Meet the Press err I Mean Publicist

Time Russert proved this past Sunday that he's lost it as a journalist. It used to be that Meet the Press had some street cred as news worthy -- yesterday's show made me want to vomit.

Russert had Shell Oil's President John Hofmeister; ConocoPhillips Chrmn. & CEO James Mulva; & Chevron's Chrmn. & CEO David O'Reilly on his show. He pretended he had a clue what we are concerned about and softballed a question about the "high pump prices vs their profits" -- what a joke! They all recited their PR lines about "supply and demand", "we need the profits to explore and drill for more", and "these profits aren't really as big as you think". So Russert countered in his best investigative journalist style with "OK".

I'm like many Americans willing to pay more for gas IF these companies were doing anything to get us off oil in the longterm. They are like drug pushers -- "I need the high profits so I can find even more crack to sell you." Only this time we see the limits of this resource and the damage it's doing to our treasure, company, globe, and national security. Explosive sales of hybrids are the sign that we are motivated to get off this crack but our dealers don't seem to see it.

These companies along with Ford and GM with their "we'll pay your gas" deals will go on the dust heap of failed obsolete companies along with so many other American companies who failed to see that the times are changing and jump with their customers -- IBM failing to embrace computers, Kodak slow to catch on to the digital age, buggy whips, wash boards, ice companies.

I would have LOVED Russert to have asked "what would your profits have been if you had paid the American people the royalty tax you agreed to when we GAVE you drilling rights on our public lands?" "What would your profits have been if you had ceased lobbying Congress and your fiends in the White House for sweetheart deals, give aways, tax abatements, stonewalling progress for alternative fuels, ANWAR drilling rights, and forgivness of past fines and penalties?" "What would your profits have been if you had cleaned up the spills properly in New Orleans and Purdhoe Bay and stopped fighting the fines for Purdhoe in the courts?"

But what does Russert care -- he was able to plug his book so he had a successful show.

ARGH!!!