Tim was a great guy but 5 hours coverage on his death? The media think it is all about them.

[Hamlette]

I don't mean to be snarky but isn't this exactly what's wrong with DC? the media thinks its about them and not about us? Or the news or whatever?

(Sorry to be so late to this story but I just got home and checked my TiVoed programs (MSNBC) I'm shocked. It's all there is on the programs.)

[TahitiNut]

1. (Still) For Sale

[Wcross]

2. I tivo the nightly news (NBC)

The entire half hour was about him. No news at all. He died, it sucks but so did thousands of other people today. I want to know what happened in the world today, not about a newsmans death.

[NashVegas]

3. Wow. ABC Didn't Do That For Peter Jennings, Did They?

[LSparkle]

4. Good point -- and Jennings was on-air five nights a week,

not just on Sundays.

[Wcross]

6. I don't know. If they did I would feel equally cheated.

I watch for the news, not the obituary.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

5. Tell you what..........

Don't watch.

[Wcross]

8. I tivo one news show every evening.

Had I known the ENTIRE evening news program would be "coverage" of his death I would have scheduled another network.

[NashVegas]

7. Yes, That's Exactly The Problem

Here's something to ask yourself and the news media:

If Tim Russert was everything they say

if he was all that and a bucket of mints

why are the news channels paying tribute to him by letting his colleagues ramble on for hours

instead of showing clips of all his greatest work?



I'm putting the blame for this squarely on the shoulders of the producers - they're the ones calling the shots here. They're the ones who could and should be having techs go through all the old vid.

[dflprincess]

11. I said this on another thread and I'll say it again.

They have to turn him into super reporter (and convince us that he was) because by doing that they are not only excusing Russert's failure to ask the hard questions before Bush started his war, they are excusing themselves. After all, if a reporter as good as Russert allowed the country to be lied to, how could we have expected any better from those lesser reporters who are still here? And how dare we criticize any of them for not doing their jobs?

[G_j]

13. well said, nt

[Hamlette]

17. yes, and Matthews had the guts to admit that when he was on

he said Tim fell for the "what if Iraq gets nuclear weapons" argument for this war which is what middle America bought off on". He all but said "and he was an idiot like middle America for believing it."

Good analysis. The media is sooooo defensive since Scotty's book came out. Of course Scotty was saying "its the media's fault for falling for our bullshit" but you'll note how EVERY reporter and pundit said "NOT ME. I didn't fall for the BS."

It was disgusting.

[kath]

22. wish I could recommend your post.

spot on.

[DebbieCDC]

9. Agreed -- this is just WAY too over the top

When I read online that his death was a "loss for the entire nation" I just about threw up. Jebus, the guy died. I'm sorry, I'm sorry for his family but he wasn't Ghandi or Martin Luther King, Jr. or RFK for crying out loud.

[tularetom]

10. I now know far more about Tim Russert than I ever cared to know

And still there are only four things that stand out in my mind:

1. Cheney's remark that Meet the Press was the place for him to go if he wanted to get his propaganda on the air.

2. Russert's testimony in the Scooter Libby trial that unless a source told him something was on the record, he always assumed it was not for publication.

3. The statement by someone (may have been that Mary Matlin hag) that Russert despised Matthews.

4. The comment that his father was never called Big Russ and that the nickname was just something Russert made up.

[Hamlette]

19. what was said about Matthews? Did they say why he hated him?

makes me like Tweety a little better.

[ironrooster]

12. Tim Russert = 1 broken heart

US troops = 4000+ broken hearts.

Dead Iragi women and children = ?? broken hearts.

I'm sorry for his family - but well, put this into perspective.

Journalists aren't any more special than anyone else.

[democrat2thecore]

14. A lot of anger in some personal lives - being taken out on Tim Russert in this thread

A lot of people here mad at the world. An existential depression that doesn't allow for spontaneous shock and sadness. I hear, "How DARE we pay attention to anything other than the problems of the MASSES." Please. Sometimes, things happen and for a few hours - things stop, things change, a realization that a big part of our political culture is gone. That's all we're seeing and you know what? It's okay. It's a part of the common condition of being human; we get to know people we really don't know, we expect them to be there and then - they're gone. Things stopped for a few hours today. It's okay. Really.

