John Cole has a note on the canonization of Tim Russert [Emphasis added]:
"Let's get something straight- what I am watching right now on the cable news shows is indicative of the problem- no clearer demonstration of the fact that they consider themselves to be players and the insiders and, well, part of the village, is needed. This is precisely the problem. They have walked the corridors of power so long that they honestly think they are the story. It is creepy and sick and the reason politicians get away with all the crap they get away with these days. Tim Russert was a newsman. He was not the Pope. This is not the JFK assassination, or Reagan's death, or the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion. A newsman died. We know you miss him, but please shut up and get back to work."He's got a point, a strong point as MSNBC in the background is laying down Bruce Springsteen's "Into the Fire" under the unending litany of Russert remembrances.
Still, to ask that the cable news clones of the current universe actually "get back to
work" is to simply ask for more mischief, lies, spin and innuendo. We're currently hip deep in this deluge and anything that, for even a moment, slackens the flow is all to the good. If we could figure out a way of extending the 24/7 mourning period for Tim Russert to, say, November 15, he would have performed a final service for the country he loved. God rest his soul.
UPDATE: "Timothy J. Russert -- a serious, joyful, gracious, tough, hard-working objective journalist -- died June 13, 2008, at the age of 58. The last of his professional line, he left no survivors in the field. In lieu of flowers, cancel your cable subscription and use the money to take your Dad to lunch each week for the rest of his, or your, life." -Scott Ott
UPDATE 2: As an experiment in how much BS one man can take, I've had MSNBC on in the back room all morning. As God is my witness, AS GOD IS MY WITNESS!, I swear that this operation is going to have every single person Russert ever interviewed on to talk about his "smile" and is going to read every single one of the more than 13,000 emails they've gotten.
Yet again, the bloated media proves its central tenet: "Anything worth doing is worth overdoing!"
Posted by Vanderleun at June 14, 2008 9:47 AM | TrackBackSo true. The solipsistic, over-the-top canonization also invites the question of why a man who had the power to fire Keith Olbermann didn't do so. Who knows. Maybe the destruction of NBC's credibility contributed to his stress.
Posted by: Gagdad Bob at June 14, 2008 10:23 AMThe grave robbers. They dig. It's what they do.
Posted by: Gagdad Bob at June 14, 2008 11:17 AM"It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood." -- Karl Popper N.B.: Comments are moderated to combat spam and may not appear immediately. Comments that exceed the obscenity or stupidity limits will be either edited or expunged.