NBC News reporter Luke Russert said he made a “dumb” misstatement on the “Today” show Wednesday when he suggested that smart people supported Barack Obama for president.
Almost immediately, Russert took a hazing in the Web world. Wrote Tim Graham of the conservative Media Research Center on the NewsBusters blog: “Out of the mouths of young, untrained reporters come the unspoken beliefs of the liberal media.”
Russert, son of the late “Meet the Press” host Tim Russert, is covering youth issues for NBC News. He filed a report for “Today” about campaign activity at the University of Virginia, and talked about it live afterward with Matt Lauer.
Russert, 23, said about the university: “The smartest kids in the state go there so it is leaning a little bit toward Obama.”
Oops. Now he’s either implied that students at other colleges in Virginia aren’t as smart as those at the University of Virginia or that you have to be dumb not to support Obama. Or both.