Tim Russert, NBC Washington Bureau Chief and longtime moderator of "Meet the Press," died on Friday.
As the post title -- a quote from Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman's reaction to the news of Mr. Russert's death -- suggests, it was especially in the latter role that he demonstrated how the media can play a crucial role in keeping politicians accountable to the people.
This is especially important in a republican democracy like the United States. In this form of government, the people have the ultimate authority to govern themselves, but they exercise their governing authority through representatives who are elected to make policy decisions on their behalf. For this relationship to be effective, there need to be mechanisms for conveying information from the people to their representatives and vice versa. There also need to be mechanisms for making sure that the representatives don't disregard the will of the people in favor of advancing their own personal interests.
It was in that spirit that Russert conducted his "Meet the Press" interviews. Every Sunday, he'd bring high-profile politicians to the table to grill them with hard-hitting questions about their political motivations and issue stances so that the people back home could hear them out and make more informed voting decisions.Here he is in action:
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