Glenn's knockdown of Mr. King is a less than gentle (but oh so very necessary!) reminder that time--his, ours, the country's?--is of the essence when gauging the meddle of a candidate's qualifications. Having access to a candidate on the level and to the degree that he does makes his role even more important. Let the questions fly, Mr. King, about the efficacy of the Constitution, about the short-term and long-term implications of America's (disastrous) presence in the Middle East, about how Mr. McCain would have handled the bungling misrepresentation re: the US Navy's encounter in the Strait of Hormuz, about the effect of the sub-prime fiasco.

I don't much care about dangling your journalistic bona fides as (somehow) proof of your intellectual or experiential worth. And it doesn't have to be confrontational...just ask the questions in a respectful and dignified manner, and then get out of the way. We will all watch and listen, and judge for ourselves if the candidate is worthy of our vote.

The rest is drivel, and you know it, Mr. King. Grow up.

I thought his job was to be beautiful. He seems to have confused himself with a journalist.

The more accurate your criticism is of today's journalists the more they rage. If John King sees himself as a professional, serious, experienced journalist, how does he justify that interview?

Its good to see these people who represent today's MSM being called out by name when they act like amatures, as Joe Klein did recently when he obviously took a story on FISA from a Republican and ran with it without checking it for accuracy.

Bob Somerby at The Daily Howler does a good job excposing these people.

JohnW1141

"Do you still feel that attacks on the President's, or another candidate's, child are appropriate and humorous? Isn't your own history littered with examples of precisely the type of viciously partisan incivility you now claim to deplore?"

Now that's a question I'd really like to hear asked and answered by McCain....

If Russert did ask that question McCain would repond thusly:

McCain:

"We need to rise above such things and we all need to recognize the partisanship in this town can get out of hand. And I have been on the forefront of leading bi-partisan efforts on a number of fronts. So I think that the road ahead is clear and work needs to be and is being done."

Russert:

So bi-partisanship is needed?

McCain: Yes. Absolutley

Russert: Ok, I would like to switch gears with you and ask about your image. Some say your image can be too manly- to masculine- too strong- and that this is turning off the female vote to some extent (though many women find these attributes about you extremely appealing). Is there something you can do to show the softer side of John McCain? The sensitive side? Not so much the strong manly father side that you simply exude all the time?

GG, your thrashing of the real heart of the problems - the Big Media propagandizing for the cult of republicanism and trashing of democrats and progressivism - is heartening. Please do continue to ravage the scoundrels of John King's ilk that are so very, very responsible for the devastating disaster that the America has become with their sycophantasy promotion of all things republican.

GG, you could have left out the noxious picture of the punk.

John King? Who's that? Don't recognize the name, don't recall ever seeing him in TV - but then I quit watching TV news a long time ago (except for weather). TV news is crap. All reporters are crap. What they say, do, "think", is crap. They are sock puppets that merely spout their personal opinions and fill their every fart with their own personal preferences. That, and they read whatever talking point is put before them. Why watch that nonsense?

Hell, I wouldn't know who this clown is if it weren't for Greenwald calling him to task. This King guy...he's no one and of no importance. He's a tool and nothing more.

The editors use a peephole to watch to see if 'staff' washes the whole hands front and back, and wipes after toilet visits.

If only 2% of the little pinkie gets wiped and blow dried at the latrine, there is a concern of feces on the CNN's keyboard. Ask the Center For Disease Control? It also says in the "journalist" black-bible that that is too gross.

It's worst than a holy-no-cow-flop on a fax-machine?

It's a non-Sanitary, unGodly, Bowl of Macaroni.

Ya's may go to hell for that? Ask a Greek theologian or the Jewish historians in the second century? I forgot his name? Josephus? Wow. It's written smearier. I'm not cussing or telling a fib. Honest.

Poor Jesus (Greek geek) said "you scribes, pharisees, and lawyers swallow a gnat bug, and dig a kernal of yellow corn outta a pile of camel dung." gads. It's a same-same era revisited.

Be careful. Remember what happened to that young 33-year old long-haired gentleman? He got a nailed-kilt on a tree.

P.S. Thus said the black-book they do read and espouse.

If Russert should ever happen to read what Chris Dowd wrote below, it will make Russert's head hum like a ten-penny finishing nail hit with a greasy ball-peen hammer:

"Russert: So bi-partisanship is needed?

"McCain: Yes. Absolutley.

"Russert: Ok, I would like to switch gears with you and ask about your image. Some say your image can be too manly- to masculine- too strong- and that this is turning off the female vote to some extent (though many women find these attributes about you extremely appealing). Is there something you can do to show the softer side of John McCain? The sensitive side? Not so much the strong manly father side that you simply exude all the time?"

Oh, Timmeh, what else need be said?

Thanks, Chris.

KR

I love it when people answer criticism with "I've been in the business for twenty odd years..." I always explain that the statement is not a proper argument in proving or disproving anything and ask for a reasoned, logical argument instead. I rarely get one and I doubt King could have given one in this instance.

Twenty years experience of being a media whore really only gives you twenty years of experience doing one thing. It looks like John C. King did that one thing to John McCain with a lot of energy and enthusiasm!

Finally, a critic has no responsibility to reach out and ask for a perspective from who they are criticizing. Movie critics do not. Music critics do not. TV critics do not. Book critics do not. Critics take a published/produced work and make all judgments from what is there- what is being offered to the public. That is what Glenn Greenwald did to King's McCain interview. It was a finished work that aired on television. Nothing else should be required. No perspective or side was offered to the viewers so it shouldn't be included by the critic. Greenwald was under no obligation to "reach out."

If King or CNN felt they needed to include a perspective or "side" to their report to defend it, the report was never worthy of being aired.