Because somebody had to say it
I am not mourning this 5 million-dollar-a-year talking head, felled by his own obesity. How is it that in this world of suffering, we are expected to weep for a talentless and filthy rich tv prince? It is an example of false consciousness, like the frenzy over Princess Di's death.
Actually, I kind of miss the big-nosed princess, a cute young woman with a wild streak who raised some money for charities and had a penchant for embarrassing the british monarchy. What was Russert? A lackey, a fraud, a dim-bulb lazy establishment gatekeeper, paid five million dollars a year to delude us into thinking that jibber-jabber over campaigns was real journalism, at a time when actual journalists are getting laid off left and right.
His interviews were lazy. His method was to read critical editiorials from the Washington Post or the Wall Street Journal at a politician (frequently stumbling over words) and then to ask the politician to respond. Because Russert was too dumb to formulate a logical follow-up question, he would simply restate the gist of that editorial and once again ask the politician to respond, again and again. But he did perk up and object when a guest dared to assert that Cheney had linked 911 and Iraq in the run up to the Iraq war. In fact, Cheney had done so on Russert's own show.
His books were lazy. A tribute to dear old dad? Well, we all had dads. This tribune of the Buffalo working class might have said a word about how the disruptions of globalization wreak havoc on communities and family stability, but alas did not. A collection of viewers' letters about their dear old dads? Why didn't he give his royalties to those letter-writers?
I haven't forgotten his four questions to Obama on the subject of Farrakhan, all during the course of a single debate. Obama was forthright in his condemnation of Farrakhan, but Russert wouldnt drop it. Russert was bound and determined to read (fequently stumbling over words) some choice Farrakhan quotes at Obama in order to create some phony controvery.
Tim Russert, RIP.