Tim Russert dying is the biggest story since 9/11- Page 2

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 6/17/08 at 10:09am

Am I the only one who remembers the coverage when Anna Nicole croaked???


Tim Russert was an institution, he deserves it.

[Patronus]

Posted: 6/17/08 at 10:23am

While I don't disagree with you, miss pennywise, I don't think the Heath Ledger comparison is a fair one.

A large portion of the people that you spotlighted for holding Ledger up as a deity were young people similar in age to Heath Ledger. Anytime someone "dies young" I think it serves as a slap in the face of young people by the realization of their own mortality. Ledger certainly wasn't as influential as Russert and I don't think the media coverage of that event was as wide spread as this once it was definitive that foul play wasn't involved.

I have no problem with the amount of coverage that Russert has been getting, though I personally reached the saturation point and changed the channel late Friday night.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 6/17/08 at 11:02am

I had a feeling such a thread would surface. I confess to have both sets of reactions here. I watched Friday afternoon, some of Saturday morning, and then saw the tribute in the appropriate spot on Sunday a.m. When it spilled over to Monday morning, I began to feel quesy that I was so tired of it -- guilty, because I couldn't bear another minute of the same commentary on Russert's life, generic platitudes about his being a beloved institution. If I step back from it, I find it sad that he was never touted while living.

But there's something unsavory about its continued presence. The nadir was watching Chris Matthews, Mike Barnacle and Pat Buchannon go on an on about the Catholicism factor, how only white male catholics can fully appreciate this particular faith-based life and honor it appropriately (that's of course not what was said, but it was presented as a special club, with a special mission. Matthews'invocation of the Rosary was over the top -- and we all know Matthews was very envious of Russert, and that Russert, a true journalist, found Matthews' egocentric punditry unseemly. I think Russert would not have liked a Catholic Boys Choir cheering section to ascribe a perverse religious elitism.)

Today, a section of Buffalo highway will be named after him. Then we have the funeral and memorial svc. The family has allowed TV cameras to show it. Will it become the first scene of EVITA? He died too young. He was a remarkable journalist. Yet it has ceased to be a story with emotional undercurrents -- just another national media circus, with legs. Whoever said Russert himself would find it excessive is probably right.

[wexy]

Posted: 6/17/08 at 11:48am

On Larry King last night, the topic was "Tim Russert Died, Will You?"

[Bluemoon]

Posted: 6/17/08 at 11:54am

"Tim Russert Died, Will You?" Wouldn't the answer be, "Yes."?

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 6/17/08 at 1:11pm

The Heath Ledger comparison is a fair one because people used public forums to express and process their grief. Yes, he died "young," but for many of us, 58 is young too!

I guess all the coverage isn't bothering me so much because...I'm just not watching it! I watched it on my flight from DC to LA and haven't seen any since.

BTW, when I die, if there is this kind of media attention, please, don't anyone on this board try to stop it. Let history play itself out. It would just be so wrong to deny the world of "All Pennywise, All the Time!"

[best12bars]

Posted: 6/17/08 at 2:11pm

I will start a new Pennywise Channel in your honor.

We will rename North America as the Pennywise Continent.

A&E will air a 7-hour-long, very special segment of "Biography."

And of course, a new disco anthem will celebrate all that is you.


...but people won't go over-the-top or anything, so no worries.

[mejusthavingfun]

Posted: 6/17/08 at 3:47pm

Apparently Bush is going to the viewing, the same man that can't make it to military funerals.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 6/17/08 at 7:26pm

After posting here, rather coolly detached, I was moved to hear reports of people lining up and waiting for hours to pass the casket. I think there's no denying how genuinely connected many felt to Russert. He was the Ed Sullivan of the news division, someone everyone seemed to know, few had a grudge against, who was perceived to be a truth disseminator rather than a spinner. He was also thought to be authentic. Few people claim that. His story was archetypical.