Bye Big Tim

Like every one else I was shocked when I heard that Tim Russert had passed away Friday. Really there aren't any journalist like him. My roommate Abinadi summed it up best when I asked him, after watching one of the democratic debates, who he thought had won. "Tim Russert" he replied, which I think was typically the case of any debate were he was the mediator.
Now had you asked me last week who my favorite journalist was, I would have said "John Stossel" without a moments hesitation. I grew up watching stossel on 20/20...It came on right after TGIF. His bits were always the highlight of the show (takes a lot to compete with Urkel and boy meets world). When I read his book Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity I told all of my friends about it. I loved it. But, when it comes down to it I have to admit Stossel really can't hold a candle to Russert. Now Stossel has found frauds and crooksters all over the country (typically the crook ends up being uncle Sam). But, when it comes to being an unbiased interviewer he is no Russert, he proved that last year when he interviewed Ron Paul. Stossel's interview actually wasn't aired on TV. Although you could find it posted all over the internet by angry Ron Paul supporters, using it as proof that the "main stream media" wanted to keep Ron Paul out of the race. At first I thought the interview was great, but the more I watched the more painful it became. It was like watching a father pitch baseballs to his son who he is afraid won't be able to hit...he starts off throwing slow underhand pitches, and if he can't hit those out of the park he just holds the ball and lets his son hit it right out of his hand. It became almost sickening to see Stossel try to come up with easier and easier questions for Paul to knock out of the park.
When Ron Paul went on Meet the Press, Tee-ball was over, this was the big league. Russert threw everything he had at him. It was by far the hardest interview I saw with Ron Paul. Tim knew all of the facts, he knew all of the hard questions, and unlike so many other "tough" interviewers he gave Ron a chance to answer his questions. I found out a lot about Ron Paul in Russert's interview, it became clear that he is no where near perfect, and showed where the holes in his campaign. Where as after watching Stossel's interview I felt as though I had been watching a 30 minute TV ad.
So for all the people who don't just say what they want you to hear, but work hard just to get at the truth...we will miss you Tim.