Tim Russert dead???

wtf

surely not

Heaven needed more condescending lectures about Big Russ.

wtf

seriously i hope this is a joke

fuck anyone who hates on this guy

source Alex?

just popped up this second on drudge

oh wow. buffalo sheds a tear :(

http://www.nypost.com/seven/06132008/news/nationalnews/tim_russert_dies_from_apparent_heart_att_115384.htm

now it is on the new york times, source being his family

agh. :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :(

RIP

no fucking comment.

wikipedia already on it

I have no use for him, but RIP.

RIP

RIP

Extremely sad. My Sunday revolves around Meet the Press.

RIP big guy.

how is David Goddamn Broder still alive?

he seemed like a genuinely good guy who also squared the balance between passive & aggressive more perfectly than any political interviewer ive ever seen, certainly better than anyone else out there right now

very sad news RIP

man that sucks, he's a good guy. I was jus talking to some friends like two nights and we went on about him for a strangely long time....so weird

msnbc hasn't mentioned it

nnnooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!

weird. well, not weird. but, out of nowhere, anyway. i have mixed feelings about tim, but i did enjoy his show.

very sad to see that russert didn't get the perez hilton photo treatment

http://img.perezhilton.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/wenn914444.jpg

huh. That's sad. Weird.

NYT has a little breaking-news blurb at the top of its site.

I always get a sad feeling when I hear of a parent outliving their kid.

xp (Already mentioned, sorry.)

i saw him speak at a legal dinner last year but i can't remember what he said.

Tom Brokaw is talking about it on msnbc right now. I'm stunned.

i saw him speak at a legal dinner last year but i can't remember what he said.

Kinda like the questions he asked politicos.

it's weird though, cause i think i remember really liking it. apparently none of it stuck, though.

he seemed like a good guy. my mixed feelings are basically the mixed feelings i always have about anyone so cozy/insider with politicians acting or trying to act like some objective observer of events. i just picture half of his guests playing golf with him after the show.

my mixed feelings are basically the mixed feelings i always have about anyone so cozy/insider with politicians acting or trying to act like some objective observer of events. i just picture half of his guests playing golf with him after the show.

You ain't kidding

apparently none of it stuck, though.

^The key to modern "TV journalism" (along w/ golf outings)

yeah, even though it was a banquet speech, not on tv... same difference i guess.

if I ever get access to a photo scanner, maybe someday I'll post gabbneb_Russert.jpg

-- gabbneb, Tuesday, February 26, 2008 11:05 PM (3 months ago) Bookmark Link

Jeez, can't you wait at least an hour before the backlash?

RIP

I just like his face. His big florid excited about something face.

Such a cool guy. i miss him already.

he was a Bills fan. RIP.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/13/russert-dies-of-apparent-heart-attack/index.html?hp

I figure David Gregory (or Chris Matthews) will replace him on MTP.

please be david gregory

That's terrible! He was young. Rest in peace.

yeah, i think we can assume gregory, at least temporarily. matthews already has his own sunday show.

Chris Matthews

"God, you took the wrong Wilbury"

I have no use for him, but RIP.

-- Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Friday, June 13, 2008 3:31 PM (36 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

^^^

he didn't want to live in a world where the bills played in toronto horseshoe.

scott isnt that sorta what russert so great? he was always likeable & reasonable but never shied away from asking the tough questions - he let his guests be themselves & let his audience form their own opinions about them

RIP fellow alum.

This almost makes him look like he's reporting on his own death:

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Video/080613/n_russert_specialreport2_080613.vsmall.jpg

lol

he was always likeable & reasonable but never shied away from asking the tough questions - he let his guests be themselves & let his audience form their own opinions about them

He didn't ask tough questions! He asked, with all that rogueish all-American charm at his disposal, more pointed variations on received wisdom.

The Colin Powell-- "Hey, turn that camera back around" interview is classic.

This almost makes him look like he's reporting on his own death:

oh man, if i were a news anchor i would TOTALLY keep a tape of me reporting my own death to air in case i died on the job. that would be so fucking great.

"Tim Russert dead today ... eaten by wolves."

with all the mergers going on maybe now the networks will consider combining Bob Schiffer, George Stephanopolololololpoulos, Cokie Roberts, George Will, David Broder, and Fareed Zakaria into one mega Dean of American Journalism.

that would be badass XP the reporting on own death not the wolves

alfred do you really think me + millions of other people are tools for noticing that russert always snuck in a couple very aggressive, very hardcore questions behind all the rest of his bsing? just because the pols knew to do their homework before going on doesnt reflect poorly on him

yeah hey look all those guys are terrible in comparison to russert, but when you think about it, that says more about the state of the current newsmedia than it does TR. thankfully he's dead now & its some kind of issue so we can use him to make our point.

You answered your own question, omitting the "tools" part.

Look, you would go on his show, abase yourself a bit while Fr. Tim scolds you mildly, then you'd leave, ordered to say 10 Hail Marys.

look at it this way: when Sy Hersh dies, the obits and The Corner won't be singing sad songs about him. Journalists should be hated in some quarters. But it made Russert's professional life easier to be jolly and sing happy birthday to John McCain, so good for him.

so he should have been some kind of egotistical culture crusader, like bill oreilly or keith olbermann? because thats the message im getting from the haters - his problem is that he wasnt one of us

xp my point exactly

sad news. i liked his speaking style. somehow he radiated more of a sense of "seriousness," in the old-school cronkite sense, than any other pundit.

so he should have been some kind of egotistical culture crusader, like bill oreilly or keith olbermann?

Those are not the alternatives. They don't pretend to be reporters.

wow RIP

"so he should have been some kind of egotistical culture crusader"

i think he was plenty egotistical! but that's not my problem with him. he worked in politics, he knew the crowd, and he was chummy with them. and like alfred said, he would do his mostly toothless grilling, people would read their talking points, and then they would move on and nobody got hurt. that's not really journalism to me. i'd rather the press was oppositional. or at least pretend to be. probably why i watch pbs new hour every night. i can't see most of the pbs people hanging with the people they cover. they at least appear to be objective. (and i think russert was just as chummy with repubs as he was with dems too. he was a good time charlie! like charlie rose, come to think of it.)

i think russert was just as chummy with repubs as he was with dems too.

Oh yeah:

What a loss [Mona Charen]

I was so hoping when I first heard about Tim Russert that it was some sort of cruel Internet fake. I knew him only slightly but always found him to be genuine and friendly (not always the case, needless to say, among the "great"). He was tremendously intelligent and lively. It is so hard to believe that at 58, his heart simply stopped. It was a big heart. Also, from our point of view, this is a tremendous loss. Russert strove to be eminently fair and succeeded nearly all of the time. His liberal bona fides (worked for Moynihan, etc) were unassailable but he was not deaf to conservative arguments. Whom will NBC pick to replace him? Is there any chance that they will turn to someone equally impartial? Not holding my breath. RIP.

