Luke Russert and nepotism

Found this interesting bit of tid out there today from Miami Herald columnist James Burnett. An African-American, Burnett has been struggling with the comparisons between affirmative action and nepotism in light of NBC's hiring of Luke Russert, son of the late Pumpkinhaid himself. And Burnett concludes that, whatever you call it, Luke wasn't playing on a level field when it came to NBC.

Seriously, my feelings ranged from slight haterism, as in silent grumblings of "wish that was me!" to annoyance, as in "what the hell did he do to deserve such a gig?" to downright anger over what I initially perceived to be a big old wet kiss from the Affirmative Action Fairy.

Then it occurred to me that this technically wasn't affirmative action, 'cause affirmative action is a formal government policy whose stated goal is to give a nudge to ethnic minorities and women who might otherwise face discrimination in certain hiring and schools admissions policies.

So I came to the conclusion then that young Russert had instead been kissed by the Nepotism Fairy, paternal twin of the Affirmative Action Fairy.

While NBC News issued a straight-faced statement saying that Russert was hired because it was crucial that the youth vote be covered thoroughly at the conventions, let's be blunt. It couldn't have hurt for him to be a Russert. Also, TV news is about ratings. So, sorry NBC News. But this has ratings gimmick written all over it.

Yep, that's the key right there. NBC knows that Timmeh's death is still fresh in the minds of millions of Americans, and they'll be tuning in to see if the Son, fresh out of Boston College, can follow in the Father's footsteps. No way Russert gets the gig if his name isn't, well, Russert.

I'm not saying he's not a good young journalist. But jumping right from college to network news is pretty much unprecedented, I imagine.

I guess this is NBC's equivalent of Nancy Reagan humping her late husband's casket. I mean, there was so little coverage of Timmeh's untimely death when it happened ...