THE HOUSES OF NANTUCKET COUNTY: Russert on board!

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2014

Part 2—A curious tilt under Welch:
Everyone talks about Rupert Murdoch. No one discusses Jack Welch.

On its face, this differential treatment might seem a bit hard to explain.

For all previous reports in this award-winning series, click here.

Murdoch and Welch are both enormously wealthy people with well-known political outlooks. Each man has run one or more major American news org—Welch during the Reagan/Bush and Clinton/Gore years, Murdoch to this very day.

Murdoch invented the Fox News Channel, which is routinely said to operate in its owner’s political image. It’s rarely asked if NBC News ever adjusted its political coverage to reflect the perspective of Welch, its long-term owner.

Did anything like that ever occur? As we ponder The Houses of Nantucket County, we would guess that it did.

Here’s the basic background:

In 1986, Welch, the chairman of General Electric, became corporate owner of NBC. That same year, Welch named his friend and subordinate, Bob Wright, president and CEO of NBC.

NBC includes NBC News. No one has ever disputed the fact that Welch was a hands-on owner of NBC, especially in the arena of costs.

Here’s something else that’s hard to dispute. For whatever reason, that network’s news division produced some truly horrendous “journalism” during Welch’s tenure, especially in the later Clinton/Gore years.

Welch retired from GE in 2001. The “journalism” to which we refer almost surely tracked his political views.

NBC News did some horrible work under its hard-right owner. But how odd! To this day, we’ve rarely seen a word of speculation or comment about the possible role of Welch’s politics in that astoundingly bad journalistic performance.

Indeed, it’s rare to see that astounding performance discussed in any way at all. The gong-shows of Fox get discussed all the time. The gong-shows of NBC in the Jack Welch era have disappeared beneath the swells surrounding Nantucket County.

As our award-winning series continues, we’ll ask you to consider the strangely differential approach to the tenures of Murdoch and Welch. For today, let’s consider the way the late Tim Russert rose within NBC News.

For starters, let us say this: Welch is often described as a genial, likeable person. As far as we know, those descriptions are perfectly accurate.

Welch was also known as “Neutron Jack” for the way he would shed employees as a corporate manager. We aren’t going to tell you that he was wrong to do so.

Instead, we’re going to look at the news division built under Welch. We’re going to look at the puzzling “journalism” eventually practiced by that news division.

Our story starts in 1984, when Russert was hired by NBC News. In his self-glorying book, Big Russ & Me, Russert explained what occurred when GE and Welch took over:
RUSSERT (page 303): In 1986, I experienced what millions of American workers went through during that decade: the company I worked for was taken over, and some people lost their jobs. In our case, the world’s oldest television network (NBC) was taken over by one of the world’s largest corporations (General Electric). Two years later, Larry Grossman was ousted as president of the news division, and a new executive. Michael Gartner, was brought in. As Larry’s right-hand man, I expected that I, too, would be let go, and that I would finally get a chance to dust off my law degree.

But Jack Welch, G.E.’s chairman, came to my office with a different idea.
“You’re thirty-eight years old,” he said, “and you have a bright future here. You’d be a good person to head our news division, but first you’ll need to demonstrate that you can run something. We know you’re a good deputy, but are you also a good manager? Let’s find out. What would you like to run?”

This was all a bit sudden. “I haven’t thought about it,” I said, “but I’m comfortable with news.”

“Well then, what’s the most important news bureau?” he asked

“Washington.”
From there, the humble young Russert was off to D.C. In fairly short order, he was hosting Meet the Press.

Depending on what you want in a newsman, there was certainly nothing wrong with Welch’s assessment of talent. During the years when Welch ran GE, Russert became the most important and influential broadcaster in the nation.

In certain ways, he also became a bit of a partisan player, although his remarkable stature within the guild stifled almost all criticism.

Russert became a robotic advocate of Social Security reform, a position he relentlessly advocated with a tightly scripted assortment of misleading and erroneous talking-points. At the time, this was the favorite political crusade of the plutocrat community.