Remembering Tim Russert [Kate O'Beirne]

It seems so wrong to use the past tense about Tim Russert who has been so present in this town for so long. The tributes by those who knew him will acknowledge his work ethic, love of politics, and good humor. I am so very sad at this terrible news having known Tim as unfailingly decent and down-to-earth. He was modest, generous, and kind. He was an institution in Washington, but behaved as though he were unaware of his exalted position. We were more likely to sit around after Meet the Press talking about our families than the latest from the campaign trail. His personal experience was in Democratic politics but he had a lively curiosity and was grounded in Buffalo. He was genuinely interested in everyone's opinions. My prayers are with his father, his wife Maureen, and his beloved son Luke.

actually bob shiffer is a good example of what i mean. a reporter reporting and interviewing and not getting in the middle of things. tim russert was a celebrity. i guess that's the difference. and, like i said, seemed like a good enough guy. have nothing against him. and i'm sorry he died and all that. i DID watch his show. cuz i love all those shows.

alfred, who does what russert did better than russert did?

whats so wrong about being just passive enough to let yr viewers form their own opinions?

amazingly cool guy imho

lol scott i was just thinking about charlie rose in reference to this thread, i <3 charlie too although his biases appear in his guest selection, unlike russert

id love to see anyone post actual evidence that russerts oppositional questions were frauds since thats basically what you guys seem to be saying

He wasn't a fraud -- just overrated.

alfred, who does what russert did better than russert did?

I couldn't tell you -- I don't have cable -- but Scott's right about Schiffer being moderately better, and Schiffer wrote one of the better books about Reagan and Iran-Contratoo.

from another msg board's "tim russert rip" thread:

R. Kelly was acquitted and god is ANGRY!

Is it possible to not have an argument about Tim Russerts death?
He DIED! It's SAD!

he was a genuinely great human being and he died really suddenly and...I hope his friends and family are okay because I feel hurt about it and I don't even know the guy.

Why are RIP threads always so insufferable?

why do people give a shit about this?

because there's nothing to really say most of the time when a celebrity dies, so attempting to discuss it inevitably goes down a bad road. (xpost)

yeah this guy never influenced no one or nothing ever so were all just pretending to care

'tim russert was a celebrity' = also my point exactly. you guys are faulting him for his very position, when i think he exploited his position in the best way he realistically couldve

where will we turn for sycophantic conventional wisdom pitched has hard hitting journalism now rip

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/25/AR2007012501951.html

i can understand if someone creative dies, being sad that you won't get to enjoy any new output by them, but who cares about one of these big mouth talking heads? the only thing sad to me about it is that someone will replace him.

i might seem like a dick for saying so, but i'm really just trying to soothe all the grief.

he exploited his position

Alfred, it's possible no one under 35 has ever heard a tough relevant question asked on commercial TV.

Sad he died so relatively young, I guess, but really Meet The Press sucks and Russert was no small part of the reason why.

a. huffington really had it in for him, wonder how she'll react (i can't even remember why other than he was too insidery esp. about the plame thing)

Alfred, it's possible no one under 35 has ever heard a tough relevant question asked on commercial TV.

Ah, ageism, the crutch on which all internet debates rest.

no, the media are all rimjobbers now, is all.

I didn't mean that as a slight on Russert, deeznuts. I liked him a lot and have definitely been saddened by this news. But really in situations like this, the only thing this thread can offer is the opportunity for a bunch of people to sincerely say RIP until someone comes along (in this case after about 20 minutes) to stir shit up.

the faux pas of speaking ill of the recently deceased provides some extra spice to your chall-ops which otherwise would be found bland and easily ignored.

for anyone who didnt click through my link an excerpt

--------------

Memo to Tim Russert: Dick Cheney thinks he controls you.

This delicious morsel about the "Meet the Press" host and the vice president was part of the extensive dish Cathie Martin served up yesterday when the former Cheney communications director took the stand in the perjury trial of former Cheney chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

Flashed on the courtroom computer screens were her notes from 2004 about how Cheney could respond to allegations that the Bush administration had played fast and loose with evidence of Iraq's nuclear ambitions. Option 1: "MTP-VP," she wrote, then listed the pros and cons of a vice presidential appearance on the Sunday show. Under "pro," she wrote: "control message."

"I suggested we put the vice president on 'Meet the Press,' which was a tactic we often used," Martin testified. "It's our best format."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/25/AR2007012501951.html

where will we turn for sycophantic conventional wisdom pitched has hard hitting journalism now rip

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/25/AR2007012501951.html

hey guys look an administration notorious for playing the national press sought its most popular personality as their #1 target xp

sorry for your loss, deeznuts

wolf blitzer just asked a catholic priest how god could kill someone so good and just at such a young age! this from someone who has been doing nothing but talk about dead boy scouts for three days.

obama is grief-stricken by the way. russert was his friend and one of the finest people he knew. mccain just repeated the same things over and over. but he was standing next to joe lieberman and lieberman makes everyone nervous.

deez wtf "message control" mean to you. the vice presidents staff believed fully that meet the press was the best venue to say whatever the fuck they wanted unchallenged

this guy epitomized the clueless self-serving washington press corps that completely lost its mind after 9/11 - no challop

"the faux pas of speaking ill of the recently deceased"

Yeah let's all remember everyone uncritically instead!

For two hours, sure.

Next time I'll wait two hours from hearing about dead celeb's deaths before posting anything critical about them. Really it's the least we can all do. . .

For two hours, sure.

Jeez, no one here accused Russert of eating babies or being Joe Lieberman.

whatever this this guy wasnt just some asshole - he played a role in starting a pointless tragic war and enabling all sorts of other administration bullshit

people whove lived their lives more humanly die every day rip

no hate from here for your ops jhosh - im glad this thread is turning into a genuine debate about the guy

i just find it very, very hard to believe that MTP was the best venue for saying whatever they wanted unchallenged -- i think they probably exploited the genuine authority that show provided to their advantage, & again i dont think its fair to blame TR for that

jesus, this thread already

someone has to take up for shakey mo, i guess

I think it's quite fair to blame him for that. There were about a million good questions that Russert could have challenged Bush and Cheney (and Powell and Rumsfeld and Rice and etc) and time and again Russert chose not to ask them.

I think you are right though, it allowed them to "control the message" with the veneer of "genuine authority". That's even better than just "controlling the message" on Fox News!

wish I could tell the Sly Stone-related Russert story...

but
*RESPECT*
for
useful
carny
barker

Didn't Russert testify during the whole Plame thing that, whenever he spoke to someone in the Bush administration, they were presumptively off the record unless they specified otherwise? That was the problem right there. That's not reporting, it's the OPPOSITE of reporting.

o morbs whats the sly stone story

I think it was spoke to anyone anywhere (not just the Bush Administration) but yeah that's correct.

Didn't Russert testify during the whole Plame thing that, whenever he spoke to someone in the Bush administration, they were presumptively off the record unless they specified otherwise? That was the problem right there

OTM. But he's hardly the only one. When "senior administrative officials" are cited in a story, it's almost always a sign of intra-party feuding: it's to refute or "send a signal" to a fellow Cabinet member or staffer.

Glenn Greenwald has kept a pretty close eye on Big Tim for years.

excuse me in the case that he's already piped up, but ...

... what does shakey mo think of this news?!?

Chuck Todd, the political director of NBC News, who was brought in by Mr. Russert, is on the verge of tears also. He notes that this Sunday is Father’s Day, perhaps a fitting memorial. “He was sort of everybody’s father figure here at the bureau,” Mr. Todd said. He said Mr. Russert was a mentor and that many people he knows in journalism would say to him, “I want to be Tim Russert some day.”

just what this country needs

RIP

breaking: nbc news team signs on to write nostalgic memoir "lil russ"

I still like to think about his big face. Tim Russert had an amazing face!
It was like a gigantic baby face.

