Arianna Insists Her Dislike of Tim Russert Was Nothing Personal
Portfolio media reporter Jeff Bercovici cornered blogstress Arianna Huffington at a party and interviewed her. He asked, awkwardly, about Tim Russert. As you may recall, Arianna did not like the deceased newsman. She devoted a great deal of time and energy to criticizing his interview style, guests, questions, and status. To be fair, her points were often cogent and correct! But the other thing is that Tim's wife Maureen Orth wrote a terribly nasty story about Arianna back in the '90s and also called her then-husband gay (he was, and is). Then Arianna was accused of hiring a private investigator to tail Maureen and Tim. Which she denies. Still, she says, Russert Watch was nothing personal.
Absolutely not. I had no personal feelings towards him as I have no personal feelings towards Bob Woodward. I have a whole section in my book describing Bob Woodward as the dumb blonde of American journalism. You could say there was something personal but I've barely met him, and I met Tim Russert once.
Yeah all well and good but what do personal meetings have to do with anything? No one in Woodward's family ever wrote a thirteen-page hit piece about Arianna! We have only met Keith Gessen once and Jakob Lodwick never but we'd have to say that yes, our criticisms are personal.
She goes on to recommend Keith Olbermann for the Meet the Press job, which is kinda funny, because he's a big blowhard who doesn't stand a chance at getting the gig. But he is actually a pretty good interviewer.