He became a bit of an attack dog with respect to President Clinton and Senate and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

In last year’s book, This Town, Mark Leibovich said Russert “despised” both Clintons, a point he fleshed out in some detail. This claim will rarely be discussed in D.C., however obvious or significant it might seem.

A person might imagine that Russert’s animus extended to other Democratic candidates. During Campaign 2000, for example, he hosted Candidate Bush on Meet the Press in November 1999. Candidate Gore took his turn in July 2000.

It would be extremely hard to miss the differential treatment Russert dished to these hopefuls. As we’ve described in the past, his hour with Candidate Bush resembled a soapy sponge bath.

When he spent his hour with Candidate Gore, a different Russert appeared. Within the press corps, he was widely praised for the “prosecutorial” approach he took toward Gore.

Time’s Margaret Carlson was most effusive in voicing this widely-expressed group judgment. “Russert chopped him up in little pieces,” she said on the Imus radio program. “Russert was a prosecutor,” she told her admittedly brilliant host. “Russert was like a prosecutor, and he did a very good job.”

On a journalistic basis, we'd say that Russert’s performance with Candidate Gore was extremely poor. But it didn’t begin to resemble the love fest he staged with Candidate Bush.

Did this behavior, in any way, reflect a desire to please Boss Welch? We know of no way to answer that question. But in 2003, Sallie Brady described the cocooning among the NBC crowd in The Houses of Nantucket County.

We posted this passage in our last report. It’s worth a second look:
BRADY (8/03): In summer, Nantucket is a remarkable re-creation of Washington politics, fundraisers, and restaurant life, confined to a 3.5-by-14-mile resort island.

Tim Russert remembers the first time he visited. It “was in 1972. I had graduated from college,” Russert recalled in a Nantucket Magazine profile. “About 20 of us drove up, and we all jumped on the [Steamship Authority ferry]...and as soon as I stepped off I said, 'This is something special.’”

Russert is part of the Nantucket NBC crowd, one of the cliques that fuels the isle’s social engine. It was Jack Welch, the story goes, the 20-year chairman and CEO of NBC's parent company, General Electric, who drew network folk to Nantucket.

Russert and his wife, Vanity Fair writer Maureen Orth, began summering on Nantucket in 1992. Russert has said he can go days without leaving his house except for a bike ride to get the newspapers. Then he'll sit in his rocking chair and watch the grass blow in the breeze.

Russert does make it back for Meet the Press, the show that made him and that helped finance the Nantucket hideaway he acquired in 1999. The sprawling gray-shingled house, with rooftop sundeck and cutting garden, lies down an unmarked dirt path through a secluded forest. Hanging over the portico, a wooden sign bearing the cottage's name says it all: SUNDAY MORNING.

Russert’s boss, NBC CEO Bob Wright, is also on the scene. Add to the cocktail chatter the latest tidbits from the Oval Office, care of White House correspondent David Gregory, who was married on Nantucket and returns with his wife, Beth, for vacations...

Although Welch retired in 2001, he's still a power magnet. He holds court from a massive gray-shingled home festooned with window boxes, near Sankaty Head Golf Club. It was there that Welch once played Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, only to discover that two of the richest men in the world routinely bet only $1 a round.
Welch was no longer in charge by 2003. Wright was still “Russert’s boss.”

In June 2008, the Cape Cod Times reported that Russert’s Nantucket home was valued at $7.2 million. In This Town, Leibovich described the tongue-in-cheek sign which sat outside:

“The House That Jack Built”

In 2004, another member of the NBC crowd found his way into The Houses of Nantucket County. Chris Matthews, long-time political king of NBC’s cable news arm, purchased a summer home on the isle for $4.35 million.

Russert and Matthews both became wealthy under Welch. While much of Russert’s coverage had been quite poor, it was Matthews who produced two years of coverage during Campaign 2000 which was flat-out crazy.