“I want to be Tim Russert some day.”

this guy was well liked by practically everyone! fuck him!

everyone: nbc news team, bush admin, deeznuts

I understand the notion of paying respect, but since none of us knew Tim Russert personally, and I highly doubt his family is reading ILX right now, a thread consisting solely of RIPs for two hours seems a little pointless. It's a message board; if Tim Russert is in the thread title, it's going to inevitably turn into "Tim Russert, C/D" no matter what.

"I want to be Tim Russert some day."

http://weblogs.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/politics/blog/fidel.jpg

"this guy was well liked by practically everyone!"

Standard excuse for Bush compliance post-9/11!

Meanwhile, I'm just envious that Alfred is able to compose a thoughtful blog post within an hour of the report of TR's death.

ILE = first draft.

breaking: "man in position of prestige did what every single other man in position of prestige did, is now worthy of hell"

I understand the notion of paying respect, but since none of us knew Tim Russert personally, and I highly doubt his family is reading ILX right now, a thread consisting solely of RIPs for two hours seems a little pointless. It's a message board; if Tim Russert is in the thread title, it's going to inevitably turn into "Tim Russert, C/D" no matter what.

-- jaymc, Friday, June 13, 2008 5:58 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Link

yah the sanctimony on celebrity rip threads is some through the rabbit hole media mind shit - its one thing to revel in the death of a random actor or whatever - but to honestly discuss the life of person of actually consequence like russert is totally above board - and i dont think anyone here is celebrating his death

Karma, man. You better go after us, or you'll have an RIP thread, too.

man in position of prestige did what every single other man in position of prestige did, is now worthy of hell

Yeah man fuck that Edward R. Murrow what a sycophantic prick.

deeznuts are so fragile.

"Tim Russert dead today ... eaten by wolves."

-- jaymc, Friday, June 13, 2008 8:20 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link

thank you for making this joke

my dad is a year younger than russert so this is actually kind of depressing to me on that level

RIP

Loved his potatoes

haaa

You're thinking of Tim Idaho.

I mean, wtf, "Everybody does it" is hardly an excuse! If anything, it's a symptom. Was Russert the worst practitioner? No. Was he part of the problem? Yes!

if all these tough-talkin' hardball dudes had actually been what they claimed to be, maybe public opinion wouldn't have taken so long to turn against Bush.

If only they'd hired you guys...

the last honest man...

http://www.nerve.com/CS/blogs/scanner/2008/cnn_lou_dobbs_portrait-thumb.jpg

he looks v slim there^^^

RIP.
it's harsh when someone dies suddenly, dontcha think? I am not getting the defense of making fun of a newly dead person rationale.

I am feeling like "what if.." . if he was my uncle, or my relative...

I've been working, does this thread actually contain any yippee posts or is deeznuts being sensitive again?

there r no yippee posts

or yiffee posts, either ...

i think i started it. sorry. i just said that i had mixed feelings about the guy and i explained why. no, wait, maybe alfred started it. that heartless bastard.

??

guys what did you 'start'? i know im not pissed at any of you & in fact like the way this thread has turned out. i <3ed the guy, if you guys didnt im glad you stated as much & yr reasons why. no one is worse of for this.

ty

back to the thread - pancakes i agree he was 'part of the problem'; thats also part of my point. why should we indict every single person in the media because the media failed us? maybe TR wasnt a fucking hero - does that mean he didnt ultimately contribute positively to society?

russert did a pretty decent job of getting ron paul to publicly admit to all his crazy semi-closeted beliefs -- wanting to repeal the 14th amendment, et al -- that a lot of his casual supporters might've missed.

"why should we indict every single person in the media because the media failed us?"

Yes.

russert did a pretty decent job of getting ron paul to publicly admit to all his crazy semi-closeted beliefs -- wanting to repeal the 14th amendment, et al -- that a lot of his casual supporters might've missed.

but the context was so strange -- at the time I got the impression that Russert was doing the dirty work for the GOP and Dems.

Ron Paul is small potatoes.

To return to the earlier theme.

so a GOP critic of the war gets embarrassed on the air

^^^ all in the sycophant playbook

FARRAKHAN FARRAKHAN FARRAKHAN

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=nJkU1e-_r3w

And one of my worst political memories is him waving that stupid dry-erase board with Florida circled on it at three in the morning, election night 2000. "This thing's gonna be in the Smithsonian!" HYUK.

None of you are invited to my funeral.

^typcial elitist media mentality

look at this asshole, embarrassing a ridiculous GOP critic of the war & then having the nerve to allow the probable future president of the united states to have his full say when responding to a question people would be wondering about

who comes off better in that clip pp? hrc or barack?

the keep it classy award for this thread goes to alfred soto right?

someone should make a compendium of which poster decided to shit on a dead dude in every ilx RIP thread

xtra dbag points to soto for not even waiting 90 minutes tho

Haha are you joking?

I mean a public figure dies and people are going to talk about his/her legacy good, bad or ugly. If we were comforting Tim Russert's family we'd focus on the good obv, but christ this is fucking discussion message board there is no earthly reason to be so politic. Stop being such a fucking crybaby the lot of you.

i lold @ this

http://i28.tinypic.com/207rdw6.jpg

xtra dbag points to soto for not even waiting 90 minutes tho

When it's time for your death, I'll make sure to ask the ILX gods for the memo detailing the protocol.

i ask that when i die, you all assemble the cast of the wire to drink heavily around my casket. thank you.

ya excuse me if i think it might be a dick move to start saying this dude was a hack at his job not even 2 hours after he died. not exactly like we're debating the merits of george wallace here, i think the shitting on his "legacy" couldve waited a bit

and anyway there is a difference in tone taken itt by soto, who's just being a dick, and say, scott seward who made a pretty reasoned response to this thing, not some one-liner and a link for the smug lolz

ftr i think alfred is a good guy all-around and ive had no issues with him ever i just think itt he's being a dick

o_O

Wow, Tim Russert was apparently J0rdan's mom.

I did go back and read the thread and I don't see how you can consider anything Alfred said to be offensive unless you just think no one should ever say they thought the actions of the recently deceased were wrong.

Saying "I don't care about this guy and I disagreed with him a lot" is not quite the same thing as saying "I'm glad this guy died, YAY," right?

So wait wait wait this 2 hour thing is serious?!?! Should we put it in the FAQ?

i could give a fuck less if it's tim russert or my actual mother my point is there is a respectful way to be like "hey this guy actually sucked" and a disrespectful way to do so and i think alfred was on the wrong side

Can you quote something specific that you found so wrong side? Cuz I didn't see it either?

Educate me. How might I have respectfully demurred from the omigod-great-guy posts?

i saw him speak at a legal dinner last year but i can't remember what he said.

Kinda like the questions he asked politicos.

-- Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Friday, June 13, 2008 2:41 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Link

this zingy thing-- look im not trying to drag you into the town square here or making a comment on you as a human or anything just that imo you were kind of being a dick in the period in these threads where it's usually just "RIP", so take that as you wish

Sucks that a journalist (who had perhaps seen more credible days) and family man is gone so early in life.

RIP

So that single zing is what you are all huffy about?

Jordan, how many people saying "RIP" was I supposed to count before interjecting? I don't like zings either, but I went out of my way to elaborate in other posts.

wtf u dont like zings?

That didn't read like a zing to me. I don't know that I really agree with the sentiment but eh.

I think he specifically doesn't like zings on RIP threads prior to the previously discussed 2 hour cutoff. . .

quoting this both for the sentiment (b/c I didn't watch his show or care about his opinions but I'm not glad he's dead) and for reference in the current yakking

I have no use for him, but RIP.

-- Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Friday, June 13, 2008 2:31 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Link

and, for the record, that was my FIRST response, which hardly suggests I was blasting "Domino" while dancing on his rotting corpse.

look guyz im not trying to outline a correct way to say that someone who tragically died was not all he was made up to be, just that when i was reading through the thread i thought scott seward tastefully said that he wasn't really feeling this dude and soto and morbius were being smug kind of about it

and anyway im more of an idiot for even bringing it up esp in the rash way that i did and this thread definitely doesnt need to go further down this road so let's all just carry on

I actually think it's funnier that Morbs said "no fucking comment" and then posted five more times.

he was real good at connecting with viewers but i think this lulled people into thinking he was speaking for their interests in interviews, which i don't think he did that much of really. he seemed almost pathologically incurious about things that mattered.

for those feelin a full-on hunter s. thompson moment, read this: http://www2.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2007/0712.yglesias.html

it is strange thinking that big moon face and goofy enthusiasm are gone

actually yglesias is rather kind in that article, as i remember, he doesn't really blame big tim for the way he is

was. ugh

every single criticism of the guy looks to me like an easy opportunity to flip to a positive -- how did he 'lull' viewers into thinking he was speaking for their interests? because he asked the questions they wanted asked, & let them be answered. of course, he -wasn't- speaking to their or your specific interests -- that's not his job. his job was to speak for as many people as he possibly could.

"because he asked the questions they wanted asked"

So full of shit.

deeznuts you sound ridiculous

much like russert

did you guys read the link to Greenwald? Russert was a genial sycophant.

Anyway, we humans like power, and like hanging out with those in power; most of us would given the chance (JFK was very good at sensing intellectuals' weakness for being close to the concentric circles of power). If Russert "asked the questions [the people] wanted asked," then he got to party with power brokers the people would have, given the opportunity.

deez his job, as i see it, was to speak truth to power. not "facts so unimportant the interviewee probably doesn't remember" to power.

i dont know enough about russert to have an opinion on him either way, but to deej and alfred, which tv journalists of the past, say, 20 years have ascended to russert's height and not fallen into the same pitfalls you accuse him of

i mean ethically wrt to befriending politicians, not whether or not he's technically good at asking questions or whatever

i have no idea why tracer namechecked HST, i happened to see russert's interview with him & found it typically enlightening & responsible

alex there are certain boundaries that come with being in a position like russert's - i guess thats what im getting at here, that nbc political frontment, like democratic frontmen, are gonna have character flaws. that doesnt mean they wont be doing their job better than the vast majority of people who could reasonably be in their place.

xps

soto, who's just being a dick

HOMOPHOBIC

character flaws? the entire negative discussion about russert so far has been about professional flaws

unless you have some inside dope?

Tim Russert dead???

http://www.brendoman.com/media/linguo.jpg

pwn

funny .jpg dead???

rip

http://www.linguo.net/images/linguo2.gif

good one tracer

obviously i meant 'professional flaws' -- im not denying these exist, im saying that such 'flaws' were necessary to get him to where he got, & once he got there he did a pretty good job of taking advantage of his position

its not terribly original or fair to say 'hey this guy was a celebrity fuck him' but thats what a lot peoples arguments on this thread seem to boil down to

no they dont

'hey this guy was a celebrity fuck him' but thats what a lot peoples arguments on this thread seem to boil down to

Not mine. David Broder is even worse.

such 'flaws' were necessary to get him to where he got, & once he got there he did a pretty good job of taking advantage of his position

ladies and gentlemen, the american political press

anyone wanna answer my question?

lol why u guys even bothering to converse w/deezy hes not listening to u

cnn is russert central. the comedy team of brooks & shields was pretty good on tonight's news hour on pbs. the only (almost) critical stuff i heard about russert tonight was on the local pbs greater boston show. and they pretty much brought up the same stuff - too much of an insider, knew people too well - but they still lionized him. paul begala brought it up as a positive on cnn saying: hey, he and colin powell were great friends, but you would never know it when colin was on tim's show. paul and others thought it was a testament to his talent that he was so good at pretending like he didn't know who his friends were when it came to show time. i guess that's a talent. but to me in my ivory tower it just seems a little crazy. i just think that journalists should be tolerated at best and not be so nice. if they want to be so nice they should run for office! having said that, i don't doubt that he was a genuinely nice guy. he was very influential as well.

two things i didn't know until tonight: wolf blitzer is also from buffalo and seems to go way way back with russert and gwen ifill owes her career to russert.

I know the network has lost someone immensely important to it, but from watching MSNBC this afternoon, you'd think the campaign had been suspended today. What would Russert have thought of that?

Among all the discussion have been a few moments worth mentioning in the context of this thread. Tom Brokaw noted that Russert was a politics guy, not a policy guy, and most interested in policy's effect on the game. Chris Matthews subtly tweaked Russert's buying into the faulty intelligence on the cusp of the war; Russert, he said, was a patriotic American, and Bush, etc., knew how to exploit their fears and love of country with a false nuclear threat.

And the go-to example of Russert's tough questions on "Meet the Press," mentioned by my count four times in the past one-two hours, is his interview with David Duke. What year in the early '90s was that, exactly?

i dont know enough about russert to have an opinion on him either way, but to deej and alfred, which tv journalists of the past, say, 20 years have ascended to russert's height and not fallen into the same pitfalls you accuse him of

None. Tim Russert was the apotheosis of the corruption of TV media. Again, I don't pay for cable. This is why I bless the proliferation of web journalists and fact checkers.

paul and others thought it was a testament to his talent that he was so good at pretending like he didn't know who his friends were when it came to show time. i guess that's a talent. but to me in my ivory tower it just seems a little crazy. i just think that journalists should be tolerated at best and not be so nice.

Scott once again OTM.

hard-hitting questions against david duke is like underhand pitching softballs

sorry for mixed baseball metaphor

fu jhoshea i am listening, just not changing my opinion to suit yours & other peoples!

and ty scott, all your posts on this thread have been great

I never do this, but I posted this a few hours ago.

Noted with interest: he'd just placed his father in a nursing home.

"hard-hitting questions against david duke is like underhand pitching softballs"

russert actually regretted this later. i remember an interview he did with bob costas and he said he felt like he had gone to far in his desire to "get" duke. he basically made a fool of him and then just twist the knife in over and over and he thought he had gone over the line. if there is a line where david duke is concerned.

how does the idea "I went too far challenging David Duke" even enter your mind

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/bushbeat/archives/2008/06/remembering_tim.php

Remembering Tim Russert
Posted by Harkavy at 6:19 PM, June 13, 2008

. . . as one who at a crucial time in '02 lobbed softballs to Dick Cheney.

fifth result of google search 'dvt heart attack'

second result for 'clinton killed russert'

Brokaw will anchor a special program this Sunday

olbermann just went to commercial after a lengthy russert segment. it was a Plavix commercial.

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/bushbeat/archives/2008/06/remembering_tim.php

so which ilxor posted this??

We know we have a part of the picture. And that part of the picture tells us that Saddam is, in fact, actively and aggressively seeking to acquire nuclear weapons.

Which provoked this question:

RUSSERT: Why haven't our allies, who presumably would know the same information, come to the same conclusion?

Big problem with this question, Tim. You're asking a question that Cheney cannot answer. He can't speak for others' actions. Instead of pinning him down, you're leaving him room to roam.

Russert could have asked this instead: "Our allies haven't come to that conclusion, and they would have no reason to cover for Saddam. You say 'we know.' Give me a specific example of what 'we know,' and how that is at odds with what our allies' intelligence tells them."

