Whether you liked Russert or not, one thing everyone can say is...

[HardWorkingDem]

he really loved politics and it's kind of sad to see people pass away when they love something so much and take that love and passion with them.

I think all of us want to love and have passion for something in our life and when we see there are people out there that do find things, we sort of envy them a bit.

[MadBadger]

1. I love Bruce Springsteen, Politics, football.

My team is the Washington Redskins, his the Buffalo bills. Tim Russert and I had a lot in common it appears.

[HardWorkingDem]

3. I love Springsteen too and...

recall a summer of drinking and listening to Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town over and over again.....passion...it's what makes life great...

[tularetom]

2. One thing I can say about him

He was a carbon based life form.

[Bobbieo]

4. I know he was an attorney. Did he also have a Journalism degree?

[kath]

6. right-o, baby. On this day of canonization, that's about all we can say, or we're EEEEE-VUL.

[Rex]

5. Why envy a hack, he loved to lob softballs at Repukes.

All that aside, RIP Tim.

[El Pinko]

7. You put it close to how I feel.

I had no real personal animosity towards him, but I thought he was a terribly biased hack.

Moreso than Tweety, even. (If not as overbearing)

[Rex]

9. I saw that other post of yours about Tweety and agree, he better watch his health.

Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if Billy O' keeled over - not from weight but from anger management issues.

[HardWorkingDem]

16. Now, I'd pay to see that...

imagine that live and on air...I bet some how FauxNews would be able to still edit it out...

[HardWorkingDem]

10. Um....are you people even familiar with his background?

Do some research on his background - I would imagine a lot of his ways were to try and keep an appearance of being unbiased.

[El Pinko]

12. "Trying to keep the appearance of being unbiased" - perfect description.

He went out of his way trying to "appear" unbiased - didn't want to destroy his credibility and look like a Hannity.

So his softballs to right-wingers and hardballs to liberals, as well as his sober tone were carefully crafted to help maintain that veneer of objectivity, even if it was false.

As for his background, is the fact that he worked for some mainstream, establishment democrats supposed to mean something to me? So did Tweety - that doesn't make him any less of a shill for the military-industrial-complex when asked to be.



We have ultra-right-wingers like Brit Hume posing as journalists on national TV. Where are the "red diaper baby" journalists? Not on TV, that's for sure. They range from center-right, like Russert, to Ultra-right, like Hannity.

Even moderately liberal types like Donahue don't last long on TV.

[HardWorkingDem]

13. For one thing...

I would not call Pay Moynihan a mainstream democrat.

And why is that every person in the media must be 100 percent lefty and always one way or else they are a worthless piece of garbage.

[El Pinko]

14. Moynihan was very much mainstream in his time, IMO...

Things have slid much, much further to the right since.

"And why is that every person in the media must be 100 percent lefty and always one way or else they are a worthless piece of garbage."

What an absurd statement. Like there are any lefties in the media other than MAYBE Keith Olbermann.

The rest of them are all centrist to ultra-right.

At least 30% of the US population are liberal to leftist.

If 30% of the pundits in the media were too, you might have a case, but there are hardly any.


And I didn't call him garbage. I called him a shill for the right.

I don't hate the man, I just think he was a poor journalist.

[HardWorkingDem]

15. And the original point of the post was...

about how you could tell Russert loved his job and had a passion for it, but you know what, none of the sour, mean spirited people here at DU can take a break from partisan bullshit and the mindset of it must be 100 percent my way, or you are a traitor to the cause, to acknowledge it.

Moynihan centrist? Yeah, right.

[El Pinko]

17. Moynihan was a liberal, like most democrats of his time.

Liberalism is a centrist, pro-establishment political philosophy.

He may have been a partisan democrat, but ideologically, he was centrist, IMO.

[FREEWILL56]

8. You know I have a problem with how people address a death.

I feel it does a person dirty to give excessive praise after they've died as they should be given any deserved praise while alive. You see this all the time when known people die as they take them for granted while they are alive and when they die is when recognition is given to them. It seems to me that if you wish to honor the dead then give them some praise while they are alive and remember them rather than this cheapening of their lives by giving recognition after the fact and then soon forgetting them. That recognition tends to be so excessive too as in weeks long tributes and rehashing until you can't stand the person and are glad they will be forgotten soon so the media would soon drop it. I don't mean that to sound bad or talk ill of the dead as it is the living that tend to do the disservice to those that die. I know I've opened myself here to quite a few jokes too, but I think most get my point. Tim might still be alive if proper recognition would've been given to him that he might not have had to overwork himself which probably led to, but mimimumly contributed to his death. To me he was just a news person and not that noteworthy in my life that he should have this excessive media recognition that has even exceeded other noteworthy newspeoples that have died. Not to take away from Tim, but I know of too many good people that got no recognition in life, be they living or dead.

[Booster]

11. I worked for one of the big 3 networks and I can tell you it is like

being in a very large family. For the people at NBC, losing Mr. Russert is like losing your brother, your favorite uncle, or even your Dad. Let them feel their loss and just change the channel.