Russert, like so many many of his colleagues in the media, has been bought and paid for.
It's not necessary to assume that, even though there's not a dime's worth of difference between a journalist and a Democratic politician. It is, rather, perfectly understandable that the rules of the game of journalism - "If it bleeds, it leads," and "there's nothing more worhless than yesterday's newspaper" for example - produce negativity and superficiality which is inimicable to the middle class values of the Republican Party.And it is perfectly understandable that the party which has the fewest scruples against exploiting that inherent MSM propaganda would gradually abandon any resistance to it - and become the political expression of the perspective inherent in journalism - a patronizing attitude towards the middle class and the Republican Party.
That patronizing attitude was on full display when Gore told Kemp in their VP debate that Kemp wasn't racist - for a Republican. When Kemp accepted that, he was allowing Gore to patronize the base of the Republican Party - something no Republican politician - least of all a VP candidate who should have an aggressive, attacking attitude - should ever do. It destroyed Jack Kemp as a national political figure.