BIG PROBLEM WITH THIS QUESTION, TIM. I AM ANALYZING YOUR QUESTION 3 YEARS AFTER IT WAS ASKED WITH THE FULL KNOWLEDGE OF THE SPECIFIC RESPONSE AND THE COURSE OF EVENTS SINCE THAT TIME.

RUSSERT: There seems to be a real debate in the country as to [Saddam's] capability. This is how the New York Times reported comments by Senator Chuck Hagel, a Republican, who said, “The Central Intelligence Agency had 'absolutely no evidence' that Iraq possesses or will soon possess nuclear weapons.” Is that accurate?

Gee, what do you think Cheney will say when you let him off the hook with a stupid-ass "Is that accurate?" appended to an otherwise-promising line of questioning? Here's how Cheney belted that blooper pitch:

CHENEY: I disagree. I think the accurate thing to say is we don't know when he might actually complete that process. All of the experience we have points in the direction that, in the past, we've underestimated the extent of his program.

Keep in mind, now, that Cheney was making up this shit.

GUESS WHAT DUDE HE WOULDVE MADE UP SHIT NO MATTER WHAT RUSSERT ASKED

i mean seriously does no one else get a salem witch triley vibe from a lot of these lines of attack, theyre incredibly retarded

Todd Gitlin's thoughts:

Even critics who think that the whole journalistic enterprise is inadequate to the national challenge respected the intensity he brought to his long-running NBC ventures. He evoked large feelings: pleasure when he rattled the powerful, displeasure when settled too cozily into the conventional wisdom that he, after all, helped shape. Washington is full of insiders who never lose the feeling of being outsiders -- who cherish it, in fact -- while chortling at its folkways. Russert was an impresario of these outsider-insiders: the Buffalo guy who'd made it inside but wanted you to know that he hadn't lost his common touch. The fact that he had come from somewhere else he wore like a medal.

When he confronted his guests with texts and video clips, attending to language in a medium that is ordinarily not so careful with language, he knew how revelatory are the words of public discourse if one slows down long enough to read them. Yes, he had a propensity to play gotcha and to settle for too-easy answers, and to my mind it is usually less important that people have changed their minds than why. But Russert brought a cross-examiner's intensity to his Sunday ritual that made it valuable, and made him like a member of the family -- the jolly uncle, alternately playful and cantankerous.

Emphasis added:

6:58 p.m. | Did His Homework: Ethel Kennedy has just gotten off an airport and is being interviewed at Reagan National Airport. “He had done his homework, so we didn’t have to do ours,” she tells NBC. “We longed to hear what his take on world events was.”

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/13/russert-dies-of-apparent-heart-attack/?em&ex=1213588800&en=5e42c7a7a878179d&ei=5087%0A

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marc-cooper/requiem-for-pope-russert_b_107075.html

You also had to wonder what was in those cynical little heads of the CNN execs. Did they really believe that all those average beer-swilling Americans whom Russert presumably loved really wanted to stay glued for hour upon hour to hear the same regurgitations over the death of an elite, remote, talking head?

i'm always surprised by the level of ugliness involved when top tv journalists talk about their audience

Examples?

your post!

oh wait i was thinking of matthew cooper

still - "average beer-swilling americans"?

wtf @ this cooper guy. if you don't like what's on TV just switch stations or turn it off, douchebag

hard-hitting questions to David Duke. oh, the risks...

I have no use for him, but RIP.

-- Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Friday, June 13, 2008 3:31 PM (36 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

^^^

-- Eisbaer, Friday, June 13, 2008 3:08 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

^^^^^^^^^^

Right, Mark. This is about a little more than some irritant on the box.

I just passed by the Washington-area NBC affiliate; there were a number of bouquets and other tributes outside.

Pretty good piece from Tim Rutten that praises while noting some good points, some already mentioned here:

It was that natural politician's ability to disagree civilly and to make a joyous experience of difference that underpinned the success of Russert's "Meet the Press." Unfortunately, as the years went on, it also fueled a certain descent into "character" status, a cloying willingness to trade on a sentimentalized Catholic boyhood and working-class roots.

It also was the natural pol's promiscuous affability that proved Russert's Achilles' heel.

Watching the cable news networks in the hours after his death, one was struck by the outpouring of admiration and affection from across the political spectrum and from journalistic colleagues of every sort. It was impossible not to be struck -- once again -- by just how incestuous and claustrophobic the Washington-based nexus of politics and journalism has become.

Thus, in all that gush across four networks in dozens and dozens of voices, hardly a word was spoken concerning Russert's role in the recent trial of Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. That's odd because Libby's conviction on perjury and obstruction of justice charges was, in some large part, based on Russert's testimony. Like former New York Times reporter Judith Miller, Russert was one of the high-level Washington journalists who came out of the Libby trial looking worse than shabby.

And in retrospect, kinda interesting that his last interview/PR piece for Meet the Press would be a 'well the Internet really did change everything' bit.

Also, his first time hosting the show.

"proof: there is no god"

http://i26.tinypic.com/op49w8.jpg

Right, Mark. This is about a little more than some irritant on the box.

yes my remark was intemperate if not trollish, solly. I sort of agree w/Cooper's assessment of Russert as a journalist -- to me Timbo was like a sportscaster, treating politics like "the game" obsessed with the process rather than policy etc. But I think the man's death is not the moment for such evaluation. I mean it's one thing to discuss it here like we're doing, something else to publish a righteous judgement before the guy's even buried. and hey big surprise that CNN etc would treat his passing like Princess Diana's. what d'ya expect?

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/rnr/720342993.html

James Carville: "He never asked you any questions from lert field."

"He never disruption the digestion of my Sunday brunch with ill-timed queries."

DisrupTED but anyway.

every politician reacting like some family member has died kinda points out the flaws in russerts approach. cable news covering this like its the bigges story of the year - fucking solipsistic whirlpool.

"Tim genuinely LOVED politicians."

I liked Russert. Overall, a decent guy who avoided the major sins of his peers, but I can't help thinking all the eulogizing is about more than Russert. With him gone, there are very few major media gate keepers left. Maybe what we're seeing is the major media itself in mourning, as it watches its influence fragment, wither, and slip away.

no

I think we're seeing a lot of major media figures mourn a guy they knew and liked very well. Even Matthews, who admitted he thought of Russert as a rival, was generous.

^^ at the gym today -- sunday -- i walked past a TV tuned to Foxnews w/ Geraldo "remembering" Russert.

bet they were best buds

"After I opened that vault and there was nothing in it, Tim propped me up by saying, 'Go get 'em, Geraldo.'"

Even Matthews, who admitted he thought of Russert as a rival, was generous.

Matthews sees everyone as a rival, and everyone actually is superior to him.

Russert was quoted in NYT yesterday telling colleague, "Can you believe we get paid to cover this year?" Superficial circuses, the lifeblood of media scorekeeping.

I wonder how long Studs Terkel's obit thread will be, given that, in the words of Ned Beatty, "he's not on television, dummy."

Russert was quoted in NYT yesterday telling colleague, "Can you believe we get paid to cover this year?"

i know, it's like people who get paid to talk about baseball or movies or music

stfu

gabbneb, that's a tacit admission that politics is as venal as baseball, movies, and music chatter, and just as useful.

it makes it clear it's a GAME, which is certainly why gabbnebs love Russerts.

in the cosmic sense it's all really just a macro-scale meta thread

everything is a game, bros, but some matter a lot more than others

Umm, when work becomes fun and exciting and you feel clever and involved in doing it, yes it becomes more a calling than a chore.

