Tim Russert

I am in Las Vegas visiting my family this weekend, so Mark had to call to tell me Tim Russert had passed. That call would have been unnecessary if I was at home, since, as I’ve mentioned lots of times, I’m addicted to MSNBC and I leave it on in the background all the time. Keith Olberman, once my favorite anchor, has become more red-faced and quick-tempered, a sort of Bill O’Reilly for the left. So I appreciated Russert’s measured election commentary, and his overall air of oldschool-ness and seriousness (the best image of that being his election-night white board). Twenty-four hour news is irrelevant for a lot of people,, I think; Meet The Press is glacial next to Twitter and hitting refresh on Google News, though his insider-ness often meant softball questions and an easy in for the administration. So I think all the attention paid to Russert’s death by his collegues and politians is partially because it does seem like an end to that news era, good and bad.