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Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Debra J. Saunders :: Townhall.com Columnist
The Russert Weekend RIP
by Debra J. Saunders
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Where's the news? It's not as if anyone is going to say anything critical about Russert. The guy just died. There's a mournful brass horn playing with his photo between segments. You get on TV by fawning about how much Russert loved his son, and no politician or regular guest is going to depart from the script. It's a bit like watching "Larry King Live" after an octogenarian Hollywood star dies, and fellow hoofers rush to reminisce about their tales with the deceased. Even in death, everyone wants in on the act.

The Republican National Committee sent out a statement. Ditto California Democratic Party Chairman Art Torres. California first lady Maria Shriver's statement said that Russert "was one of a kind to me and I was lucky enough to have had him as a best friend."

In this game, crass opportunism is rewarded. Shriver appeared via satellite from Sun Valley, Idaho, on Sunday's special edition of "Meet the Press" -- on which she started or repeated the thread about Russert being the product of nuns, Jesuits and parochial education.

Part of the Russert Weekend phenomenon can be credited to a profession's prerogative. Figure that doctors receive the best medical attention, bartenders pour generous drinks for each other and mortuary owners rate posh funerals. Likewise, one of the perks of journalism is that when we kick the bucket, we get a nice sendoff story.

An outstanding journalist of Russert's stripe rated more than a nice sendoff story. But there is another tenet of the profession that Washington TV news bureaus seem to have forgotten in the shock of Russert's passing: We are not the story.

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(13 comments so Far)
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Reply # 1
Date: Jun 18, 2008 - 3:58 AM EST
Overkill
Very well put. Russert was head and shoulders above most of the peers, pundits and politicians to rushed to call him "best friend," and to capitalize on the sad event of his sudden passing. I would bet his family first appreciated the outpouring of tribute, then became sickened at the brazen and blatant cashing-in that the weekend tributes morphed into as the hours passed. You are correct about one story at a time, and where was the news, after all? Our 24/7 news industry had become so bloated and overweight (just like our American citizenry) that they squat upon a story and sit on it far too long for nearly everyone's comfort. That's not to take anything from Russert, about whom many wonderful and richly-deserved things were said, but for a while there, a foreign stranger tuning in to our weekend long funeral dirge of TV news coverage might have mistakenly thought that Russert was the president, and that he had suddenly died or been killed. Perhaps some of this gushing was out of silent guilt that they had not paid sufficient respect to him and his talents while he was among the living. His death reminds us all that we never know when we have seen our last sunrise, and that we should make every day count as best we can. He told his son that he loved him every single day. How insightful was that?...
Tim Russert ~ May you rest in peace.
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Reply # 2
Date: Jun 18, 2008 - 3:23 AM EST
Dougg - And there's ad hominem...
--
...done to perfection, as only a "Liberal" wanker can manage it, losing the debate (were there a referee present to jerk your collar for you) by way of your prat-flashing stupidity in:

"...the logical fallacy of attempting to undermine a speaker's argument by attacking the speaker instead of addressing the argument."


What you *might* have tried instead, dimwit, was to make some sort of comment akin to "Good riddance? Isn't that a little harsh?" and then trying your feeble best to make the case that there's some sort of value to the career of Tim Russert - lawyer, aide to Daniel Moynihan and then Mario Cuomo, MSM root-weevil, etc. - such that an impartial observer might have some tenuous reason to allow the possibility that he was more valuable walking around than soaking up formalin.

But you couldn't do that, couldja, Douggie-doo?

Well, *what* a surprise.

Not that I've come to expect much more from the average "Liberal," almost every one of which seems to qualify - on the basis of demonstrating no evidence of electrical activity above the level of the thalamus - as ambulatory organ donors in dire need of harvesting before subtentorial necrosis starts to set in.





========
"At the core of liberalism is the spoiled child— miserable, as all spoiled children are, unsatisfied, demanding, ill-disciplined, despotic and useless. Liberalism is a philosophy of sniveling brats."

-- P.J. O'Rourke
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