Sunday, June 15, 2008

Can we run the flag back up the pole now?

I notice the flags are still at half mast for that TeeWee talking head who choked on his last cookie the other day.

Not watching TeeWee, when I heard that Tim Russert had died, my first response was "Who?" I literally had no clue who the guy was. Now, though, I know. After three days I understand that he was a brilliant, sensitive, courageous, passionate genius who loved puppy dogs, helped little old ladies across the street, healed the sick, made the blind to see, and walked across water hazards to get to the next green.

For pity's sake, Gerald Ford didn't get this much florid eulogizing in the news when he croaked recently. Of course, he was only a President of the United States, not a member of the media...

22 comments:

Brian J. said...

You know, I'm sorta fortunate that I won't confuse Chris Matthews with Tim Russert any more.

At least, I hope not.

Anonymous said...

Chris Matthews was the fat crazy eyed blond haired democrat. Tim Russert was the fat crazy eyed brown haired democrat.

Make sense now?

the pawnbroker said...

that night reporting live
from afghanistan where more of our guys are dying now than in iraq, the anchor was just a handoff guy to all the eulogizers, many of whom speaking off the cuff couldn't even keep the names straight, and these are people who are doing everything in their power (which is sadly huge) to guide this election to their preferred conclusion for their preferred reasons,and that is the disgusting part of this ostentatious enshrinement of one of "the only other ones"...

russert himself was a good guy by all appearances, loving his family and working hard like everybody else, and for that he and his family deserved a happy and not tragic father's day...

but what the media is really mourning, in addition to the shocking realization that they are the same blob of protoplasm, subject to the same undignified ends as the rest of us, is that tim russert's giddy little pretend-midwestern rooting section won't be there to lead the cheers and gin up the votes for his "chosen one".

good night, tim...may you rest in peace and God bless your soul and your family.

jtc

Anonymous said...

Tim Russert was a bombastic know-it-all liberal in the Chris Matthews tradition. The few times I watched his show, he lobbed easy, softball questions to libs while sending high speed curve balls to conservatives.
Flags at half-staff for this guy?
You have got to be kidding!

Anonymous said...

I occasionally watched "Meet the Depressed". I, too, was awed by the "gravitas" with which he could lob softball questions.

His saving grace, I guess, was that the questions weren't QUITE as soft as those of Dan Blather.

Art

breda said...

yep - I said "who?" too.

Jeffro said...

I happened to have NBC on the other morning, and was treated to the sight of Matt Lauer fighting back tears live on camera.

What a pro.

Reno Sepulveda said...

I liked Russert. Meet The Press was a better show because of him. The coverage was overboard, but if you weren't aware of Russert or Meet The Press, I wouldn't be bragging about it.

People that get their news from right-wing blog regurgitation complain about the media being so biased towards the left. People that get their news from left-wing blog regurgitation are aware that the news media is biased because they are all run by evil corporations. Tim Russert was one of the last guys around trying to find some kind of neutral corner.

He was vilified by liberals everywhere last October for having the nerve to ask Hillary about her support of a plan to give driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. He asked the question and made her answer it.

That was the first chink in her aura of inevitability. The MSM eventually turned against the Clintons but Russert had the balls to do it first while she was on top.

Tam said...

Excuse the hell out of me for getting my information from CNN/MSNBC/BBC.com, news radio, and those silly archaic things called "Books, Magazines, and Newspapers" where the pictures don't move or talk.

I was aware of the existence of a show called "Meet The Press" and, I guess at some subliminal level, realized it might have some manner of permanent host, but you'll forgive me if not being aware of the talking head's name makes me feel ill-informed compared to the vacuous, bubble-headed louts who while away their mornings in front of the idiot box.

Anonymous said...

I didn't watch Meet the Press, nor any TV for that matter, but I recognized the name right away. The first association I had was, "Didn't the hard left get pissed at him for asking some pertinent questions at a Democrat debate?"

Yup, and so they did. And now it appears the hard left (of the blogosphere anyway) is dancing on his grave and tossing confetti.

Good Lord. Those people would march us all into camps if they could screw their courage to the sticking place and give it a try.

Oh, Reno, one reason Neanderthals such as myself believe the MSM leans left is because they keep slipping up and saying as much. Remember the fifteen points the media was going to deliver to Kerry in 2004?

Anonymous said...

Sorry, Tam, do I need to say "TeeWee" instead of TV? Don't want to get sent to the bit bucket for improper usage.

Johnny said...

Tam you should not be reading, it's very bad for the environment and stuff. The talking heads on the telescreen in the corner of the room are there to tell you what to think. They use short sentences and they even have pictures and diagrams to make it clearer for you, you dumbass. Do you imagine you can actually think for yourself, what are you some kind of cultist or something? You're just ignorant and bitter, clinging to your books. His holiness the Obama has promised to burn all the books so's crackers like you will have to stop flaunting their diabolical reading skills.

Tam said...

"Sorry, Tam, do I need to say "TeeWee" instead of TV?"

This is pretty much Liberty Hall, as far as I'm concerned. You can spit on the rug and call the cat a bastard.

Points are awarded for exceptionally well-mannered insults, however.

Anonymous said...

Yes, it's rather like the Academy Awards, with a bunch of actors and other Hollywood types and their mutual pseudo-self-worshiping, while no one capable of independent thought gives a damn; let one of the journalistic talking heads or commentators die, and suddenly flooding in the Midwest, Salmonella-poisoned tomatoes and Afghanistan troop movements are no longer worthy of TV news coverage for at least the next several hours in prefernce to a bunch of hypocritically-exaggerated eulogies from the mouths of others of the same ilk.

Anonymous said...

Tim Russert was one of the few "talking heads" that took a fairly neutral position during an interview. His election night reporting was good commentary as to what was actually happening. He worked hard at being an actual journalist with independant views rather than just reading a teleprompter. He will be missed.

the pawnbroker said...

anon said: "(russert) worked hard at being an actual journalist with independant views rather than just reading"...yes he did, and that's the problem there, anon...

jtc

Boyd said...

Wow, far be it from me to be a liberal apologist, but the man was well-known and well-liked by a wide spectrum of people.

It must be nice to be so smugly superior in your views that you think it's good behavior to badmouth folks in the wake of their recent death.

Class. Real class.

Tam said...

Boyd,

I've gone back and re-read my post three whole times (not even moving my lips) and was unable to find where I badmouthed Tim Russert.

Mocking the three days of sackcloth and ashed ruthlessly? Yes. Laughing at the attempts to make a TeeWee journalist sound like a combination of Mother Teresa and Superman? Sure. Mocking Russert himself? I'm missing that part. Could you underline it for me?

Boyd said...

Sorry for the confusion, Tam. I was actually responding to some of your commenters, who apparently are unfamiliar with civilized behavior.

Your original post deserved a bit of a snarky comeback, but the whole I-don't-know-how-to-act-like-a-civilized-human-being thang kinda overwhelmed that reaction for me.

Anonymous said...

Huh, Liberty Hall... spit... cat a bastard...

You haven't read any Bertram Chandler in your misspent life, have you?

Anonymous said...

What?! Gerald Ford is dead?!

Anonymous said...

Yeah, but Ford was a republican and Russert was a democrat.
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