Annoyed by Tim Russert coverage?

Give MSNBC a break...

What's going on is a media version of a wake, the traditional observance of public grieving/memorializing/narrative of the death of a loved one. (Sadly, this process -that's what it is- has fallen out of favor- these days most folks want the death/funeral/mourning done quickly and without fanfare so we can get on with life, and pretend death isn't around the corner..This I know far too intimately.. too often I am in the death business...)

He was a family member of this company, and they are using what they have (the airwaves) to memorialize a father figure. All the 'cousins' and 'friends' are coming out of the woodwork to do their due diligence.

Wakes have been a given for centuries in western cultures; what we're seeing is a ritual of old brought forward into the 21st century electronic medium. On most news websites, even you and I can post thoughts, prayers and memories.. to participate in this process.

Because of the speed of television/internet, the world has grown very small; we're all in each others' lives. Of course, if you don't care for the ritual, you can turn it off. Yes, the airwaves are public, but they have editorial authority to televise what they choose. To them, this is important. Apparently, Tim Russert was one of their big guns.

The only thing missing from all these emotional 'sharings'.. is the Irish Whiskey. Even if you didn't care for him, or his views, pay your respects, and hoist one for him...

(An aside: I'm on the verge of hitting 1,000 posts, and I'm so excited;
Is it true that when you hit 1,000 posts, DU gives you a free car?
I'm hinting for a Prius...)

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Russert WAS (in your words) one of those 'idiot catholic morons..'
and so are many paying their due diligence..
Not that there's anything wrong with that..

Get over it?
Hmmmnn. its a wake up call to all of us who are over 50,
who work too many hours, who may have weight issues,
and cholesterol issues, and who think the world is our oyster.

There's few guarantees in this life.
That's why the wakes of the beloved are so important..

(Sooooo... DU...where's my car?)

in Camden, NJ - for 3 days and 1 night - all expenses paid, except for room, board and tax.

This is one classy operation, ya know?

For ease of culling when the time comes. It'll happen while you're asleep, and you won't even notice the jagged, foot-long scar along your spine.

:yoiks:


Before, I was only depressed.....


:rofl:

:P

:mad:

and a million Iraqis. They deserve a media wake as well.

A huge public wake... invite that group that brought those 1,000 coffins to the
NYC anti-war demonstration at the Republican National Convention in 2004...
(Although they'd hafta furnish 4,099 to date)

A huge wake with candlelight, torches, loud public mourning, singing, chanting..
thru the streets of Washington DC.. ending up at the White House..

Yes, good idea.

I haven't actually seen any of the coverage. I am so disgusted by the corporate media I just can't watch.

The way the media have censored and sanitized the horrors of Iraq is just f-ing criminal.

they're acting just the same. It's not a wake, it's a convenient distraction.

that media sets in our way --- all the crap set in front of us
to 'entertain' and 'distract' us from the atrocities of life..
all of them pointing to death.

That's the problem with our culture.. Neil Postman's book
"Entertaining ourselves to Death" said it all..

The death of a public figure is always a reminder...
Anna Nicole? I was appalled by the media feeding frenzy over that
until I read George Lakoff's new book "The Political Mind"
where he ties her death in with the meta-narratives of our society...
Anna Nicole was the embodiment of the blue collar women that Hillary
resonated with...

Sheesh, its' getting deep in here...

More people need to read it, and *many* DUers need to read other things as well, to inform themselves as to just how goddam damaging Russert and the Corporate Propaganda Ministry have been to our democracy. The ignorance here is astounding. And then you start wondering "if *DUers* are this ignorant, then just how bad are the rest of Murkans, who are nearly totally tuned-out?"
and then you feel like banging your head against the wall and never stopping... :banghead:


DUers - step away from the teevee and the Russert necrophilia, and read what Glenn Greenwald has to say about the media. Or MediaMatters. Or Eric Alterman, Joe Conason, Bob Somerby (linked in the OP of another thread here), others. INFORM yourselves.

...but I didn't get a free car. :( Or maybe that was just me. Maybe everyone else got a free car. Hmph.

Congrats on your milestone, either way! :)

Thanks on your congrats... I've been holding back all week...
waiting for something to blow my wad..

You know that the coverage is on,don't watch the channel.You don't have to click on the news stories about it either.Its the weekend go outside and enjoy life.You don't have to watch tv or sit in front of the computer all day - you are annoyed by your own choice.

an emotional 'circle jerk' of memories, tears, and sometimes gloating..
you nailed it.

their own.

I wasn't in Tim Russert's life. That's baloney. His world was Washington, and Nantucket, and being quoted by Dick Cheney. If his co-workers want to gather in remembrance of him, that's fine. They can pick somewhere to do it that doesn't use my space. They don't own these airwaves. I don't take my grieving family & friends to their space, to have our personal traditional wake there, and make them take part. They shouldn't do it to us.

