Upcoming debate moderator Russert added to record of distortions on Sunday's Meet the Press

On the January 13 edition of NBC's Meet the Press, host Tim Russert challenged Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) on her vote in 2002 giving President Bush the authority to use military force against Iraq, asking her: "Do you wish you had read the National Intelligence Estimate, which had a lot of caveats from the State Department and the Energy Department as to whether or not Saddam Hussein really had a biological and chemical and active nuclear program?"

Russert has asked similar questions of other Democratic presidential candidates who voted for the Iraq war resolution. Yet in two separate interviews on Meet the Press, Russert did not challenge Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) assertion that "every single intelligence agency in the world believed he [Saddam] had weapons of mass destruction"; he did not ask McCain if McCain wishes he had read the NIE, which was made available to all members of Congress before the vote, according to The Washington Post.

During the June 5, 2007, Republican presidential debate, McCain admitted that he did not read the NIE before the 2002 vote on the Iraq war authorization. Russert also aired a statement from Democratic strategist Donna Brazile criticizing former President Bill Clinton for using the phrase "fairy tale" in reference to Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), but not her subsequent comments that Clinton had "clarif[ied] his remarks" and that she "take[s] the president at his word."

The upcoming January 15 Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas will be moderated by NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams, "[j]oined by" Russert and Today's Natalie Morales. Media Matters for America has noted numerous instances of misinformation from Russert and Williams, including asking Democratic candidates questions based on misrepresentations and falsehoods. Moreover, following the October 30, 2007, debate in which 14 of the 30 distinct questions Russert asked the Democratic candidates were either directed to Clinton or to other candidates about Clinton, several media figures asserted that Russert and Williams had acted as Clinton's "opponent[s]."......

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