By: E&P Staff In an interview in the upcoming Sunday issue of The New York Times Magazine, "Meet the Press" host Tim Russert discusses, among other things, his new book (a collection of letters about fathers) and Tony Snow's appointment as White House press secretary. But his strongest barbs are directed at liberal blogger Arianna Huffington.
Asked if he reads the popular Huffington Post online, which carries a regular critique of "Meet the Press," Russert replied to Deborah Solomon, "I don't. There are so many untruths, it is scary. You know, there's a long history there."
Solomon asked if he is referring to the fact that his wife, Maureen Orth, once wrote a tough profile of Huffington back when she was still a Republican. Russert responded: "I have the unique honor of having been criticized by her from the right and the left. When she was a hard-line conservative, she criticized me, and now she is a lard-line liberal, and she criticizes me."
Asked by E&P for a reply, Huffington said: "This is the same talking point Russert used in a USA Today story about me earlier this week. His bogus claim is as wrong now as it was then. My critique of his work started when I launched Russert Watch in May of 2005 -- not in the long ago days of my Republican interregnum.
"What are the dates, venues, and words I used when I 'criticized' him all those years ago? If they don't exist (and they don't) will he offer a retraction? Or is it okay for the Washington Bureau chief of NBC News to just make things up out of whole cloth?"
Elsewhere in his Times interview, Russert was asked if the White House, with ex-Fox News employee Tony Snow now running the press end, will give favorable treatment to Fox. "I don't think so," he replied. "No more than they got so far."
He also disclosed that he goes to church every week at 4 p.m. on Saturday and prays "that I will ask the right questions" on NBC the following morning.
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