The passing of Meet the Press moderator Tim Russert last Friday was both shocking and extremely sad. We feel for his family and regret the sad irony that a devoted family man died on Father’s Day weekend. MTP was the one Sunday morning news program that we hated to miss. You knew Russert was a Democrat, but he was fair and stayed unbiased. He is unreplaceable and we’ll be missed.

Oftentimes in situations like this, we tend to get carried away with emotion and our views become distorted while we reflect. Case in point, a post today on PubDef regarding Mr. Russert’s passing. They write:

“The death of Tim Russert deeply shook me and leaves me concerned about the future of our nation. Integrity and journalism have been on a mutually exclusive path since the birth of Fox News.”

What???? Have they forgotten about the forged documents Dan Rather of CBS News tried to foist on the public during the waning days of the 2004 presidential campaign? Or NBC News’ little problem a few years back when they purposely exploded fuel tanks in a report to show that a vehicle was unsafe? Are those the examples of journalistic integrity that PubDef believes is lacking since the “birth of Fox News?”

“Today, though it seems we have wall-to-wall coverage of the Presidential candidates, try to find any meaningful discourse among the hours of talk. Try to find a reporter who actually knows what he or she is talking about and is able to slow down the spin machines long enough for us to see who we’re really voting for, what we’re really talking about. But there has at least been one hour a week, one news show with limited commercial interruptions that we could count on. “Meet the Press”

There is such a source to get “meaningful discourse” in America. It’s called the Cable and Satellite Public Affairs Network, or as its better known – C-SPAN. The same political junkees who watch the talking heads on Sunday morning, can simply tune into the 24 hour C-SPAN network to get their fix. Meet the Press was the highest rated Sunday morning show with 4 million viewers, double that of its nearest competitor. I would safely guess that C-SPAN receives about the same amount of viewers.

Mr. Russert was a great journalist and he will sorely be missed, but let’s not get carried away here.

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