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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.”
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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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?