Arkansas Blog

Well it's OFFICIAL.

YOU HAVE COMPLETELY LOST IT MAX!!!

SO I guess the service for Paul Wellstone was over the top as well??

I never liked Tim Russert as a journalist, I thought he got way too much credit for being an anchor who was above partisanship, WHEN for a good stretch in early 2001-2003 he was nothing short of President Bush's lap dog.

BUT everything I have seen in tribute to him has been extraordinary. I watched MSNBC last night and I thought The Daily SHow tribute was absolutely one of the most touching things I have ever seen. It made me appreciate how much of a throwback Russert really was (especially in these days of Fox News gotcha bullshit mindsets)

SERIOUSLY YOU NEED MEDICAL HELP MAX. I guess James Carville and Mary Matlin crying on air was over the top?

I think nothing could be more refreshing than to have every one take a deep breath, back away from the politics, and appreciate a man's life. A pretty extraordinary life at that: from Senator Moynihan to running the NBC News desk to making Sunday Morning news show relevant again. Russert was a pretty incredible human being.

I hate to say it but is this evidence that hillaryphilia even transcends life and death?

MAX I am really worried about you, you need to seek professional help.

So cable news doesn't cover photo op incidents Enough BUT spends way too much time paying tribute to the anchor of Meet the Press and his untimely death at 58 years old????

Do you hear how twisted you have become???

Was the coverage of Peter Jennings over the top???

You need help!!!

Could the Arkansas Times blog get back to being a newspaper with some sort of professionalism? Covering topics with some relevance to America's news cycle?

We could start another blog called "BITTER MAX TAKES ON THE WORLD" where you could post all your bizarre, irreverent, curmudgeonly, cynical, old school Journalist takes on the world and mainstream news items.

BUT could you spare the Times Blog form being your personal diatribe/ therapist???

Back on the ranch, there is some relevant news that could be Times blog worthy: floods in Iowa, bear & Sterns, McCain's flip flop on drilling on our borders, Michelle Obama's knock out performance on the View, Obama leading in all the swing states. telcom immunity

Any of these ring a bell?

ARK. BLOG: Orval. Take a deep breath. Snuffle into your mommy's crying towel and then take another read. I believe the questions you pose at the end are precisely the ones I had last night for Chris Matthews at his astounding statement about the ceasing of news during the 96-hour coverage of Russert's death, a statement uttered in between not one, but two, showings of the memorial services. And, by the way, I had no problem with lead-the-news coverage. The memorial service was touching. Russert was a giant and seemed a familiar figure to millions on account of his regular presence in homes. But too much is too much. The recitation of the same platitutdes over and over -- rather than the news coverage to which Russert was devoted -- finally reached a tipping point. And, he was wrong on the war. You, of all people, should appreciate that.

Yes...all those funerals you mentioned, orval, were over the top. And speaking of over the top...lordy, I never thought they were going to put Reagan's body away. It was a seemingly unending funeral of a mythical president/person....'cause the Reagan of that funeral never existed. (In his defense, it wasn't his fault that his party has had to look backwards for inspiration.)

Why isn't enough to be in death who we were in life?

I agree wholeheartedly with Max on this one. I am in the "business" and you don't laude the man OVER AND OVER AND OVER, like he was some sort of journalism God who invented the space bar.

Coverage was way over the top, not to take away from his body of work and the man himself.

But to go on and on and on, and ON, about him for days....

And to have his son lauded as some sort of saint, and to hear about "big Russ" like he was the only dad in the world who made sacrifices for his son.

Enough is enough, and they passed enough way back.

I really hesitate to speak ill of the dead, but you may include me as someone who didn't care for Tim Russert the journalist. He may have been a great person off camera, but I didn't care for him as a journalist. A couple of years ago, he was trying to cozy up to Rush Limbaugh by acting as if Limbaugh were a real journalist. That soured me on Russert totally.

Over the top my ass, Max, I was looking forward to another two weeks of NBR (Nothing But Russert)...and coming so close on the heels of continual KH (Kick Hillary) but so it goes--nothing is fair anymore.

"He never forgot where he came from." I don't expect I will either, at least not until the final stages of my Alzheimer's. Will you?<<<

Oh how very touching it is for an elite to never forget their origins.

Yes, Oval Eugene, Peter Jennings coverage was over the top.

"...he was nothing short of President Bush's lap dog."

The better question the masturbating media folk could ask: Did he forget why he was here?

.

Max

I'm with ya on this. Who the hell really cares that Russert died other than friends and family, colleagues etc. The usual you know.

Let's get someone else to take over the show--which is not exqctly rocket science--and move on. Wow--he elevated the business of probing political journalism in an age when media coverage and outlets dedicated to it exploded. Great Tim. Way to go. Really. You did a good job. But shit, let's keep it in perspective. Sorry you died. But it happens. Next.

Once again the media hype is way out of sync with the reality IMO.

