Russert cozy with Cheney on ‘Meet the Press?’

Quick out of the gate with a seldom-heard discouraging word (or two) about the late NBC newsman Tim Russert was local media critic Brian Lambert, who posted an obit/crit within four hours of Russert’s June 13 death. The word: coziness, as applied to Russert’s "Meet the Press" repartee with frequent guest Vice President Dick Cheney.

Sometimes lasting the show’s full hour, the Russert-Cheney dialogues repeatedly returned to Iraq, 9/11 and purported links between them, drawing attention and criticism along the way (including barbs from U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken during a 2006 MSNBC interview with Russert). U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) entered transcripts of four of the shows as supporting documents for the articles of impeachment he introduced April 24 against Cheney.

Here are links for Cheney’s visits as vice president to Russert’s "Meet the Press" set, plus one show five days after 9/11 at Camp David.

Meet the Press, Sept. 10, 2006: transcript, critique, video clip

Meet the Press, Sept. 14, 2003: transcript, critique, video clip

Meet the Press, March 16, 2003: transcript, critique

Meet the Press, Sept. 8, 2002: transcript, critique

Meet the Press, March 24, 2002: transcript, critique

Meet the Press, Dec. 9, 2001: transcript, critique, video clip

Meet the Press, Sept. 16, 2001: transcript, critique, video clip