Look, I think the abrupt ending of the Russert interview with Colin Powell was spectacularly stupid on the part of the press aide responsible. But I also think Russert’s hamming it up unnecessarily. He said on CNN yesterday: “This is the United States of America. It really is unacceptable.” (Quote found in the Hotline)

Oh come on. Russert knows that interviews are cut off abruptly every day — every hour — in Washington. What made this a bigger deal is that Russert — an 800 pound gorilla in terms of his media stature — had it happen to him and his vanity was bruised. I agree that the theatricality of it was bad and made Powell look bad — which is why he insisted the interview continue. But if cutting off a taped interview after it exceeds the allotted time is a sign of something ominous then every press conference which concludes with “no more questions” is an example of censorship.