I don't begrudge Russert's right to enjoy himself, but a quote like the one upthread makes me squirm almost as much as Alex in NYC writhing in ecstasy over Killing Joke.

i dont see why, people say that shit about anything they care about

'i cant believe we get paid to do (x)' is a cliche for a reason

Russert wasn't DOING his "job" is the point.

We need to get paid for contributing to ILX.

(xp: except in the hard-realist sense that propping up the corpostate is the job of all GE employees)

Apparently he was a decent, reasonably kind guy and not an asshole, unlike most of his colleagues, who are now eulogizing him as if he were Jesus.

but a quote like the one upthread makes me squirm almost as much as Alex in NYC writhing in ecstasy over Killing Joke.

but I love Alex writhing in ecstacy over Killing Joke

he's cuter when he writhes over Luther Vandross.

i agree!

i gotta admit i'm a little leery of anyone who is still GIDDY at the idea of american politics at this point in time. a smidge of outrage or disgust seems warranted. and even healthy. being a politico fanboy is way different than being a buffalo bills fan. i get it. he was a political "junkie". but still...

to be soooooo good natured and not make ANY enemies (or at least ones who will speak on the record now) sez to me that you ain't digging deep enough. and as more than one eulogizer has noted, he pretty much shaped NBC's news coverage for years. ALL of their news coverage. (some people only saw or knew him as a talking head. dude was management.)

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/politicalinsider/2008/06/the-next-host-of-meet-the-pres.html

he's definitely my choice. I think the commenters may be right that they'll pick someone like Mitchell or Brokaw as an interim until a new face is properly groomed.

Obama/Russert '08

Oh for the love of all that is sacred, please don't let Chris Matthews have Meet the Press. Even on his non-Hardball interview show, his favorite thing to do is spit and yell.

I'm rooting for Andrea Mitchell as an interim moderator, with Chuck Todd to follow.

matthews is not gonna get it, and yr pick isn't that improbable

http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlDC/television/replacing_russert_87296.asp

Ifill would be a great choice.

i don't know his work that well. i would watch meet the press once in a while, that's about it.

i never thought he seemed all that brilliant or tough or anything.

i think maybe one reason he's being mourned so much is that he was maybe one of the few TV political pundits left that didn't totally OOZE an evil, lizardy asshole narcissism...i mean...like most of these dudes like glen beck and hanity and colmes and chris wallace and everything...i mean is there one bit of yr body that doesn't instinctively know that they are fucking vile dickheads down to the very last atom?

so maybe he was a decent guy and probably at least nice to people and i think people sense that and sort of mourn that there are hardly any left.

yeah, I think Ifill would be a good choice, but it would definitely be a different program - probably less populist, which is fine by me but maybe not for ratings, and my impression from washington week is that she doesn't seem to have that legal cross-examination style where, as has been said in recent days, you listen really carefully to the answers, though that may just be because she's interviewing newsgatherers rather than newsmakers

and it also probably has to do with the fact that washington week is a pretty short program, so she has to keep things moving

yeah you're probably right. my favorite regular news interviewer is jeremy paxman though, who absolutely oozes with evil, lizardy, asshole narcissism yet who is -- to my mind -- very good at his job, i.e. very good at posing as his interviewee's most pertinent opponents and asking the kinds of questions those opponents would ask. he comes off as constantly irritated, like there's a burr in his shorts that he can't quite locate, and i love it. (nb american viewers will soon get to see paxman every week on a special condensed edition of newsnight, which will be airing on bbc world).

it's sad that the big news programs probably won't take much of a chance on russert's replacement (like something analogous to putting conan o'brien on the air). although frankly it would be pretty dumb putting a "blogger" like josh marshall or atrios on there, despite what a breath of fresh air it would feel at first. you need someone who actually knows how to broadcast and interview and read the news on the air. i don't know how many of you watch marshall's videocasts. lord knows i don't.

Dang! I didn't realize Andrea Mitchell is 62.

Marriage to Alan Greenspan, however, keeps her coltish.

Staying inside the NBC family, I think John Harwood should get stronger consideration, but seems to be on the edge of the pool.

oh yeah, he is nbc, isn't he? i would think he's a contender.

harwood would actually be pretty good maybe! if he's irish roman catholic i'd almost call him a shoo-in but i don't know if he is

Plus, he was Russert's final interview. I wonder if that will ever air.

Weird, John Harwood is co-anchoring an MSNBC hour at the moment...perhaps an audition?

jesus christ are they overreporting this. it's past the point of absurdity now.

Seen at Russert's funeral:

http://www.presidentprofiles.com/images/prh_01_img0007.jpg

best solution: Don't watch fuckin' MtP.

LIVE! BREAKING NEWS! TIM RUSSERT'S WAKE!

Well, they had all weekend to cover it and they've really cut down on the coverage today. I think the reason they got away with it on the weekend is because no one really watches any of those effing "Doc Block"s anyway and they wouldn't be missed.

LIVE DEVELOPING STORY! WATCH NOW LIVE ON CNN.COM

think of all the big stories they missed

you know damn well there are lots of important things the mainstream media scarcely reports me.

is gabbneb one of the political thread trolls? i seem to recall this being the case.

reports ON

right, the russert funeral distracted from lots of unimportant things they would have otherwise reported.

gabbneb stop trolling with your opinion that is different from amateurists

biggest death-as-professional-circlejerk evah

Bruce Springsteen paid an emotional tribute to the late broadcast journalist Tim Russert during a concert in Wales at the weekend.

Russert, who presented America's acclaimed show Meet The Press, died last Friday after suffering a heart attack.

Appearing via video link at Russert's memorial service, Springsteen recalled seeing Russert's “big Irish smile” during a performance on America's Today Show.

“It was beaming like an Irish sun. We were always flattered and honoured to have Tim as part of our E Street Band community,” Springsteen said.

Springsteen then played 'Thunder Road', Russert's favourite song, in memory of the broadcaster.

^^^he always knew how to properly suck media dick

Bruce Springsteen's sense of tact and honor dead????

Russert was a huge Springsteen fan and had met him before

yeah russert liked booked a springsteen show when he was in college

Springsteen also dedicated Thunder Road to him at a show in Europe a couple of days ago

xp, right, which would be before Greetings was released

i think thats what omars post was referring to? tho maybe not

anyway i dont just get why so many of you cant just face up to the fact that people just really really liked the guy & a lot of his eulogizing is actually far less cynical than most of the wannabe challops posted to this thread

actually, it was in February '74, when he was in law school

he beat Jon Landau, tho

I don't doubt their sincerity, nuts, but that's not my problem: I was evaluating Russert. It's like eulogizing John Irving a worthy rival to Tolstoy and James.

i haven't been keeping up with this too much but i think most of the people who are eulogizing Russert this week are his friends/colleagues and are remembering him as a colleague and a friend first,TV talk show host second.

are remembering him as a colleague and a friend first,TV talk show host second

^^THIS!

However, Morbs and Soto, who were too busy being condescending and hateful toward the guy, likely missed the recounting of how great a friend person he was.

god damn these assholes for appearing human

despicable.

Johnny, clearly you have problems with reading comprehension. I reserve hatred for the military-industrial establishment, Girl Talk, and certain Billy Wilder movies.

deez no one is saying the eulogizing is cynical!! man you are amazing! the eulogizing is incredibly sincere! and often very self-flattering to the eulogizer. coincidentally of course.

