Tim Russert is being eulogized today as having been fair and objective and all things wonderful. The underlying truth behind this is not that Russert is a saint for having done his job. Objectivity is Journalism 101, but that we now have this multi-billion dollar industry called opinion journalism.
Russert's real impact was not that he was a good person or a fair journalist, both of which he undoubtedly was. His real impact on current history was that he was not objective enough.
On October 30, 2007, he asked Clinton the question that, in one instant, stripped her of her credibility, even her appearance of integrity: he asked her a direct question on driver's licenses for illegal aliens, which she was unable to answer. That was the time when Clinton was getting all the difficult questions first while Obama received SNL's pillows. For many months after that, he was one of MSNBC's main cheerleaders for Obama. In early May, he went one step further and declared that Clinton was done.
This is not to take anything away from the fact that Obama was clearly the better campaigner than Clinton. (If you click on the pillow URL above, you will see how she made her complaint and then promptly shot herself in the foot by saying that she had criticized NAFTA "from the very beginning".) This is also not to take away anything from the fact that the longer this race continues, the worse McCain looks, at least as of this writing.
The point is that if Russert and other journalists were not so subjective, perhaps the American people would have more of an opportunity to choose their own leaders. In this day of the Internet, we certainly have the potential to approach the ideal of direct democracy.
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