Rick Reuben wrote:Lumpen is still released. If you think it is long gone, then you're really not paying attention.

I am surprised at this! You are 100 percent right that I do not pay attention to Lumpen.

Mencken summed up Russert and most of the contemporary Celebrity newspeople: "A demagouge is a man who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots."

I liked Tim Russert, and I was sad to hear about his death. Making breakfast, good espresso, and watching Meet The Press on Sunday morning is a regular thing I do with my roommate. That show is the only thing I watch on a major TV network on a regular basis.

I get some of the criticisms lobbed towards Russert - that he didn't always ask tough questions, swallowed some obviously bogus answers, etc. - and they're pretty much right. But he wasn't an asshole, and that gets points from me. He was a good host - thankfully devoid of showbiz appearance & attitude, and he kept the conversation civilized. Hard to find that on TV, except once in a while on PBS.

Personally, I don't think I can ever bring myself to say "I'm happy that that guy died." About anybody.

tmidgett wrote:It's awful form to piss on someone's grave.

it is, unless the person deserved it. i don't think Russert deserves it. Rush Limbaugh, sure. Dick Cheney? Hell yeah. Karl Rove, sure. Jerry Fallwell? Yes, definitely needs his grave pissed on. These are people specifically mislead people in order to achieve power. Tim Russert may have been wrong about certain things, but I don't think you can say that he was a man with ill-intentions. Unfortunately, he's just part of the media elite that is terribly misguided.

Rick Reuben wrote:There would be no reason for you to complain about the unbalanced satire of South Park if you did not believe that Parker and Stone ( like Russert ) are to be held accountable for the damage that they do to society.

What if you find it tired and unfunny?

And beyond that, as a university student, if I ran into one person who got their politics from Meet The Press for every person who got their politics from South Park then I'd at least be running into people who were remotely informed.

I always liked Russert. This is a shame.

His show was pretty safe and it wasn't immune to the obsession with Washington politicking which mars just about every political TV news show these days.

But he was a good guy.

Rick Reuben wrote:

caix wrote: Unfortunately, he's just part of the media elite that is terribly misguided.

'Terribly misguided' doesn't square up with 'wrong about certain things'.

caix wrote:Tim Russert may have been wrong about certain things

'Terribly misguided' means 'actively supportive of an agenda that is fundamentally and comprehensively flawed'.

Rick, learn to restrain your nitpicking, lest we line up to piss on your grave.

Wow. Based on those quotes of Steve Tom dug up, I will never believe a word Steve says ever again.

Steve's not really a plane, is he?

Pissing on peoples' graves seems mean-spirited to me. Even if those people deserved pissing-on during their lives.

I think TMidgett's right: it's plain bad form. Nor does it accomplish anything meaningful.

I thought Hitchens was wrong to dance on Falwell's grave, as little as I liked Falwell.

Rick Reuben wrote:But Steve didn't limit his comments to whether or not South Park made him laugh.

I was just answering your question.

If it clarifies things anymore I didn't celebrate Falwell's passing and I won't be marching in the street when Fred Phelps bites it. By and large death is unremarkable and needs no mention from me. This instance involved a younger man passing, definitely before his time. That's a shitty deal. His career accomplishments are debatable, but you already said this -

Rick Reuben wrote:BTW, I have not said that I wished Russert dead- only that I'm not sorry that his career was cut short.

- so why not leave it at that?