Starting in March 1999, Matthews spent twenty months trashing Candidate Gore in every imaginable way, and in a few others besides. He trashed Senate Candidate Clinton in memorable, ugly ways.

According to standard reports, Matthews’ salary rose from $1.1 million to $5 million as he produced this relentless, horrendous coverage. We’ve never seen anyone in the “press corps” explore any part of this package.

Today, Matthews is one of the press corps’ most slavish admirers of Hillary Clinton. Obviously, this new approach has kept Matthews in line with his channel’s current orientation.

Back then, his coverage of Candidate Clinton was pure poison—and his coverage of Candidate Gore was marked by several rather peculiar flip-flops.

Was Matthews producing this ludicrous work to please the corporate boss who was making him rich? Given the way Rupert Murdoch is covered, it’s amazing that no one has ever asked this blindingly obvious question.

Even more startling is the fact that Matthews’ astounding journalism during this era has never produced a word of discussion. To this day, his absurd journalistic behavior has gone completely undiscussed within the mainstream press. This represents an astounding indictment of the deeply obedient hustlers who constitute our national “press corps.”

The code of silence surrounding our “press corps” is extremely strong. In Part 3 of this award-winning series, we’ll start to explore the ludicrous work which seemed to give Matthews the keys to The Houses of Nantucket County.

Is it just our imagination? Or did Matthews’ astounding behavior gain him the scratch which allowed him to purchase the second “House That Jack Built?”

Also coming: The humor of NBC County

15 comments:

  1. Wasn't Welch mocked a little bit, if obliquely, in 30 Rock?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sounds to us like Welch exhibited the same favoritism toward Russert as Bisciotti did toward Ray Rice. Plutocrats do that.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anyone else remember when David Letterman on his old show went over the GE headquarters to meet and greet the new owners? And got "the GE handshake"? It was amazingly abusive how badly L was treated.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I do recall that, the GE honcho repeatedly extended his hand then pulled it back. He looked crooked to me.

    ReplyDelete
  5. "Did this behavior, in any way, reflect a desire to please Boss Welch? We know of no way to answer that question."

    But that doesn't stop you from engaging in innuendo.

    "Is it just our imagination? Or did Matthews’ astounding behavior gain him the scratch which allowed him to purchase the second 'House That Jack Built?'”

    Is it just my imagination or is all this just innuendo?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "We know of no way to answer that question."

      Yep. After several installments, hiccups, and delays with Bob pimping this brilliant "House" series for quite some time, this is what you get.

      Chris Matthews behaved badly. Chris Matthews makes a lot of money. Connection? We don't know.

      This is now the ninth comment total for the two posts Somerby wrote on Wednesday. Has the world tuned out? We know of no no way to answer that question.

      Delete
    2. I stand corrected. Bob wrote three posts on Wednesday, drawing a total of 15 responses including this one.

      Delete
    3. There's not a lot of participation in the threads at the Daily Howler because one troll, compulsively driven by either an animus for Somerby or a worrisome level of affection for Rachel Maddow, is allowed to wreck nearly every one of them at this site. The Howler was posted for years at a different web address where it never had a comment thread, likely because Somerby didn't think moderating it would be worth the trouble of getting the feedback it might offer.

      For sure we do know, now that Somerby has switched to using Blogspot, he can't be bothered to set up a system that would, at a minimum, exclude said troll. Maybe Somerby feels sorry for the kook or worried about the kook's neighbors and so Somerby let's this one troll use these threads daily to act out here in what is, after all, a harmless to life and limb way. More likely, Somerby doesn't pay enough attention to these threads to even be aware of how this guy is carrying on or, for that matter, of the spam entries which, though less incessant, are another nuisance here.

      Delete
    4. All blogs have their trolls. A blog whose combox participation can be wrecked by just one is not a very strong or well read blog.

      Delete
    5. I, for one, am still interested in what is written. I think it's great.