To the OP: you can watch ABC's evening news and CBS and BBC and other sources too many to count streamed right to your computer. Your anger wasn't at missing the 30-minute evening news from NBC - it was that we DARED have a spontaneous moment and felt our way through a change. Some of us chose to do it with and through the NBC family. We'll miss Tim Russert and will remember our day of saying goodbye. The streaming newscasts from the other networks are waiting for you at their respective websites.

[ironrooster]

15. No - you have it wrong.

I'm not mad at the world.

I'm stating my opinion that Rus was mediocre when you compare him to a Murrow or a Cronkite and undeserving of this praise orgy. My "anger" if you will, is related to our practice of elevating people to a status undeserved by their performance. We have a whole Goddamn culture that is so bereft of critical thinking skills that they mistake style for substance; and style is something Russert had in spades - gotta give him that.

Most of the people in the major news media are merely water boys (including Russert) for their superiors -(the execs at whatever network they work at) - that is a simple fucking fact. I'm disappointed when there are bloggers on DU and elsewhere producing more insightful - more clearheaded writing than a dozen Russerts - but b/c he has the mic - and well, you know.

So I guess my "anger" stems from what I perceive to be our serious problem with priorities - constantly - without - a - break.

Oh yeah, I'm ANGRY when the 4th estate doesn't do it's job.

God forbid I distract from the solemnity of the occasion - we are country of melodramatic candle-light-vigiling do nothing sad-sack fuckers aren't we.

[kath]

24. "whole Goddamn culture that is so bereft of critical thinking skills"

man, isn't that the sad freakin' truth. :-(

I'm gobsmacked at the scarcity of people with critical thinking skills even here at DU.

Great post.

[ironrooster]

25. "gobsmacked " - you and me both

Maybe we could make some money selling commemorative medallions here of good ole' RUS.

[kath]

26. we'd make a bundle. Have these people been in a freakin' CAVE for the last 10+ years?

man, I wish we could resurrect The Horse (MWO) or at least its archives... But there are plenty of people still out there documenting all the media atrocities, if only Murkana would *read*... Alterman, Greenwald, Conason, Palast - just off the top of my head.

Too much time watching TV, even (or maybe especiallythe "news") pickles the brain.

[ironrooster]

28. you know -

It really is peculiar the way some need to project their "hopes" and fears onto this guy. It's almost like whistling in the graveyard. Repeat after me:

There are still good reporters with integrity in the MSM...There are still good reporters with integrity in the MSM...There are still good reporters with integrity in the MSM...

I mean does anyone not understand that most if not all are long since bought and sold? One poster was saying how Lil' Rus loved his job and his country - but exactly which country would that be? My country - your country? Perhaps they meant his country-club... and who wouldn't love a job where you get paid big bucks to preach to the choir.

It seems to me to be a kind of active denial that there really isn't an independent 4th estate anymore - so the least obnoxious water-carrier is transmogrified into a noble defender of the public's right to know.

[Hamlette]

18. hardly, I'm just saying it was over the top for a new figure, he was NOT the story

he was to report on the story.

The "village" is way too stuck on themselves.

It just shows how self absorbed the media is.

I'm not angry. I'm an observer.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

20. Beautifully said

Well put, and thank you.

It's disheartening to read some of these posts, the anger, the sense that their concerns should be everyone's concerns all the time. A man died, a man who was a fixture for some of us, and it was enlightening to watch the reactions of his colleagues, to hear their stories, to visit the closest we'll get to a good, old-fashioned Irish wake. For a while, it was all right to mourn one man who did a good job.

Putting down Tim Russert because of what he did or didn't do in Scooter Libby's case, doing that on the day he died, well, that just sounds like a bunch of freepers turned loose.

[ReverendDeuce]

16. These people he worked with genuinely liked and respected the man...

I can't blame them.

It's a fascinating look at the "group mourning" phenomena...

[nadinbrzezinski]

21. They are still at it... and has been how long already?

Wall to wall... this is fucking unbelievable

Didn't know TIm Russert (RIP) was like President Kennedy

[JI7]

23. you tivo msnbc ?

[Cleita]

27. They're having a wake except it's national and on the air. n/t