As one speaker after another ascended the podium to deliver his praise for Russert at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts,it occurred to me that this display by well known figures in Russert’s own profession should be seen as an audition for potential replacements for his chair which was very lucrative for Russert himself.That such an audition would involve two qualities that the chief recruiters at NBC would require is also beyond question:servility and being a reliable articulator of the point of view of the ruling class.
To understand this, one needs to go back to Russert’s own personal history. He started out as an intern for Senator Moynihan of New York, another unabashed basher of the people who do not have any power in our society.He was the one who coined the term “benign neglect” to consign the needs of black people to the trash bin.Having imbibed that poison during his internship,Russert set about redirecting his energies to the art of becoming wealthy which he discovered was better than being idealistic.His statement “idealism is for paupers” says it all.
His search for means of getting wealthy led him to Neutron Jack Welch, the powerful Chairman of GE,the ultimate money making machine in American life.In a barren life that viewed the bottom line as the be all and end all of existence, Neutron Jack has bullozed all things good about life by his relentless drive to optimize profits.After his retirement from GE, Neutron Jack discovered his inner sex drive,promptly divorced his long suffering wife and went straight into the arms of a student,30 years his junior, who interviewed him for a Harvard Business Review article.That article,of course, elevated him to near mythical status among American business icons.
Like many other manufactured personae in American life that too is a lie.GE’s business model, such as it is, is based on total aversion to risk and creation of monopoly status in a spectrum of industries.The risk aversion produced the GE Aircfat Engine Business which depends on huge defense related contracts year after year cranking out predictable profits year after year.These profits are plowed into subsidiaries like NBC which too has become hugely profitable because many companies which supply parts and services to GE Aircraft Engines become advertisers on NBC.Then,of course,there is GE Capital which is bigger than most of the banks existing worldwide and is now reeling from the crisis in capitalism.So, this is the man to whom Russert turned to as he sought riches for himself.
His efforts were rewarded when Neutron Jack sat him on the throne of Meet the Press from where Russert launched his shabby attacks on anyone who attacked the Establishment which meant anyone who said anything that Neutron Jack disapproved of.In doing so, Russert stood the old maxim “afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted” on its head.That endeared him to Neutron Jack even more and he became an icon of every wannabe in the broadcast world.That,of course, included the ever more bland Brian Williams,and an army of Brian Willaims clones.
Those clones were,in essence, auditioning for the part of Moderator of Meet the Press which would open a window to the world of the Powerful by making it possible for the person to learn exactly what the Powerful think.The job essentially involves slipping these ideas into current political narratives without showing that you have been coached.
Through their orgiastic display of affection for a man who articulated his own shameless vision of how he perceived his function,these wannabes signaled to the recruiters that they would be just as servile as Mr.Russert was.
That,they perceived this to be the most important qualification, tells us all we need to know.