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Russert coverage a 'derelection of journalistic duty'

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by WaylonJennings, Jun 19, 2008.

  1. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    That was a Hitler simile, dammit!
     
  2. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    Honestly, this deserved a mention at the beginning of the news and maybe a 5-minute tribute at the end of the Nightly News and then Meet The Press should be exactly what they did.
     
  3. Dan Hickling

    Dan Hickling Member

    Friday night, the day Russert passed away, NBC Nightly News presented no other news aside from reflections on his passing.
    I said to my wife, "Russert would have been embarrassed by this. If anyone knew there was more news out there, it was him."
    [/quote]

    Bingo.....
     
  4. Herbert Anchovy

    Herbert Anchovy Active Member

    MSNBC cornered the story and milked it not the least because it's been experiencing a steady climb in ratings since mid-2007. That after years of stagnation.

    Tea Leoni and her MSNBC colleagues didn't spend a quarter of as much time on the extinction level event in "Deep Impact."
     
  5. Birdscribe

    Birdscribe Active Member

    Here's the most astute take on the thread.

    And I'm all ears on hearing the reason for that.
     
  6. HejiraHenry

    HejiraHenry Well-Known Member

    The coverage of Russert ceased, at some point, to be about the man himself.

    What was it about, really?

    "See, we really are relevant, we still have people who matter in the greater media scheme of things, even in the age of the internets."

    Maybe.
     
  7. chester

    chester Member

    I didn't watch much of it over the weekend, but the moment it really hit ridiculous to me was on Monday's Today show, when the first 15 minutes or so was an interview with his son instead of dealing with the mass evacuations and flooding in Iowa, which was everyone else's lead story. Not that they shouldn't have talked to Luke, just not spent the first 15 minutes of the show on that.
     
  8. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    To me, Ed Bradley is the best TV journalist of my lifetime since I was a little young to really remember Cronkite. He was on a show watched by about 100X as many as Russert and both shows were similarly well-respected.

    I remember CBS doing a classy mention of Bradley's death during the news and I remember brief footage of all of the celebrities and people speaking at his funeral.

    Then of course, 60 Minutes does a very classy retrospective/tribute.

    I'm sorry, but if you don't do it for Bradley, you don't even consider doing it for Russert.
     
  9. Smasher_Sloan

    Smasher_Sloan Active Member


    Couple of reasons, I think. One, Russert's death was sudden, which meant that everyone had to adjust to the news instantly. That affected any sense of proportion.

    Two, Russert worked for a company that has spinoff cable channels. These are channels that will sometimes pick up the local coverage of an LA freeway police chase and fill an hour with it. They always overdo big breaking news, and that was certainly the case here. That doesn't explain all of "Nightly News" being about Russert, but it does explain the endless chattering on cable.
     
  10. Armchair_QB

    Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

    Wow, now that's a reference I never would have expected.
     
  11. SF_Express

    SF_Express Active Member

    The wall-to-wall was way overboard, but I caught a Meet the Press rerun Sunday night on MSNBC and must admit, thought it was nice. Maybe that's where it should have been confined, except for the breaking news aspect.
     
  12. JayFarrar

    JayFarrar Well-Known Member

    FAIR pretty much ripped NBC to shreds over this. So did Bob Somerby over at the dailyhowler.com.
    I didn't watch any of it, so I can't really comment on it, but it does seem to reinforce the idea that Washington press corps is all one big circle jerk.
     
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