Yesterday morning I went down to the lobby of the hotel to eat some breakfast with my co-worker before heading out to make things right in the world of IT again. The TV in the dining area had the Today Show blaring and it was a constant drumbeat on how great a loss Tim Russert's death was. The talking heads endlessly repeated the same platitudes as the war raged on, American dealt with the economy, floods destroyed homes and crops, etc. It was ridiculous.
Apparently the stupidity was not confined to television. A local blogger called Russert a "stalwart of democracy". When Russert's son was to appear on the Today Show, this same blogger breathlessly informed us of the impending moment when the visage of Russert the Younger would grace us with his cathode ray goodness. The hagiography at Caffeinated Politics is disgusting.
Gwen Ifill wrote a nice encomium for Russert and, not having ever met the man, I can say that it seems he was a real classy, stand-up guy. But a stalwart of democracy?
I have never been a dedicated Meet the Press viewer but, when I did watch, Russert did not impress me. Sure, he came off as being amiable, but when Dick Cheney is there before the cameras, I want his interlocutor to be an attack dog, not someone who just rolls over. Russert's specialty was the soft ball followed by a fat pitch. No wonder he got all the big dogs on his show – they knew they'd never be challenged. Watching Meet the Press made me feel like Jim Garrison in JFK watching the results of the Warren Commission on his television. I'd sit there yelling at the TV because Russert would never call anyone's bullshit. The warmongers of the Bush administration walked all over his ass when I was tuned in.
And what made him a journalist? Perhaps in another life he actually pounded a beat and investigated matters but, on Meet the Press all he did was to invite politicos on and ask them to comment on what the New York Times or Washington Post wrote. All he managed to do was elicit the same old party lines and K Street pieties. I'm sorry but that ain't journalism.
While I'm sure Tim Russert was a nice guy, I fail to see how democracy lost a stalwart with his passing.
No comments:
Post a Comment