Letters to the Editor
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Best of a bad lot.
Amongst the echo of calls for sainthood and building of a new myth it must be pointed out that, like almost all "journalists" working today, he repeatedly sold out to the right wing and the Bush administration in order gain access to these people and to keep his job.
Because of the corporate media's capitulation and pandering to the radical right over four thousand US service men and women have needlessly died along with as many as quarter of a million Iraqi men, women and children.
While Russert and his corporate media colleagues are not directly responsible, they are key enablers.
You want to canonize someone for their integrity and professionalism when they die then you will have to wait for someone like Phil Donahue who stuck to his principals and paid the price for it.
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"it must be pointed out"?
No, not really. Eulogizing is typical of eulogies. There is usually a grace period. Apparently, on the Internet, nothing is sacred anymore.
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The Catholic Russert
I confine myself to one observation which may well be found nowhere else. Russert, like his colleague Chris Matthews, is the shining bright face of American Catholicism: tolerant, caring, rational, learned, friendly. The other face of Catholicism is represented today by Pat Buchanan and in the past by Father Coughlin: bigoted, anti-semitic, narrow, anti-intellectual, and leaning towards Fascism. Thanks to John XXIII and the Second Vatican Council Catholics like Russert and Matthews could emerge.
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So now he's sacred?... Grace period?
The truth can be inconvenient sometimes. It can even spoil a fine eulogy.
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Seems like Russert is getting a pass...
because most, if not all, politicians are viewed as slimebags & most, if not all, journalists are giving these slimebags endless reach-arounds for access, anyone who has the slightest bit of perceived non-bias coupled with a relatively non-grating personality is considered a "good guy". Russert had this combination but still was in bed with these slimebags.
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Keeping to a tradition of not speaking ill of the dead (at least for 30 days)...
...Tim Russert, rest in peace, brother.
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too young, but he wasn't half the journalist people are making him out to be
Russert was far too biased in favor of Republicans and people in power. He wouldn't report what officials would tell him unless they told him it was okay to do so - opposite of the standard practice of everything being on the record unless there is an agreement made beforehand.
In 2003, he tore into Howard Dean for not knowing the exact number of active duty troops in the military. But he gave Bush a complete pass on a similar question on the number of nuclear missiles under a Start II treaty.
And in 2000, he couldn't wait for the dispute in Florida to be over so Bush could take office.
Of course this doesn't change the fact that Russert loved his job and he was way to young to go, and that he had a family - but that doesn't change the fact the Tim Russert was incredibly biased.
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Russert Had a Lot More Class
...than some of the posters here. Then again, maybe "here" is the operative word, what with people having become so alienated by hiding behind this damned screen and a billion keyboards. Russert was a real, live human being who did his best in a very difficult profession. More than that, he was real all the time. A real human person with real human shortcomings, to be sure, but what's the point of bringing that crap to the wake? Tim was, on balance, a very good person. It doesn't matter what his peers may or may not be like. They all didn't die yesterday. Tim did, and if one can't have the grace to say something positive or at least neutral at a time like this, then we've all descended to the level of the fishead who is still sitting in the Oval Office, biding his time and doling out his rote condolences, not only to Russert's family but to the families of the countless young men and women who have died during our President's mindless adventures abroad.
Then again, I had maybe a too-close brush with the departure of this very extraordinary ordinary guy. John Donne had it right, and in this case, I'm feeling, for the moment, quite diminished. Time and its forced change of perspective will soften that a lot, I'm sure. But for now, for god's sake, just give the man credit for having been as good as he was. In our current state that's head-and-shoulders over most.
And as for Mr. Russert himself, it's just another trip cut short for more important business. Where the last one ended, let the next begin. Fare forward, voyager.
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From Washington Post
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
I liked the guy and found him enjoyable to watch. Often listened to the MTP podcast during the week. I think he did try to be fair (& not in the Faux News sense) in his coverage.
But Washington journalism as a whole has lost its way. It's important to remember the weaknesses along with the good, because there is little chance that the press establishment is going to.
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If you want a respectful eulogy...
... you should earn it while you're alive.
The idea of a "grace period" is pure nonsense; no one will be talking about Tim Russert in a month, or whenever the sensitivity police deem it kosher to speak the truth about this sorry excuse for a journalist. (Memo to all those with their panties in a bunch: Russert's family members are not reading the comment section at Salon.com.)
"Russert was a natural establishmentarian, who was blessed with an optimistic faith in the long-term wisdom of the nation's political elites."
In other words, he was a dope and a shill for the status quo. The fact that he died a little early doesn't change that.