I was shocked when I opened up my e-mail this evening upon arriving home from work. I was dumbfounded when I saw that Tim Russert had died from a heart attack. The news media and the United States will be poorer without him.
Its a common thing among many conservative bloggers to decry the so called main stream media or MSM. It is a convenient dodge to blame them for not reporting things they way they believe or more importantly, having that annoying tendency to bring up unpleasant facts that do not support their already pre-conceived notions. As you have probably read here more than a couple of times, I think the term is a crock of you know what. There are various types of media product available out there-some are good and some are just hacks like Charles Krauthammer.
No one could ever say that Tim Russert was just a hack however. And if someone did, they obviously had not been listening to what he said. With Mr Russert’s passing, NBC is losing a journalist of the old tradition-who fostered personal relationships, did his homework, and also realized that the news departments had more of a responsibilty than to simply echo the adminstration talking points. They had a responsibility to place events in perspective and perhaps educated an increasingly less literate viewing and reading public. Journalism has not gotten worse per se. American viewers and readers have just gotten dumber over time. I blame the schools, the entertainment programs, yes-much as I hate to admit it-blogs and other so called “new media”.
I bought a book a few months back called “Murrow’s Boys” which is the story of how the group of journalists that Murrow recruited before the war went on to set the standards for CBS news for a generation. I think that if the time had been different, Russert would have been one of Murrow’s boys-which is probably the best tribute that this inferior writer can give him.
May God grant him rest and peace.
Honestly Skippy,
I can’t turn my back on you without you getting all hysterical and maudlin. Rusert was a good man but he was a jouro of his time. He had a agenda and he hewed too it like knoboddies bussiness….
OK, every one of those typos was deliberate and it took some thought to work them in there. I have to confess that right at this moment I’m watching Blazing Saddles for what that’s worth but that movie is almost a commentary on what journalism has become in America. One cannot read an AP piece of crap without being smacked in the face by the 20 pound carp of MSM news. One dare not even read an AFP piece for fear that it will kill the pancreas. The recent supreme court decision on habeas corpus was a “smack down” of the Bush adminstration……No it wasn’t! It was the 3rd branch expressing measureless contempt for you and me; for the legislative branch that approved that law and for the executive that is charged with protecting Americans. It had nothing to do with smacking down the administration and everything to do with liberal elite contempt for America and our Constitution. Did the MSM mention that that law had the overwhelming bi-partisan support of Congress or did it just state that the supreme executive spanked the Bush administration?
I am sick and tired of the MSM agenda. When did it become ennobling to be a vomit licking partisan press hack? No Skippy, I don’t want a journalist hacks perspective on the facts, I just want the facts. Who, what, when, where.
How can I say this? Save perspective and putting it in context for Barrack Obama’s ministers and terrorist friends. In the meantime, let’s just say that perception is everything and my perception of the MSM is that they would be happy to lick up the spit of any PLO or Hamas spokesman.
I gave up on the media when it started making up its own news and putting its own spin on every single news event that they deigned to comment on and add color to.
And as for Russert-I think if look hard at his entire career you will find that his questions were fair and balanced. It was the politicians that gave him his openings not the other way around.
You have just proved my point. And for you there is a media outlet-Fox News, The New York Post, and the Sunday Funnies.
For me, I rerquire a little more fidelity however. Which is why I read a wide variety of outlets on both sides of the aisle.
When you do that you find:
1) That the military comissions act was passed not by a wide majority but by a majority and after some interesting filibuster stuff. At the time people said it would not pass muster with the Supreme Court and it eventually did not.
2)That the decision did nothing to free the people at Gitmo-it allowed the administration to hold them but it simply demanded they be provided the right to confront their accuser. Every one is hysterical over nothing really-except that the Court did not kowtow to the adminstration. For a balanced take on the decision go to the SCOTUS blog.
There is no main stream media. You, the consumer can consume what you want. Caveat emptor applies however.
I agree with you about Russert. But unlike you, he was broad minded. You say people are “dumb” just because they don’t agree or think like you. He gave everyone afair hearing and responded intelligently
Paul,
I am not so sure that I said that. What I am saying is that there is no such thing as a monolithic media. I never said anyone was dumb-but I am a smart guy. 🙂
(Except when it comes to women………..).