Meet the Press

It will never be the same without Tim Russert - the best news show host, ever.

Over the years this TV news program has became a must watch for millions on Sundays almost like a ritual, "Meet the Press" remains one of the best and most updated and informative news programs in the business! Always the one hour program is done in a debate style type which both guests discuss the same issues. The issues discussed are the most up to date like the Iraq war, terrorism, the economy, justice and court issues, immigration, and political elections. And the viewer gets to hear from both sides of the spectrum as views from the democrats and republicans are both represented. Many times a panel of journalists from top magazines and newspapers around the country join to give their thought and opinions. I must say the program is hosted beautifully by Time Russert who's a veteran of news and politics who always asks the politicians the tough questions, he's so straight forward and does his job with eagerness, and determination and seems happy and Tim is just a great interviewer. Overall this program always stays on top and up to date every week of the most hot button issues and political topics and it asks the tough questions and the opinions giving are good with interviews done from a good host. So if it's Sunday and it's NBC then make it an American ritual like millions and watch "Meet the Press"

Tim Russert is a great host for "Meet the Press". He has never made any real bones about having been raised in a working-class union Catholic household in Buffalo, or acted as if this has in no way shaped his thinking. This background does not, however, prevent him from asking real, probing questions of his guests, Democrats and Republicans alike. He is less objective about his beloved Bills than he is about politics, but he is at his very best when he asks people their stance in light of their own past comments which he has at his disposal on videotape. Russert, contrary to some of the other opinions posted here, has in my opinion been far less of a Democratic partisan than his MSNBC counterpart, Chris Matthews.

Meet the Press is a must-see for anyone concerned with current events, if for no other reason than that it's a must-show for the participants in those events. It's a show with a clear liberal bias, but compared to most of today's news programs I would call it pretty even-handed.

Russert is a skilled interviewer, able to pose a question and then shut his mouth for however long it takes the guest to respond fully, but he has a tendency to become overexcited about his hypothetical constructs, as in "If you knew then what you know now, would you still do what you did?" It's hard to imagine any sane, self-respecting person trying to answer a question like that, but somehow they all take a stab at it. (In fairness to the guests, Russert is so over-enthusiastic with these that he rarely takes "I really don't know," as an answer to such questions.

In my opinion the greatest strength of the show is the way it confronts guests with their own press and allows them to respond to it. Russert is well-known for describing a video clip of the guest that's about to be played, and then saying briskly "Let's watch!"

This show went south with C Todd as an awful, inept replacement for Tim Russert. Used to be a Sunday ritual my Dad and I watched and when I moved out we would still compare notes. Now? It's ratings reflect what it's worth: nobody's time.