      Delete
  6. Counting comments as a way to evaluate content seems a little dumb, even desperate.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Ahhhhhhhh, my old boss neutron jack. He was a mean nasty son of a B. How else do you think one becomes the top dog of an American corporation.

    ReplyDelete



  8. !!! How Dr.great Restore My Broken Marriage And Bring Back My Lover !!!


    My name is Janise Gayle am from Canada,i am here to give testimony of how i got back my husband, we got married for more than 9 years and have gotten two kids. thing were going well with us and we are always happy. until one day my husband started to behave in a way i could not understand, i was very confused by the way he treat me and the kids. later that month he did not come home again and he called me that he want a divorce, i asked him what have i done wrong to deserve this from him, all he was saying is that he want a divorce that he hate me and do not want to see me again in his life, i was mad and also frustrated do not know what to do,i was sick for more than 2 weeks because of the divorce. i love him so much he was everything to me without him my life is incomplete. i told my sister and she told me to contact a spell caster, i never believe in all this spell casting of a thing. i just want to try if something will come out of it. i contacted jato for the return of my husband to me, he told me that my husband have been taken by another woman, that she cast a spell on him that is why he hate me and also want us to divorce. then he told me that they have to cast a spell on him that will make him return to me and the kids, they casted the spell and after 1 week my husband called me and he told me that i should forgive him, he started to apologize on phone and said that he still love me that he did not know what happen to him that he left me. it was the spell that he jato casted on him that make him come back to me today,me and my family are now happy again today. thank you jato for what you have done for me i would have been nothing today if not for your great spell. i want you my friends who are passing through all this kind of love problem of getting back their husband, wife , or ex boyfriend and girlfriend to contact him email: greatpowerspelltemple@gmail.com also contact him on his web site: http://greatpowerspelltemple@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  9. My Name is Paul. I will love to share my testimony to all the people in the forum cos i never thought i will have my girlfriend back and she means so much to me..The girl i want to get marry to left me 4 weeks to our wedding for another man..,When i called her she never picked my calls,She deleted me on her facebook and she changed her facebook status from engage to Single…when i went to her place of work she told her boss she never want to see me..I lost my job as a result of this cos i cant get myself anymore,my life was upside down and everything did not go smooth with my life…I tried all i could do to have her back to all did not work out until i met a Man when i Travel to Africa to execute some business have been developing some years back..I told him my problem and all have passed through in getting her back and how i lost my job…he told me he gonna help me…i don’t believe that in the first place.but he swore he will help me out and he told me the reason why my girlfriend left me and also told me some hidden secrets.i was amazed when i heard that from him..he said he will cast a spell for me and i will see the results in the next couple of days..then i travel back to Germany the following day and i called him when i got home and he said he’s busy casting those spells and he has bought all the materials needed for the spells,he said am gonna see positive results in the next 2 days that is Thursday.My girlfriend called me at exactly 12:35pm on Thursday and apologies for all she had done ..she said,she never knew what she’s doing and her sudden behavior was not intentional and she promised not to do that again.it was like am dreaming when i heard that from her and when we ended the call,i called the man and told him my my girl friend called and he said i haven’t seen anything yet… he said i will also get my job back in 3 days time..and when its Sunday,they called me at my place of work that i should resume work on Monday and they gonna compensate me for the time limit i have spent at home without working..My life is back into shape,i have my girlfriend back and we are happily married now with a baby boy and i have my job back too.This man is really powerful..if we have up to 20 people like him in the world,the world would have been a better place..he has also helped many of my friends to solve many problems and they are all happy now..Am posting this to the forum for anybody that is interested in meeting the man for help.you can mail him to priest_gbenga.magic_temple@priest.com, I cant give out his number cos he told me he don’t want to be disturbed by many people across the world..he said his email is okay. You can also visit him on his website www.priestgbengamagicpalace.webs.com
    PAUL MULLER

    ReplyDelete