Tim Russert: The Day Network News Died 6/24/08
Posted by Steve Boriss in NetworkNews, TimRussert.trackback
This week at Pajamas Media, I suggest that just as the song “American Pie” marked the untimely death of rocker Buddy Holly as the day the music died, Tim Russert’s passing will be remembered as the day network news died. By all accounts, network news should have died a long, long time ago, when alternative media exposed the hollowness of CBS anchor Walter Cronkite’s end-of-broadcast claim “that’s the way it is.” Tim Russert saved network news from our new scepticism by serving as network TV’s cheerful honest broker – a man with the rare ability to win the admiration of the Beltway, the Left, and the Right all at the same time. Now that he is gone, there is no one to replace him who is trusted by all, certainly not his fill-in, dino-anchor Tom Brokaw. Network news will not survive. Read more about it at PajamasMedia.com.
There’s still Charlie Gibson.
A long, long time ago…
I can still remember
How the network news used to make me rile.
And I knew if I had my chance
That I could make those people dance
And, maybe, they’d be happy for a while.
But all these layoffs made me shiver
With every paper I’d deliver.
Bad news on the doorstep;
I couldn’t take one more step.
I can’t remember if I cried
When I read about Tim’s widowed bride,
But something touched me deep inside
The day Tim Russert died.
So bye-bye, network news guys.
It’s the browser and the web
And even Drudge online.
And them good old newshounds were drinkin’ whiskey and rye
Singin’, “this’ll be the day that I die.
“this’ll be the day that I die.”
Happy 4th.