“
My mother raised me to believe that speaking ill of the dead was needlessly provocative, and tacky to boot. Consequently, I’ve bit my tongue over the last six days as the news media and political establishment have assiduously one-upped each other in exalting recently deceased television personality Tim Russert as a combination of Walter Cronkite, Edward R. Murrow and Ward Cleaver.
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BRITT ROBSON IS RIGHT YOU GUYS.  

Also true: ”Russert’s ‘personal policy’ enabled the nation’s most powerful politicians to spin Russert in background conversation and then figure out exactly what they would or wouldn’t allow to be public information. That policy is closer to stenography than it is to journalism.” 

Damn right.  No one has been closer to the free ride for our national leadership over the last 8 years than Russert.  And now that the initial period of respect is over, hopefully the actual historical analysis begins (and can I suggest this a starting point for the upcoming criticism of St. Tim?).