I will NOT give MSNBC a break. Their 'grieving' is ostentatious, and at a time when current events really ARE affecting thousands of people in real, practical ways, that these 'journalists' are ignoring, their hijacking of the public airwaves is an egregious act of contempt.

On Saturday, MSNBC runs that 'Inside confidential: prison life!"
mock-u-mentaries...

If there was a primary, it'd be different.

Public airwaves? I hafta pay for my cable,
so it's not so public..

There's flooding in the Midwest, there's a recession, there's a presidential campaign going on, there's at least five major wars going on in the world, there's kidnappings, there's government reports being issued, there's a frickin' Scotus finding that says the president of the United States can't by fiat override the Constitution in times of war, and we have an executive branch up to its ass in scandals.

If it's a "slow news day" that's a further indictment of the news media, because it sure as hell isn't a slow human-events day.

That is what I'm talking about, highjacking OUR Airwaves..

You Nailed it my friend..

I'm tempted to contact the FCC and Complain, folks, it aint a Kennedy for Christsakes!

The FCC has no jurisdiction over cable programming. Even if it did, you'd just get laughed at, as do the millions of others who seem to think holding a remote control makes them program directors.

MSNBC is a cable network; it's not on any "airwaves." You have to pay to watch it, and you have to make that choice.

Apparently, you and many others here choose to be outraged. But that's nothing new.

They are supposed to report the news.

This is just a more overt display of what has happened to the mainstream media over the years. It's nothing but mindless junk.

corporation and all that. Agree or disagree with the televised wake, but I am sure they are losing money with it (good part of yesterday, it went on without any commercials, at least when I watched, on and off) which probably says something about their reasons to go on with it.

Russert competently carried out his job as the water carrier in chief for the Bush-Cheney administration, with a veneer of journalistic credentials to cloak the lies. The corporate media are mourning his loss, as well they should, but I do not see why DU is participating in the wake.

don't give a rats ass about Tim Russert.

And I don't think I do either. A lot of people died yesterday. I feel bed for the families and friends of all of them. As I just heard the chimp put it so eloquently on MSNBC, "I know they're hurtin' right now". But I didn't know them. Some of them I may have liked. But I didn't like Tim Russert when he was alive and his death doesn't change that.

I haven't had the TV on since yesterday afternoon. but I just turned on MSNBC to see if they'd gone back to covering real news. But no, the sobfest goes on, now in its 23rd hour.

for them to focus so much on the life of one relatively privileged person when the media itself was complicit in causing the suffering and death of so very many others, whom they now ignore.

...coup d'etats.
He was working on the third.

This wouldn't be necessary.

we haven't turned on the tv news all day, just checking news sites on the web to get content

I know SHOCKING, and doing a decent job...

But I fear I get more out of the Food Network right now

and I watched that again. Boy is that film still relevant today.

"They're mine! I own 'em! They think like I do. Only they're even more stupid than I am, so I gotta think for 'em." -- Lonesome Rhodes

Glad CNN was showing some Actual News today.

People of the media should have their wake in private.

I want news, real journalism.

If you call what the media is doing a wake, well.. it
forces everything else off the airwaves and doesn't
give people much of a choice if they're looking for
news.

Of course.. there never was much of a choice, and
there never is much decent news reporting or commentary
due to the fact that the networks make every little
celebrity event a major endless story.. but one somehow
has hopes.

Anyhow, that is a wake I choose not to attend.

I know that he wasn't always right but who the H is? I will miss him because he was a just person who loved his work and it showed.

Every man's death diminshes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore sent not to know
For whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee

John Donne

I couldnt add a thing... except....."right on"...

Last night Olberman said something like "tip a cold one this evening for Tim".

Meanwhile does MSNBC realize that cities are floating away in Iowa?

if this was a VERY SOFT news day, fine, but it is not

When we lost a Paramedic while on a call in another shift, we were all hurting, we were a family, we kept working. I don't think my patients would have appreciated calling the 911 center and getting the ... we are sorry, we are holding a wake, call in three days.

When we lost the head of our chapter, again, we kept responding

And after his funeral I responded to an EMS call in full dress uniform.

There are cities underwater... so x'cuse me while I call this what it is... a self serving STUNT, for the beltway chattering classes!

...during this time:

Tim Russert died AT WORK. It was probably traumatic for employees who were actually on site at NBC when it happened. And some of them probably had to make the call to his wife and son in Italy.

Give them a break...please?? :)

you think he is the first or last man to die at work?

My lord... there are days

:banghead:

I was lucky that I never had to make those calls for my kids and that over ten years the most serious injuries were to ME

But I had to call plenty of people to let them know SO were injured or dead....

No, they are being highly unprofessional... after all we have had 4300 soldiers die, and of course in the midwest over ten die

Why not a wake for THEM?

And don't get me started on the people who died since the Chattering Classes when along to get along?

In the summer I used to work at a market research firm. When a colleague died there, we didn't quit doing surveys or writing reports. We didn't quit doing our jobs.