), then the real Huff went to SF to fulfill his real sexuality, she tried a tragi-comic shot at the Calif. governorship, failed, and we’re stuck here in LA with her crap – she’s often on Santa Monica College radio (K-???) and is steadfastly incompetent, unfunny, repetitive and uniformly using un-attributed quotes from that day’s LA Times, Huffington Post is an operation whose start-up money is still a mystery.
And now to reveal Arianna’s vulnerable side: are charlatans ridiculous megalomaniacs who crave attention & understanding? Yes – see her “Other Arianna Things” in HuffPost.
Tom Hayden, Robert Scheer & Warren Beatty (her side-kicks) cut decent figures when compared with her – and whatever sins Tim Russert has, it is inhuman to put them together in the same sentence.
daveinboca, be a real man – I expect apologies from you for insinuating that Arianna Huffington was/is a right-winger.
Right Is Wrong: How The Lunatic Fringe Hijacked America, Shredded The Constitution, And Made Us All Less Safe
Who takes a title like that seriously? Monkey see, monkey do.
BOO-FREAKIN’-HOO! So NBC doesn’t further lower their ALREADY LOW RATINGS by bringing on a flaky, whiny, extremist Hollywood liberal hypocrite to promote her failure of a book. LIFE SUCKS! GET A HELMET!
Ariana has no credibility, so why should Tim “Mr. Potato-Head” Russert have her on his show, or on NBC for that matter? She’s the pampered, elitist dingbat who preaches that peons like you and I must conserve and sacrafice to save the planet, but she doesn’t think her (or the Hollywood celeb she’s a groupie for) should have to stop flying private jets or riding in limos. LET THEM EAT CAKE, right?
NBC is right to snub Ariana.
Contrary to popular leftist paranoia, the Constitution is alive and well. The difference is that not every extreme view point needs to be given a soapbox (or national air time) to stand on.
Ariana made a choice when she became a far left nut, now she has to live with the consequences.
Tim Russert is a clueless, pandering, bobble-head. Why people such as Russert exert any influence over the media is a sad commentary.
Russert a tool for the Administration? LOL … Russert is a long time Democrat, having worked for both Mario Cuomo and Pat Moynihan. It’s Arianna “Green Acres” Huffnpuff who’s the tool. How can anyone take her seriously?
I can explain why chicken Huffengton didn’t get herself on Fox News. Her far left website is what got her trouble and you can credit Bill O’Reilly for exposing her lack of moderating the site. His producer got smart on her and embarrassed her. That simple. She would have to answer for her left wing posters who have defaimed Clinton and Obama. On some bullentin board such behavior would be expelled and Adriana made the mistake of leaving some of them up. As for NBC which is falling in the ratings, she wouldn’t have gotten an audience. But I would put Adrianna in front of O’Reilly to explain herself.
Right on Arianna.
It’s Russert who leads the way away from any real discussion of actual events, instead being the Uberfoxnews.
Why does noone cry foul that GE has a disqualifying conflict of interest in owning weapons systems manufacturing AND “news”.
Out with the covert illegal military propaganda!
Everyone including Rachel Maddow should strike from GE in the name of Freedom of the Press to be uncorrupted by the Pentagon.
Something else that proves Huffington’s point… You can always count on NBC to have Ann Coulter on every time she has a new book to promote. Chris Matthews even devoted an entire hour to Coulter to help her sell the paperback edition of one of her screeds. Even after her hateful comments about the 9/11 widows Coulter is still a regular at NBC.
Also this week Brian Williams mocked the New York Times and belittled Elizabeth Edwards in a blog post were he suggest Peggy Noonan deserved a Pulitzer for an idiotic editorial in which she idealized Jew-hating Nazi sympathizer Henry Ford. Evidence that the media has been taken over by the lunatic fringe is all over the place.
During the Libby/Plame trial, an FBI agent, under oath, on the stand, exposed Meet The Press as “Cheney’s go-to venue” for disseminating their message.
He should have resigned in disgrace that very day.
I love the smell of angry conservatives in the morning. Of course the anger comes from conservative America’s failure to live up to their professed patriotism as America is in 2 wars and they still refuse to step up. Guess American Idol must be really, really good this year.
Six companies now own everything that you read in Mags., hear on radio and see on television. The FCC wants to allow these six companies to consolidate down to 3 or 4 companies. We must contact our Senators and Congressmen and tell them that the American people will not stand for this. RoyBoy
Intresting blog. I workED for NBC / UNI / GE and left in disgust. BUT the people in NBC NEWS really do the best that they can in gathering and delivering the NEWS. Russert / MTP was one of the best NEWS programs on any network. Did NBC/GE MANAGEMENT blacklist Huffington? From my experince as a union and safety rep, I would not be surprised. I do not believe that Russert was responsible for it. Tim may be gone but long live Meet The Press and his technique for forcing the truth.
They’ll never be another you Tim Russert. Loved your down to earth, easy to understand presentation of the politcal news. Most of all will greatly miss your shared personal life with all us listners. My heartfelt condolences to his family.
Russert is now being canonized, and I wonder if any of the so-called news shows will dare to touch on subjects sucha s this.
I am not a huffington fan but at least she gives some balance to the current love fest for Russert after his death. I have no doubt that he was a nice guy but this biased, no gotcha questions image they are trying to define him with simply is not true. He soft balled bush and cheney. He hard balled Obama with a Farrkhan question designed to hurt him no matter what his answer was. He had curious access to the white house and he is tight with racist Imus and guess what, made no comment about his comments re the Rutgers girls. Russert was not objective and I’m getting sick of this rewriting of history.
Huffington, in her wildest dreams, will never come close to being the person Tim Russert was. He’s greatly missed, while she’ll continue to be a mostly irrelevant political voice among myriad others that make little impact in the world.
Arianna and her fascist staff regularly blackball others. As an example, I have applied three different times for an account at HuffPo and have never been accepted. If you Google the topic, you can see for yourself that they are both censoring and blackballing commentators. So apparently, what was fit for the goose is now fit for the gander. Arianna is a fascist wolf in liberal sheep’s clothing (preferably 100% natural, of course).