Yes, but they are supposed to be trained professionals who are there to witness, objectively and dispassionatly, the events of the day. Granted, it hits them where they live ( almost literally), but they once again have lost the distinction, imho, between reporting the news and becoming the news. To me, it's just another "media circus" or to echo another post here, its a media "wake". Meanwhile, Americans are drowning, dying from a heatwave, running for their lives from forrest fires, and dying in Iraq and Afganistan. See what I mean?

Sometimes I am just not as large a person as I wish to be....

Cheeezzzzz . They just said on Meet The Press that Russert and Don Imus were close buddies!!! UGH....

so what, imus is just a normal guy, i dont know him to be homophobic

Normal guy...mmmm? Wait til he calls your fave gal babymama, he won't be normal anymore LOL

when did he do that?

If there was an iota of reason or rational thought to the absurd speculation about murder, McClellan would have been dead within hours of his book having been submitted for review by the White House.

Keep the tin foil to the 9.11 threads, would ya, please?

I'd also like to applaud Jessebttmboy for one of THE best signature lines ever.

I'd also like to applaud Jessebttmboy for one of THE best signature lines ever.

I would disagree butt to each his/her own.

I would disagree butt to each his/her own.

If you think Arianna Huffington and I don't like Tim Russert; wait until
Chris Matthews, Joe Scarborough, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Laura
Ingram, Michael Savage, Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Richard Mellon
Scaife, Rupert Murdoch, Roger Ailes and the entire Bush cabinet die; one
by one.

You will sadly discover just how small a person I can be.

This morning was rough. My fiancee and I were crying this morning during Meet the Press. Sundays will never be the same.

Yes, but they are supposed to be trained professionals who are there to witness, objectively and dispassionatly, the events of the day. Granted, it hits them where they live ( almost literally), but they once again have lost the distinction, imho, between reporting the news and becoming the news. To me, it's just another "media circus" or to echo another post here, its a media "wake". Meanwhile, Americans are drowning, dying from a heatwave, running for their lives from forrest fires, and dying in Iraq and Afganistan. See what I mean?

Eh, I see nothing "highlighted" in the post to which I responded. This one here.

Unless, of course, what you mean by "highlighted" is that section which appears in quotes, referencing what was apparently Russert's last activity - an interview published on-line by MSNBC. Is THAT what you mean is idiotic?

In as much as I then provided significant excerpts of that interview and asked which portions of it were idiotic, I can't help suspect that you are somewhat confused.

It’s a virus. You have bloggers on both sides, liberals and conservatives, Republicans and Democrats all trying to utilize this vehicle without any kind of fact checking and without any kind of editorial control.

The Hedonists of Power
Posted on Jun 23, 2008
By Chris Hedges

Washington has become Versailles. We are ruled, entertained and informed by courtiers. The popular media are courtiers. The Democrats, like the Republicans, are courtiers. Our pundits and experts are courtiers. We are captivated by the hollow stagecraft of political theater as we are ruthlessly stripped of power. It is smoke and mirrors, tricks and con games. We are being had.

The past week was a good one if you were a courtier. We were instructed by the high priests on television over the past few days to mourn a Sunday morning talk show host, who made $5 million a year and who gave a platform to the powerful and the famous so they could spin, equivocate and lie to the nation. We were repeatedly told by these television courtiers, people like Tom Brokaw and Wolf Blitzer, that this talk show host was one of our nation’s greatest journalists, as if sitting in a studio, putting on makeup and chatting with Dick Cheney or George W. Bush have much to do with journalism.

No journalist makes $5 million a year. No journalist has a comfortable, cozy relationship with the powerful. No journalist believes that acting as a conduit, or a stenographer, for the powerful is a primary part of his or her calling. Those in power fear and dislike real journalists. Ask Seymour Hersh and Amy Goodman how often Bush or Cheney has invited them to dinner at the White House or offered them an interview.

All governments lie, as I.F. Stone pointed out, and it is the job of the journalist to do the hard, tedious reporting to shine a light on these lies. It is the job of courtiers, those on television playing the role of journalists, to feed off the scraps tossed to them by the powerful and never question the system. In the slang of the profession, these television courtiers are “throats.” These courtiers, including the late Tim Russert, never gave a voice to credible critics in the buildup to the war against Iraq. They were too busy playing their roles as red-blooded American patriots. They never fought back in their public forums against the steady erosion of our civil liberties and the trashing of our Constitution. These courtiers blindly accept the administration’s current propaganda to justify an attack on Iran. They parrot this propaganda. They dare not defy the corporate state. The corporations that employ them make them famous and rich. It is their Faustian pact. No class of courtiers, from the eunuchs behind Manchus in the 19th century to the Baghdad caliphs of the Abbasid caliphate, has ever transformed itself into a responsible elite. Courtiers are hedonists of power.

Our Versailles was busy this past week. The Democrats passed the FISA bill, which provides immunity for the telecoms that cooperated with the National Security Agency’s illegal surveillance over the past six years. This bill, which when signed means we will never know the extent of the Bush White House’s violation of our civil liberties, is expected to be adopted by the Senate. Barack Obama has promised to sign it in the name of national security. The bill gives the U.S. government a license to eavesdrop on our phone calls and e-mails. It demolishes our right to privacy. It endangers the work of journalists, human rights workers, crusading lawyers and whistle-blowers who attempt to expose abuses the government seeks to hide. These private communications can be stored indefinitely and disseminated, not just to the U.S. government but to other governments as well. The bill, once signed into law, will make it possible for those in power to identify and silence anyone who dares to make public information that defies the official narrative.