LOOOOL @ "our E Street Band community"

My main quibble with the coverage was just that it basically throws out the window any concept that the amount of coverage in any way correlates with significance in any sort of hard-news sense. I guess it shouldn't be news to anyone that TV news coverage isn't quite representative in that way. But imagine if, say, some popular NY Times reporter or editor died and then there were 6-inch front-page banner headlines in the Times for the next several days about it. It would seem frivolous. TV news isn't held to that standard though, so whatever.

But imagine if, say, some popular NY Times reporter or editor died and then there were 6-inch front-page banner headlines in the Times for the next several days about it. It would seem frivolous. TV news isn't held to that standard though, so whatever.

. . .but i bet a lot (lot lot) more people in America know who Tim Russert is, though, compared to say Adam Nagourney or Judy Miller or Michiko Kakutani, etc. etc.

Also, on NBC Nightly News last Monday, Brian Williams leads with more goop about "our colleague" while, in the background, we see photos of submerged houses in Cedar Rapids. UH.

tracer are eulogizers relating personal anecdotes in their eulogies or something?? that is horrifically narcissistic. i hope eulogies in general will be over & done with, but america will never wake up to how blatantly narcissistic & masturbatory they are.

it's still ridiculous to have five or six whole television channels tripping over themselves so that they can make sure every anchor, sub-anchor, candidate's-house-exterior-night fieldie and on down has a chance to talk about how awesome dude was. it's never not embarassing when people are like that, like you know, life goes on, even if you don't get to make everybody listen to YOU for five minutes talking about YOUR friend.

It does speak to a different standard for people in TV vs people in print, though, in that people on TV usually spend their whole lives wanting to be on TV, which I still personally consider a character flaw best left repressed.

However, Morbs and Soto, who were too busy being condescending and hateful toward the guy,

Hey, don't forget me, I was being hateful and condescending too.

What he was like as a person just isn't important to anybody but family, friends and co-workers. Him being a $5 million teevee man doesn't make it important. This Instant Sainthood makes my stomach churn and I'll be glad when it's over. There should be a 24-hour Funeral Channel on cable so people can give tributes to dead people, whether they're famous like Timmeh or just some poor mope from Iowa who died under a million tons of Mississippi River. (haha, xpost, Alfred and I are on similar wavelength)

I reserve hatred for the military-industrial establishment, Girl Talk, and certain Billy Wilder movies.

lol, as of like a half hour ago

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=grapefruit+factor+carvey

let me add--i think the coverage had been ridiculous, too. but not surprising. he was a TV journo for fucks sake! what do you think's gonna happen when Brokaw dies?

all the cowboys will cry

While agreeing with you in principle, Mr. Que, I don't remember the same encomiums when Peter Jennings kicked it.

maybe Peter Jennings wasn't as nice to his friends/colleagues??

he didn't have "the common touch." also, Canadian.

Yeah, the amount of overcoverage this has received has been embarrassing, but I think a lot of it has to do with how NBC can't help themselves and are allowing themselves to grieve in public. A lot of people are open to and welcome the sharing...fewer, more cynical types, aren't.

ha i was just coming to say he was Canadian too

Yeah, the amount of overcoverage this has received has been embarrassing, but I think a lot of it has to do with how NBC can't help themselves and are allowing themselves to grieve in public. A lot of people are open to and welcome the sharing...fewer, more cynical types, aren't. TV news is a horrible medium for the most part and the people involved in it are pretty fucking self-involved

thank you j fever, i think thats totally reasonable. fwiw i think im as cynical as anyone when it comes down to it but i sure as shit dont blame tim fucking russert for the bush administration & american media.

xp que ok but russert was kind of an example of a guy who was specifically NOT that imo, i assume you agree

the russert coverage is playing out like the media thinks it's a national period of mourning on par with the death of a president.

is he still dead?? crazy

^^true XP

but i guess what im saying is, maybe thats not because the media is totally self-involved & circle-jerking here -- maybe TR was just a really, really good guy who touched a lot of people, & a lot of those people were obviously involved in the msm, & thats why this is happening

like gabbneb said awhile back, whats really getting lost out of this anyway

the recounting of how great a person he was

...which is only reserved for celebs in these superstore-sized quantities. Christ, there are some morons here.

And their leader is Morbius.

que ok but russert was kind of an example of a guy who was specifically NOT that imo, i assume you agree

lol. from Tom Shales WP article from last Saturday

Not that Russert lacked ambition. He was keenly competitive and played to win. MSNBC's Keith Olbermann recalled that Russert often concluded memos to staff members with a gung-ho "Go get 'em." When he was named "Meet the Press" moderator, one NBC News staffer noted, one of Russert's first official acts was to have a large framed photograph of himself placed among those of other NBC luminaries in the hallway of the network building on Nebraska Avenue in Northwest Washington.

I think that we shouldn't discount the possibility that one reason the Russert passing is getting head-of-state-level coverage is that people are watching it. It's kind of a perfect storm of media convergence: an endless assortment of media personalities who knew the man and can speak about the "Tim Russert they knew", a figure who was well-known and well-liked by the TV news audience - ie., the same exact audience for the coverage of his death, and the sort of self-fulfilling effects of a media event. But I would bet the ratings of the coverage of his death have been pretty good.

SIREN SIREN
overachiever 'played to win'
SIREN SIREN
framed himself next to people he respected

xp

celebrities mourning one another and asking us to share in their grief is sort of lame when it gets to be this ridiculously protracted. when i heard the news it was surprising and i thought, 'aw he seemed alright. rip big fella.' but now it's like "never forget 6/13".

Jack Shafer:

In my research, I encountered only a couple of reporters who proved resistant to the woe-inducing fumes emitted by the funeral bouquets. My friend Mark Leibovich of the New York Times didn't make a playpen of Russert's bones in his Week in Review piece, nor did he flinch from writing it straight. A couple of samples:

In a sense, Mr. Russert seemed to have an intuitive grasp of all the petty concerns, Big Doings and peculiar rhythms of (Washington). …

[Washington is] a town of revolving doors, for which Mr. Russert was something of an exemplar, for better or worse. …

Mr. Russert liked to seem sheepishly above-it-all, but was also as acutely status-conscious, befitting the local water. He was always mindful of not appearing too often on MSNBC, NBC's cable cousin, for fear of diluting his big-league brand. ...

Writing in his blog today, New York Times reporter Adam Nagourney recalled the early 1980s, when Russert worked as a bare-knuckled counselor to New York Gov. Mario M. Cuomo and Nagourney covered the Cuomo administration for the Daily News. Nagourney reveals nothing ugly, nor does he shine Russert's halo as he sketches a portrait of the young highhanded political operative.

And in the Saturday Los Angeles Times, columnist Tim Rutten knocked the press for its saccharine assessment of Russert, writing:

Watching the cable news networks in the hours after his death, one was struck by the outpouring of admiration and affection from across the political spectrum and from journalistic colleagues of every sort. It was impossible not to be struck—once again—by just how incestuous and claustrophobic the Washington-based nexus of politics and journalism has become.

I wonder whether the media grievers gave a moment of thought to how this Russert torrent they produced played with viewers and readers. Did the grievers really think Russert was so important, so vital to the nation's course, and such an elevated human being that he deserved hour upon hour of tribute? I wonder whether any of the responsible journalists paused to think, Hey, this is really weird. We're using our unchecked editorial power to soak the nation with our tears about our friend, and that's unseemly!

