Saturday, June 14, 2008
Tim Russert 1950-2008
Nothing seems to throw a man's lifework into sharper focus as when he leaves us, we tend to forget. It'll be strange watching "Meet the Press" this Sunday morning without Tim Russert. One of the most common forms of praise we're hearing about him yesterday and today is how unbiased the man was in his journalism, the sentiment most commonly expressed by politicians and everyone else is "he asked tough questions of everyone." I totally agree but the fact that everyone seems to be bringing it up, that it comes so naturally to mind, implies that most of the rest of the msm is just the opposite, otherwise why does this point stand out so clearly? One interview in particular stands out in my mind among many others and that is when he had Al Gore on and asked him his personal views on abortion. He asked the quite simple question three times and Al Gore just kept saying "I support the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision" but that's not what Russert asked him and truth be told Russert irked alot of feminists by his line of questioning. Bravo Tim! it was from the nature of his interviewing that if you didn't know any better you'd never have guessed he was a lifelong Democrat. Bob Newhart once said of himself that, while he has some strong political views "my job is not to educate but to entertain." If you change the last words around and put in "but to practice objective journalism" you have the man Russert. R.I.P.
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Good point about his asking tough question of everyone standing out from the rest of the crowd, it shouldn't be such a rare thing in a journalist, should it?
ReplyDeletePerhaps if nothing else Russert's passing will inspire someone in the msm (maybe an up-and-coming journalist or two) to take up where he left off.
So I was reading just now at your blog that you both went to the same college but in different years, John Carroll. So what did you study? You know I got to thinking there must be some courses on blogging by now, they cover everything else.
ReplyDeleteI got a degree in Accounting from John Carroll. It is a good school, used to be all men when my dad went there but maybe by the time Tim Russert went, it was co-ed.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't doubt there is a blogging course now, afterall anyone who is anyone has a blog, right??
Oy vey, summertime! It's bad enough I can't blog on Sunday 'cause the libraries are closed but some even close early on Fridays and Saturdays and you're like all pent-up as any true blogger is when he can't blog, it's like breathing. Is it true what they say about accountants, that you can give ten accountants the same tax return and they come up with ten different versions?
ReplyDeleteThat is probably true about accountants to some extent, except most use software so perhaps that is not quite as true as it used to be.
ReplyDeleteGotta get your own computer, Z, or move somewhere where the libraries don't close so early.
They're building a brand new one not far from me with better hours only it isn't completed yet. That will be my home base.
ReplyDeleteSlip the construction guys a $20 to finish faster, lol.
ReplyDeleteYou know some of these construction projects on the highways last for literally years and years and you begin to wonder whether they'll even be done in your lifetime, adding an extra lane, putting up another exit or entrance ramp. Something tells me Dagny would've had it done by now.
ReplyDeleteYou've got that right!
ReplyDeleteEverywhere I go they're tearing up the roads or else painting a bright yellow stripe down the middle of some parkway that doesn't really need painting. They get federal funds and have to use 'em, many times it's all just a big boondoggle.
ReplyDeleteThe memorial service is today at 3, a Catholic service as Russert took his faith seriously just like he did his work. I like his working class roots, his father having worked in the sanitation business. Russert never lost the common touch and as my Dad would say about Big Russ there is dignity in every form of labor provided you do your job well. Old-school thinking I know.
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