No one, I'm sure, is jealous of the monstrous task that awaits Steve Capus.
The NBC news president must decide in the coming weeks and months ahead who will replace Tim Russert, The Meet the Press host, who died of a heart attack last Friday, at age 58.
In the meantime, Russert�s colleague, friend, and partner during the presidential debates, NBC Nightly News host Brian Williams will fill in this Sunday, when his guests will include Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del, and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
Finding a permanent replacement for Russert, an immensely skilled and popular host since coming to the NBC studio in 1991 will be a tall order. The network will need to find someone who is more than just seasoned and adept in front of the camera, but more importantly, able to drive ratings the way Russert did. The Associated Press reported that Meet the Press earned $60 million in revenue. And with five months of hard-hitting presidential campaigning before Election Day, the burden falls on Capus�s shoulders to find a compelling host able to engage candidates and policy officials on hot-button issues the way Russert did with the same combativeness and panache
Permanent replacements, widely reported, include: Andrea Mitchell, David Gregory, both NBC news reporters, Hardball Host, Chris Matthews, and Keith Olbermann, host of MSNBC�s Countdown. While temporary duties might fall to Williams and Tom Brokaw, according to news reports. And in the long-term, the Meet the Press format might be the exit strategy Katie Couric has been looking for to gracefully bow out of nightly news duties, given her disappointing ratings since moving over to CBS from the Today Show.
All of these are respected and experienced journalists, but none of whom I would hand the baton to.
The Meet the Press replacement must be someone who has more than just star-power and earned his or her stripes working their beats. They need someone who has the same passion for politics that Russert exhibited with so much poise.
I don�t know what Phil Donahue has been up to since getting axed from MSNBC in 2003, but the former talk show host still has a lot to offer; and though he might rankle conservatives pounding the liberal drum, the one-on-one desk combat is an environment he�s comfortable with; and if nothing else, viewers would be watching an engaging dialogue no matter who his guest is. Remember, Donahue gave serious consideration to running for a U.S. Senate seat a number of years ago, so his passion for politics is legendary.
But I think the best formula for NBC might be to look for someone with a fresh news perspective that would give the show a character all their own. And the best way to achieve this is by convincing a political operative, like Russert was to Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Gov. Mario Cuomo, to don a new hat and display their journalistic skills.
Besides Russert, other political operatives, who made successful transitions to television news, include: Bill Moyers, President Lyndon Johnson�s press secretary, and most recently, George Stephanopoulos, President Clinton�s communications director and now host of This Week with George Stephanopoulos, which is putting up solid numbers for ABC. In fact, This Week outperformed CBS' 'Face the Nation' (for adults 25-54) for the first time in eight years for the month of May, according to Nielsen Media Research.
The challenge for NBC is to find someone in between James Carville (too liberal) and Dick Morris (too conservative) that wouldn�t turn off viewers as being too politically slanted.
Personally, I would find Meet the Press fascinating if I saw Ari Fleischer, former George W. Bush's Press Secretary, Dee Dee Myers, the former White House Press Secretary to President Bill Clinton, or even John Edwards, the former senator from North Carolina, moving into news journalism. All of these candidates will bring keen insight into the workings of government; and best of all, much like the late Russert and now Stephanopoulos, is able to do so well is stop a public official in their tracks when they wander into a jargon-filled stump speech, when candor and clarity are in order.
John Edwards never impressed me more than he did during the Democratic debate in North Carolina, when he challenged Sen. Barack Obama to explain why he didn�t vote ``up or down�� on 100 votes while serving in the Illinois legislature; and then during the same debate, challenging Sen. Hillary Clinton equally as hard, asking her to explain how she was planning to pay for her Social Security proposal. It was a unique debate; in that Edwards knew he was toast, but almost as a parting shot, hammered at the two front runners much like Russert or Wolf Blitzer would during a debate.
Edwards certainly seems to have the complete package any news organization would long for: the personality, the intellect, good looks, and possessed with the inside track on how government works and what makes politicians tick.
It would be a challenging role; but one the 2004 Democratic nominee for Vice President with a strong legal background (just like Russert) would succeed at beyond anyone�s expectations.
-Bill Lucey
billlucey@bellsouth.net
Comments
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.