OK PLEASE Make Politicians answer questions

[maseman]

I watched the Ricky Snortorum and Casey episode this morning on Meet the Press. Russert asked Santorum a very direct question a number of times. If Santorum thought the answer is what the base and general populace would want to hear he wold answer it proudly. If his answer would either be not in the best interest of the people or would be a lie he would simply start ripping on Casey.

This is fairly typical of politicians. But Santorum even went a step further. After one such question Ricky wanted to not answer, he started to rip Casey about another question HE refused to answer.

What really frosts my ass is that a guy like Russert won't hold politicians accountable to answering a question he asked. I am really fucking tired of these guys getting off the hook. Seems to me more people would watch (thus higher ratings and more ad rates) if the Russerts of the world would really take it to politicians.

Here's an idea. If you ask Rick Santorum a question about if the intelligence for going to war in Iraq was faulty and he dodges the question with a rambling, then you follow up and say something like "So your saying the data was faulty and this is an illegal war?" I know it would not be what he said at all, but it would force him to respond.

These slick politicians, both reps and dems, need to be held accountable or the media is useless.

[Bluzmann57]

1. Yes it seems that few journalists follow up anymore

And yes, if a person wants to run for public office and as such, we are the bosses and the press is supposed to get to the bottom of things. When any politician won't give a straight answer, the reporter should keep up the line of questioning. As the op states, we should demand this from politicians as well as journalists.