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My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.

2006-02-16

Why Brit Hume?

Howard Kurtz seems to have the answer:

Hume, who has known Cheney since he was a House member from Wyoming, said he believes the vice president chose Fox because it is the top-rated cable network, and picked him because he hosts the only Washington-oriented hour on Fox's schedule. . . .

Emily Rooney, a talk show host for Boston's WGBH-TV who worked with Hume at ABC News, praised Hume's intuitive grasp of politics.

Hume has "never hidden" his conservative leanings, she said, and Cheney "chose Brit Hume for a reason -- because he's always given a fair hearing to the Republican Party, which not every journalist did along the way."

I found this hilarious when I first heard about it this afternoon. Hilarious. . .and fairly obvious. Clearly, if he had any intent of getting a full and fair hearing, he would have to avoid the Press gaggle, and the only newsman out there more interested in answers than in the sound of their own voice is Hume. Plus, choosing Fox is one more way to thumb his nose at the legacy media--always a plus-while still getting the story out there in a reasonable and difficult way.

As to the content itself, I don't think it really added very much to our understanding of the story to this point. Its chief accomplishment, I think, was to get it done. Okay, one beer at lunch, and a perfectly legit reason for delaying the release of the story, and that's about it. Sure, some may not like the reason for the delay, or the decision not to release it to the media in general quickly. But the desire to get it out through a credible source to an outlet that would have a decent understanding of the story passes muster for me.

But then, I was inclined that way, anyway. It probably won't do much for the press or the Bush-haters in the room. . . .because they're inclined that way, anyway.

At least we can get this off the front page now.
Posted by: Michael / 2/16/2006 12:03:00 AM

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