Friday, June 13, 2008

Shocking News Of Tim Russert's Death

It's hard to believe, but television news' top political talk show host, Tim Russert, collapsed and died at work today at the age of 58 doing what he does best. The AP notes that Russert, the host of NBC's "Meet The Press", had been designated by Washingtonian magazine as the best journalist in D.C. His absence from this year's exciting presidential race will be missed.

7 comments:

Sir Hailstone said...

I just hope the passing of Tim Russert doesn't mean the ascension of Keith Olbermann to the big chair at MTP.

Gary R. Welsh said...

Olbermann represents the worst of the liberal blogosphere. Obviously, MSNBC doesn't care about investor return. Olberman's ratings have been in the tank since he got that gig. You can bet Russert didn't think very highly of him.

artfuggins said...

Actually Keith's ratings are higher than ever and he now tops O'Reilly......

Gary R. Welsh said...

It's not even close:

8PM - P2+ (25-54)
The O’Reilly Factor- 3,193,000 viewers (694,000)
CNN Election Center– 561,000 viewers (151,000)
Countdown w/Olbermann – 1,183,000 viewers (452,000)
Fast Money- 180,000 viewers (67,000)
Nancy Grace – 579,000 viewers (171,000)

Bart Lies said...

wilson-art gets another statistic wrong.

Jon E. Easter said...

I sat my alarm so many years for "9:55" on Sunday mornings so that I could watch Meet the Press. Tim Russert was one of my heroes, and I will sorely miss his objectivity, wisdom, and views on politics.

As we've now learned, not only was he a great journalist and the best interviewer, but he was a great man, a great co-worker, a great father, a great husband, and a great son.

Tim was able to smile as he cut someone to shreds with his questions, research, preparation, and use of video/audio clips...yet...so many have said that he remained so agreeable with them off the set. It's something that Olbermann or O'Reilly likely could never do.

That said, I can't imagine O'Reilly carrying the coverage of Russert's death nearly as well as Olbermann did. Keith was personal, professional, and all around excellent.

Olbermann likely is not the best choice to replace Russert. In fact, I can't think of anyone in journalism that could do the job he did. Dan Abrams or David Gregory may be the best choices.

Anonymous said...

Actually, I agree with Artfuggins. Olberman was beating nut case O'Reilly. I think Advance Indiana has cherry picked the statistics to favor against what Artfuggins said that the tides are turning. Now let me try cherry picking, I got this from the HuffingtonPost:

MSNBC's "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" beat Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor" in the key Adults 25-54 demographic for the first time ever last week.

"Countdown" averaged 477,000 viewers (A25-54) vs. O'Reilly's 472,000 (excluding Tuesday's primary coverage). This marks the first time that MSNBC has beaten Fox News in O'Reilly's 8pm time slot since June 2001.

Cheers all!