Did you know that Iowa has been devastated by the flooding of the Iowa River? That nearly 40,000 people have been evacuated from their homes? That 4 people have lost their lives? That 16 buildings at the University of Iowa have been flooded? If your answer is “Yes, but who cares? Tim Russert has died,” you’re probably not alone.
Tim Russert was undoubtedly a fine son and father, a decent, hard-working, conscientious individual. He also would have likely been disgusted with the ubiquitous tributes to his honor that effectively served to sweep other news stories under the rug.
I wonder whether it’s possible that any of these news networks utilize an ombudsman who can highlight the self-indulgent, overloaded coverage of Russert’s death. Even ESPN has an ombudsman, who I might add, has done an excellent job of ridiculing the bloviated ramblings of Mark “Chop Block” Schlereth and Gregg “Please distract yourself with the photos of cheerleaders in my column so you won’t notice how vacuous and insipid my column is” Easterbrook for their biased, unsubstantiated commentary on the “Spygate” scandal.
If any of the mainstream news networks want to truly honor Russert’s legacy they would treat his death in the same way that Russert treated his guests: fair, but tough. They would give him the encomiums, but also acknowledge that there are those who were critical of him. And they would consider the amount of coverage they gave to the passing of Norman Mailer, David Halberstam, and Kurt Vonnegut — all of whom passed away within the past year or so — and attempt to put the coverage of Russert’s passing within context. All of those men were writers/commentators whose lasting influence on our country’s conscience/consciousness will, let’s be frank, far outstrip Russert’s legacy and yet their deaths received but a fraction of the coverage. But an objective observer of our news media would never know that. If our mainstream media were as tough on themselves as Russert was on his guests, that would have been the ultimate tribute.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: David Halberstam, Gregg Easterbrook, Kurt Vonnegut, Mark Schlereth, Norman Mailer, Tim Russert
Tim Russert dead. Who cares!
The coverage of Tim Russert’s death was often overblown, self-congratulatory and self-indulgent.
Tim Russert was, shall we say, not a very popular while he was alive, he was routinely castigated as a Bush lapdog.
“I now know more about the pompous king maker Tim Russert than I do many members of my family.”
After Russert’s shocking death Friday at age 58, television kept serving up witnesses to his expertise, intelligence, diligence, kindness, faith, love of family, Buffalo and the Buffalo Bills.
Is the grieving process going on TV? On 06.16.2008 “Today,” Matt Lauer interviewed Russert’s son, Luke. The show basically gave over the first half-hour to the Russert story. I am shocked at the publicity tour of Tim Russert’s grieving son.
Presidential candidates aren’t questioned at such length on morning programs. The self-indulgence was breathtaking.
Shalom,
— Leland Milton Goldblatt, Ph.D. ®
Distinguished Professor
http://drgoldblatt.blogspot.com/
http://www.myspace.com/miltongoldblatt
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