Good heavens, Random Observations seems to have become a "media bias" blog lately. I swear, it's not because I'm trying. It's not my fault I keep reading things...

Hugh Hewitt alleges NBC is hiding a damaging Kerry interview on Meet the Press in 1971 (bold emphasis mine):

Put all of the audio and video from the network archives in an accessible place -- Tim Russert has allegedly said he won't allow the video of Kerry's April 18, 1971 appearance on Meet the Press to be made available to the public for fear of its politicization; thus protecting the easily manipulated public from everyone except Tim....

Given the intense interest in the candidate and in this part of his past, why is it that the networks haven't produced their own archives on Kerry's testimony or their own reports on his radical days? Self-censorship in support of a candidate is a sort of huge contribution, isn't it? Bottom line: If the video of Kerry's testimony surfaces, his campaign will be doomed. If NBC really is preventing the release of Kerry's long ago appearance on MTP, then NBC is engaged in censorship during a campaign year, a conscious decision to help Kerry hide his past. So much for the argument about media bias. If NBC holds the tape in its vault, any future debate on the topic of the media's left-wing tilt should begin with this fact: NBC wouldn't allow the public to see its own interview with John Kerry from 1971 when that interview might have been inconvenient for Kerry's campaign.

Want to lay odds that we don't see the video -- with NBC's permission, anyway?

UPDATE (4/19): Well! Wonderful! Russert actually played the tape during the his last interview with Kerry. (Make no mistake, I love being wrong when I'm being pessimistic -- and am always more than glad to admit it.) Click the link to read some of the Kerry's odd, evasive comments. Did we commit war crimes? Atrocities? Genocide? Kerry maintains his testimony was "truthful" yet "over the top". Err, whatever.