Unanticipated Scenarios: Defending Tim Russert
Goddamned idiot blogosphere...My pal Cliz pointed me to this other blog where there’s a ton of comments from people about what total bullshit the media coverage of Tim Russert’s death has been. I can’t really say because I was watching MSNBC exclusively and specifically for the coverage.
Anyhow, some of them goddamned blog commenters (I provided the link, but I can’t endorse actually going to visit it unless you’d like to feel sad about humanity for a while) are not only criticizing the media’s coverage of Russert’s passing,* but they’re criticizing Russert as a journalist. And apparently other bloggers are joining in the fun.
*Sidebar: The 24-hour news nets always over-cover media figures’ deaths; don’t blame the guy/Princess who died for the coverage his or her passing brews up.Here’s what one ill-informed commenter commented: Russert could have been a real journalist but he chose to be a millionaire celebrity.
What the hell does that mean? You can’t be both rich and good at your job? Uh, maybe at McDonalds, pal. I’ll betcha Edward R. Murrow and Woodward & Bernstein would disagree with you, though.
I recognize this mentality. This is the same type of person who loves a band until they start selling records, then abandons them as having “sold out.” Russert was a member of the media, therefore, Russert must have been bad because the MSM is baaaaad.
As the bard himself once said, “That there’s some fuzzy math you got there. Heh heh heh.”
When I banged out my initial post, it was minutes after hearing the news. I actually watched Russert’s show religiously, and I watch the other two “MSM” Sunday morning news shows too. I like the guy on CBS, but I loved Russert. I loved Russert because he was so crazy dogged in his grilling. His whole body language was straining at the seams, fit to burst, but he was always polite and concisely-spoken and he was usually the smartest guy in the room. Always the best prepared.
Then at the end of every show, after a shitload of commercials for G.E. and various other multinational corporate entities, Russert would have maybe 15 seconds for a sign-off — not even the 90 seconds Bob Schieffer gets over on CBS —and the sign-off guy was always the opposite of the guy who’d been browbeating the Secretary of Whatever for the last 50 minutes. He’d be shouting out to some stupid sports team, the Bills if it was that time of year, or remembering someone who had passed that week, or talking about his son… if I had a buck for every time I heard Russert tell his son he loved him on that show, I’d be a millionaire celebrity myself by now.
I never knew, until the last few days, that he really was the nicest guy in the world, but I’m not a bit surprised.
Those two guys, the pit bull and the puppy dog, were the same guy. What a magnificent combination in a human being. What a cool guy he would have been to know. Unlike the people slamming him now that he’s dead, he’s somebody I actually woulda liked to have had a beer with. Even [shudder] a Rolling Rock.
To prove my point, even Bruce Springsteen liked him:
posted by Fang Bastardson at 2:59 PM
6 Comments:
I hear you, Fang. And there are some real douchebags out there who have no class.
However, for the sake of fairness, Russert wasn't above reproach. I could forward the email Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting sent to me, but I suspect you wouldn't dig it.
In any event, that was real love people, including yourself, were showing the man, and I don't see how they can possibly replace him.
5:42 PM
I'd ignore all those folks, Fang. The overwhelming reaction to Russert's death has been sincere and heartfelt.
I also suspect that he was a man who would appreciate the presence of differing opinions - even if he is the subject at hand.
11:35 AM
Buddy, I don't share your love for the man.* Within the last year or two, he explained his policy respecting conversations with public figures: everything was off the record unless his interlocutor specified otherwise. I don't support that approach.
"People shouldn't speak ill of the dead." In a vacuum, that's an entirely noble and dignified sentiment. Too bad it's not parallelled by "one shouldn't soak up limited public airwave bandwidth with overly-enthusiastic, patently-self-serving, apotheosizing encomia for the dead."
We're in a tragic war. Russert was in a position to make starting that war difficult. I don't think he did anything of the sort.
J in B
* With full acknowledgment of Luke Russert and Maureen Orth's loss.
6:27 PM
Also, curious. I haven't been transfixed by the coverage of Russert's passing. To me, he's a dead guy, a loss to his family and colleagues, but eminently replaceable in his role as an interpreter of our national challenges.
So, I haven't seen that photo before. Who are the two people breaking down, apparently comprehensively, simultaneously, (conveniently?), several days after the great man's death, on national TV?
J in B
6:31 PM
James Carville and Mary Matalin?
Breathtaking. Can you name another couple -- including your choice of "gay-and-beard-pairs" -- more experienced in kabuki performance than these two?
Serious question.
J in B
6:40 PM
Since John was kind enough to leave three comments, I think he's earned a reply. John asked, "Who are the two people breaking down, apparently comprehensively, simultaneously, (conveniently?), several days after the great man's death, on national TV?"
A married couple of the members of the chattering class. If you don’t know them, they won’t matter to you. That was my thinking, anyhow, when I posted it unattributed.
Regarding your other comment, I don’t believe I said or implied blogheads shouldn’t “speak ill of the dead.” I said they should speak accurately of the dead, and I didn’t think their criticism was fair, or even made sense.
What you said makes sense. I often felt like Russert was letting characters off the hook too, but ultimately, he’s a guy who has a TV show. If the visiting slimeball has two score different ways of evading the same question, eventually any interviewer has to move on or face the TV equivalent of dead air.
As far as to the limits of the confidentiality he extended to informants, that’s journalism 101. I too wish he could have done something about stopping the Iraq War before it happened, but that’s just pie in the sky thinking. All he had was a soapbox, and if he had done as you suggest he ought to have, he would have gained nothing and completely compromised any journalistic integrity he had and joined the ranks of the howler monkeys of afternoon cable-TV political coverage.
Regarding your writing, this phrase here is fucking brilliant and I salute you! “Too bad it's not parallelled by "one shouldn't soak up limited public airwave bandwidth with overly-enthusiastic, patently-self-serving, apotheosizing encomia for the dead.” Pure art!
Funny because it’s true.
Oh, and regarding The Battlin’ Matalins, they were hilarious when they appeared together on MTP. And no, I can’t think of another couple quite like them. Are they both gay? Really? My gaydar isn’t what it was when I lived in SoCal.
Thanks for reading!
~Fang
11:25 AM
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