It is reported that Tim Russert died this afternoon of a heart attack.
Even though I have never really watched Russert (as I have not watched ANY network "news" or public affairs program in many years), it is always a shock when a major pubic figure dies. It brings home our own mortality.
From what I saw of Tim Russert, he was the best that NBC or MSNBC had to offer. Talk about damning with faint praise!!!
More directly, in seeing Russert as a questoner in debates, and on isolated other occasions, Russert had one major virtue (what used to be THE virtue of a good mainstream media figure, before they all came out of the leftist closet). Even though he was once a Democratic "operative" (the term used in the story now linked on Drudge), you could not generally tell Russert's personal, political views from his questions to people he interviewed. Thus, his passing means a further reductioin of this vanishing breed (maybe to NONE).
Therefore, Russert's death represents a further loss to old style journalistic values--even if I thought he was a shade overrated (mainly, I think, because he looked so good in comparison with OTHERS at NBC, and elsewhere in the mainstream media today).
As with any death (even of the non-famous), I do have sympathy for his family and trust thatat they will console themselves with memories of his LIFE, rather than be devastated by his death.
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