On days like this, I, too, hate the press.

yeah deez, a lot of the talkin heads at nbc are white working class irish catholics (now with houses on nantucket) and none of them can quit talking about his "background" and how that made him so awesome and special and unique.. just like them

I'm sure my story is like that of a lot of people who are also deeply interested in Russert remembrances. In 2000, I was a politically challenged 26 year old who was drawn in by Russert's coverage leading up to and, especially, on election night. The dry erase board is pretty much joke material now, but that night it was great. That was the moment I became not only a political junkie, but especially an election politics junkie. So much so that I've finally figured out what I want to do and have gone back to school to graduate with a degree in tv/broadcast production with the hope of landing in one of the DC bureaus of one of the networks (with a preference for NBC/MSNBC).

So yeah, it means a lot to me. Tim Russert is basically why I am where I am now. And when I read people saying that it's just a bunch of the media having a big circle jerk at the expense of the viewers, I take it personally. Because if he had that impact on me, someone way out here in tv land who'd never personally met him, I imagine there are lots of other people with a similar story.

< /emo >

OK, Godspeed on your joining the media-industrial agitprop Leviathan.

there's also such a thing as decorum in these matters but that's pretty euro to say isn't it

Morbs, much luck on remaining a bitter and unloved asshat until the day you die alone and forgotten.

dudes what did I just say

Not in "TV Land."

(xxpost)

Omar so totally on the money. I was sad, although I also joined in the critiques here. And even on Friday, it was starting to be a bit much, as I noted above. Six days later . . . oy. Yesterday, Omar, I was thinking about that Firesign Theatre joke: "Benjamin Franklin, the only president of the United States who was never president of the United States."

"alone and forgotten" beats being eulogized by C Matthews and all the pols who loved my fake-news show, J Fever.

You're just jealous that Mary Matalin won't speak at your eulogy.

I bet I haven't seen/heard her in 10 years.

Mr. Que so on the goddamn money that anything else is guilding the goddamn lily

I've been as surprised as anyone by the outpouring over Russert's death, but people whose intelligence and judgment I generally respect have been swept up in the coverage, so who am I to judge? I guess lots of people really liked the big, smiley, bug-eyed doofus. Who knew?

My wife and her mom and aunt apparently thought I was a bit cold-hearted for sitting in the other room and missing the Russert montage on the TV last weekend. When it was over and they came back in the room, I swear there wasn't a dry eye among them. "He was a good man", said my wife's aunt. They thought I was joking when I said that I didn't recall this level of coverage for Bo Diddley's passing the other week.

"Russert has received TWICE the amount of coverage Comrade Diddley deserved."

http://mattsanchez.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/02/19/castro.jpg

as Dennis Perrin wrote, this was JUST Russert. Imagine the Saint Cronkite coverage, even tho he's been retired for 27 years...

THAT'S THE WAY IT WAS.

A big part of this is the suddenness. If he'd announced four months before his death that he had lung cancer, like Jennings, I believe the reactions and coverage would have been similar.

(Sorry if this has already been said. I'm not following this thread in detail.)

i thought the same thing this morning. i keep catching maria shriver on the today show, she looks all botoxic. this morning she was speaking from a podium, i guess at his funeral, casting her eyes skyward and addressing "Tim" up there in "heaven" and i was like oh for christs sake and hurried on to the shower.

i imagine shriver rotating her ridiculous jawbones on her stalk of a neck towards the skies, like a satellite dish tuning in

"Tim's death made my cheeks contract -- like so."

http://bittenandbound.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/maria-shriver.jpg

going after shriver in re to TR = LCD BS

"You're just jealous that Mary Matalin won't speak at your eulogy."

i swear to god i read this as marlee matlin and i laughed so hard. i'm mean.

Morbs, there's no sense in hating on Russert just for meeting the low standards and banal expectations of his loathsome network bosses. Hate on the people who kept him on the air and paid his salary.

Russert was just a dweeb who made good money for filling the airwaves with puffery and nonsense. He died before he made old bones. That's too bad for him and those who loved him. RIP.

There is a lot of sensing in attacking his mourners for praising Russert for what he wasn't.

Those aren't mourners, per se. Those are his colleagues, which is to say, they are mostly shameless shills. Even if they felt genuine grief over his passing, they would probably supress it in public in favor of rouging the cheeks of his corpse.

If a link hasn't been posted yet, plz to read Jon Swift's take:

http://jonswift.blogspot.com/2008/06/russert-rule.html

there's no sense in hating on Russert just for meeting the low standards and banal expectations of his loathsome network bosses.

As someone pointed out above, he was Wash. bureau chief for NBC News. A boss, if not Mr. GE.

He didn't promote himself to that position, morbs.

http://img2.timeinc.net/people/i/2008/video/080630/cvr_06_30_08.jpg

A Family's Heartbreak - Mario Lopez Bares All

Wikipedia Updater Fired For Scooping NBC on Tim Russert's Death

So Brokaw's replacing Timbo.

Lopez is looking BUFF.

lol i saw an episode of access hollywood abt the lopez article - he was supposed to get the cover!

So Brokaw's replacing Timbo.

for 4 months, at least

and it looks like mitchell and harwood will be the key roundtablers, though obv chuck todd is gonna play a role in the campaign season

they're protecting the brand first, and using a team to add up to russert

i don't think we should expect todd to take over any time soon

Hitch: miracles seen at Russert funeral:

When the late Tim Russert actually became the late Tim Russert, I wrote an appreciation for the Vanity Fair Web site and said what I genuinely thought: that he was a nice and generous man and a first-rate journalist and one of nature's democrats. I added that he'd been very fair-minded to me when it came to our own greatest difference, which was his highly devout Catholicism. He'd always made room on his cable show for opinions that clashed with his own and had in fact positively sought out people like me who disagreed with him. And then I added, because I may have had some kind of premonition, that the journalistic profession sometimes overdoes things when one of its senior members dies, and it has a tendency to bang on as if some great and irreplaceable saint or statesman has passed away.
A few days after I published this innocent little appreciation, one could already detect a slight feeling that the media "tribute" industry had gone a tad far. Surely Tim can't have been the only person ever to have done well after being born into a working-class family in Buffalo, N.Y., for example? And other people must have served on the staff of Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (even if not so brilliantly able to imitate the crusty old solon). The job of hosting Meet the Press was a job that a mere mortal could actually do, otherwise Tim would not have been able to do it. The seat would be filled soon enough. In a moment of irreverence at the Russert memorial service, Tom Brokaw pronounced that the largest group present was composed of people who thought they should be filling his shoes; I notice he's now landed the job.

^^ the entire essay is the best thing der hitch has posted in dogs years. just when you think the old soak has finally lost his marbles he manages to redeem (pun intended) himself.

I think he's more generous when angry – any target inspiring this much eloquent vitriol should be grateful, not offended – but this was cute. Just when you think he's about to take a shot at theists, he hangs fire.

the job Brokaw landed is interim caretaker of the program, including helping to decide who the new host will be. he doesn't want a permanent job in Washington, even a weekly one, i'm pretty sure.

Brokaw already putting a Western stamp on the show

http://thepage.time.com/2008/06/27/on-the-sunday-shows-32/

Show's going to be broadcast from WGA meeting in Jackson Hole.
http://www.westgov.org/wga/meetings/am2008/index.htm

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2008/12/02/gregory_picked_for_meet_the_press.html

http://www.fanoguitars.com/photos/davegregory.jpg

only if