This is goulish, I suppose, but I wonder if MSNBC will show the final "Tim Russert Show" that was

taped two hours before he collapsed and died.

CNBC chief Washington correspondent John Harwood and Gerald Seib, his co-author on the new book, Pennsylvania Avenue: Profiles in Backroom Power, had seen Russert the morning he died. They were with Russert to tape an hour-long discussion of their new book for his CNBC cable show, The Tim Russert Program.

"We walked out of the taping around 10:15 and Gerry said, 'You know, I don't think Tim felt very well,' " Harwood tells PEOPLE. "I knew he was tired because he had flown in from Rome the night before, but I didn't think much of it."



http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20206807,00.html

He was so dedicated to his job and look where it got him.

Many people throw clots after a long plane ride. He must have flown first class but that it still confining. I feel bad for his son and his wife. She will be very lonely. His son Will miss him a lot too, especially when it comes time for his decisions on the future. I know it happened to my kids.

With all the eulogizing through to the funeral, they must have forgot they could use that in the never ending show.

Might be in bad taste, but if it will get viewers, MSNBC will air it. They might even have a narrative before the show telling us what to look for: "You can see the glistening of sweat on Tim's forehead just as they begin to talk about..."

"Watch for Tim's reaction about 5 minutes into the show. Could he have felt pain at that moment?"

Tacky, tacky, tacky.

or November Sweeps?

  "Here. Here on his forehead you can see that sweat. It's a classic sign."

  The special will be all about- well, whatever killed Russert. Packaged as health edutainment to American men who might be at risk for- well, whatever killed Russert.

PB

  It'll be part of a tribute show- not the stuff they're doing right now immediately after he's died. It'll be one of those "looks back" that is better written, has more interviews, etc. Usually one of those things they broadcast on the month anniversary of an event. The bumper they'll show on MSNBC will hype the program and, with appropriately-stirring music in the background (think soft, meandering piano), they'll say "And see him in his last television appearance, only on MSNBC."

  They'll of course save the footage for the last ten minutes, teasing the viewer for one or possibly two commercial breaks. If he mentioned anything about death, sickness, life, living, family, loss, gain- whatever, they'll freeze the frame after he says it, do a very slow close-in with an overdub by Tom Brokaw saying something relevant.

  So you see, it won't be ghoulish at all- at least the way they'll present it. It'll be the healthiest thing in the world! And...if they do it right, by gum, you'll even feel a little patriotic for watching it.

  Augh.

PB

he's going to be on this Sunday with Brian Williams. If they did show that broadcast I would regard it as the ultimate in bad taste.

As a writer who knows what it's like to publicize a book, I sympathize with these guys, getting such a big shot at great publicity and then losing it because of the sudden death of the host. If you wrote this in fiction, no one would believe it.

That show will never be shown. I bet anyone anything.

PB

You mean because they continued to show his programs after he died?

If that's what you mean (and I'm just assuming), that's a whole different matter, I believe. I mean, Elvis is dead, but they keep showing his movies. Alas.

In this case, there obviously was something physically wrong with Russert at the time of the interview, and I think it would be thought far too ghoulish to run the program and, in doing so, subliminally invite viewers to watch for the signs of his impending death. I think Russert was so beloved, that will never happen.

Just as they never showed the program on which Irwin was killed.

...that you believed the program would never be shown I believed that you meant "No one would ever see it". Like it wouldn't wind up on YouTube or similar- which is what the Steve Irwin comment was about. But you meant broadcast. My reply #4 gives a scenario in which they would swaddle the video or excerpts from it either in the guise of a tribute, possibly one in which Russert made prophetic commentary or excerpts from that last episode sandwiched inside a faux health edutainment program.

So that other American men might heed the warning signs that work-a-holic Russert missed.

  This sort of thing is not without precedent- there was a journalist in Iraq who died from a deep vein thrombosis and they pretty much did the same suite of shows after he died.

PB