Corporate News "Russertathon" Continues

I tuned into NBC for the "Meet the press" time slot this morning just to see what kind of lovefest they'd put up for Big Tim Russert. As expected the beatification continued unabated. I told my wife that it's as if a sitting President or adored world leader had died.
The talking heads are stroking themselves through their continuous, adoring Russertathon. Jeebus I'd hate to be one of these people, they make millions but if they have an original thought in their head you'll never see it. The midwest drowning, Iraq still bleeding, US soldiers dying in Afghanistan, oil workers now allowed to harass, kill and torture polar bears. An endless horror list. But damnit that affable fellow, Big Tim Russert, Dick Cheney's favorite interviewer died. The brain dead leading the brain dead goes on. Barry Crimmons has the best take on this latest corporate news navel gazing I've seen:

"..The media wags that survive Russert are incapable of seeing the absurdity of their overkill of his death.."

"..The Russertathon establishes that talking heads matter more than many outstanding people, too. (At least as far as other talking heads are concerned.) In 500 years, who do you think will be considered more significant for his contribution as a chronicler of this age we live in? Tim Russert or Kurt Vonnegut? If Vonnegut got five minutes coverage on MSNBC when he died, I missed four minutes and forty-five seconds of it. Russert, on the other hand, has already had 30 times more airtime devoted to his life and death than all of the 129 journalists who have been killed in Iraq combined. It's exactly the kind of reporting we've come to expect during the era of a nice guy named Tim Russert.."

Link.

Related: Here's Bill Moyers interviewing Russert in April 2007 excerpted from the Moyers "Buying the War" broadcast:


This is all I'll ever have to say about Tim Russert. I never watched his show for the same reason I never watch any of these corporate cable news talks. They are "he said, she said, journamalism", skimming the surface of real information and the truth. R.I.P. Tim Russert, someone else will take your seat. Someone else probably even worse if I know the corporate info-tainment playbook.

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