Goodbye, Tim Russert

You gotta be kidding, this guy was part of the problem. I won't say that I'm glad that he died, because that would be incredibly crass but to say that this man was a good interviewer or journalist is bull.

One of the last great journalists. RIP.

What??? He held politicians accountable? You forgot a rather HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE one: Dick Cheney...who muttered--as he always does--that he liked Meet the Press because he could "manage the message" there.

Give me a break. RIP, sure, but Russert was no journalist. He couldn't even wear a shoelace from the shoes of Lawrence Spivak, who was in charge of the REAL Meet the PRess--you know, where "The Press" wasn't Tim Russert alone...kind of a sad statement when you step back from the Koolaid punchbowl a bit to examine just how little he contributed. That makes for a sad eulogy, actually. People remember Lawrence Spivak to this day: will Tim Russert be remembered in the same vein?

In no way do I mean to diss the Russert family; I would like to help others wake up from the sleeping sickness Americans have fallen prey to.

Missed by whom? People who enjoy the fact that allt the top journalists in the US suck up to the establishment? Please - while I do not applaud or welcome his death, his reputation is built on little but a self-important air of hardnosedness that he rarely if ever lived up to. He was one of the many top journos who abdicated their responsibility in the runup to the Iraq war and one who coddled Bush, a buffooon that by rights should be one of the easiest political figures in the world to catch flat-footed.

As usual, The Editors gets it right:

http://thepoorman.net/2008/06/14/tim-russert-wasnt-a-very-good-journalist/

So anytime a doctor tells you you're fine, he must be lying. Got it. I'll just remember to do the opposite of everything my doctor tells me, and expect a long, happy life.