The author makes an excellent point. I was sorry to hear about Tim Russert, but his death is hardly news of greater importance than floods in Iowa, the Mars lander, $4 gallon gas, the war in Iraq, or a hundred other stories affecting hundreds of thousands if not millions of people. The networks even broke into normal broadcasting to announce his death. He was a journalist. He might have been a decent journalist, but he was only a journalist.
When local tv anchor Dennis Richmond decided to retire, I expected some sort of a salute. He’s been a fixture in the SF Bay Area for 30 years. I thought there’d be a retrospective or something.
But I was shocked at the month long swan song, night after night after night. They just couldn’t let it go. The man was retiring, for heaven’s sake. How many people retire every day? It’s not the end of the earth.
They had tributes, excerpts, histories, commentaries. . .it was just ridiculous.
The death of anyone is a tragedy to someone somewhere. But Russert’s death along with the pain it has brought his family pales in comparison to what the flood victims and recent earthquake victims have gone through. In fact outside his family and immediate circle of friends the passing of Tim Russert is as insignificant (or as significant) as the passing of your neighbor 2 blocks down and 1 block over.
The death of anyone is a tragedy to someone somewhere. But Russert’s death along with the pain it has brought his family pales in comparison to what the flood victims and recent earthquake victims have gone through. In fact outside his family and immediate circle of friends the passing of Tim Russert is as insignificant (or as significant) as the passing of your neighbor 2 blocks down and 1 block over.