Though it pains me to say it because it's never polite, I agree 100% with Max. At one point last night I was thinking about changing my oldest daughter's name to Tim Russert. One would think the most important man in the world had died. I didn't like or dislike Tim Russert, I thought he was one of the more intelligent media people who ever didn't quite do their jobs. Tim didn't do his job in a very likable and intelligent manner, yes he did. I liked his brand of incompetence as much as any other. His incompetence was ever so much better than Congress's incompetence!

What we've seen is an example of what has happened to the MSN. They have elevated themselves to the same level as national news. They report on themselves as much as they report on the war for oil. They've forgot their jobs, just like politicians went from being government wonks to rock star and movie star status in the last 25 years. Can you think of less good looking, or talented people than today's politicians?

I'm sorry Tim Russert is dead. I feel sorry for his fine wife and fine son and for his old father, Big Russ. I wish I could burn some chicken bones and bring him back, incompetence and all. I am already pre-mad about the coverage the death of Walter Cronkite won't get. The man who was THE news for 50 years will receive a footnote while our MSN goes ga-ga over some new overly hairsprayed talking head. Bet on it!

More than I hope that Tim Russert is in heaven talking Adams and Jefferson into being on this Sunday's Heaven Edition of Meet the Press, I hope Tim's replacement is of the old school of journalism who seeks the truth in every story and sticks it to lying Democrats and Republicans alike when he or she finds them. Someone in the MSN must lead us out of the wilderness or we shall perish.

One last item.....the death of Tim Russert shows that even the rich and powerful are getting lousy health care. My father was a VP of a dinky sand and gravel outfit before his death in 1983 and he was required to get a full physical every year or 2....I've forgotten which. At his death he was probably making upwards of 45 thousand a year. Why in the name of Marcus Welby wasn't Tim Russert required to get a full physical each year that probably would have shown he had clogged arteries? His contract was worth millions and yet no one spotted this big fat overworked A type personality hard charger and thought...gee......next to Mike Ditka, Russert looks like the guy most likely to drop dead at his desk?

NPR had some fancy American doctor on a couple of days ago who spent 15 minutes using the most awkward English/Doctor Speak to say that Tim felt unwell and people who feel unwell should seek medical attention. The commentator pointed out that 6 to 9 weeks ago Russert passed a stress test with flying colors. Dr. Doctor Speak said Ahhh yes! Mr. Russert's test proves he was not feeling unwell 6 to 9 weeks ago. His unwellness came on him very recently.

Well...la-dee-dah! Let's sum up here....beware of unwell. You might feel well but be dead in 6 to 9 weeks, but let's all be thankful for modern medicine anyway. If you feel unwell go to the ER. I guess I'll have to pull a Strom Thurman and go live at Walter Reed since I having feelings of unwellness 24 hours a day. Oh how I love the 21st century! The only thing we have to fearrrrr......is unwellness! Brilliant!

Orval

Carville cried. I loathe Carville. He probably cried because Russert was part of his meal ticket. Gave him maximum visibility. Just want to hit Carville when I see his face on TV and he opens his mouth. He has become caricature, poster child of all that is wrong with partisan talking heads on the airwaves. Hey Carville: STFU.

And his wife is the same. Make them stop. Please.

BTW, the service wasn't over-the-top. It was way way way over-the-top along with the nauseating 3 day coverage of it. Damn, there is something to be said for having a body in the ground within 24 hours and all the services over. Too bad he wasn't Muslim.

It's funny how people get their panties in a wad over the slightest criticism of Russert's career.

He was a public figure, the head of NBC News' Washington Bureau, and he would undoubtedly expect that once he died people would discuss his life and career in both a positive and negative light. Bestowing instant sainthood on every public figure that dies is just one of the many ways in which our media, America's media, continues to flail and fail.

It's like everyone wants to be patted on the back and fed milk and cookies, whether its a misguided war, an incompetent administration or sorry state of American journalism. Nobody wants the hard facts with a shot of gut-wrenching whiskey anymore.

"They have elevated themselves to the same level as national news. They report on themselves as much as they report on the war for oil. "

That exactly nails it, DBI. Contrast the energy the media has put into talking about Tim Russert and his family these past days to how much energy they put into investigating this administration's lies and deceits when it really would have mattered.

I'm with you, Orval Eugene. These people are loathsome. They judge Russert harshly because they know they will never measure up to him. He was very successful. Was he perfect? Hell, no. Was he enthusiastic and entertaining. Yes. Television is the entertainment business. You sour old poots probably have trouble with that concept in general. Your idea of entertainment is being curled up with the latest issue of the Economist. Take a bottle of pills.

Okay, after the "titty-baby" diatribe yesterday, I was going to take a break from the Arkansas Blog for a few days, but habit brought me here before I could recall the ban. While here, I decided to scan the headlines, and this thread sounded interesting.

I too felt that the Russert coverage was over the top. Russert's Meet the Press was the Bush administration's "best venue" according to Scott McClellan's book. Russert avoided some glaringly obvious follow ups in some of his interviews, particularly with Cheney, which made my blood boil.

I was glad to see that Max had decided to speak up, at least until I considered this statement within the context of the "titty baby" responses. That took some of the shine off of the apparent objectivity of this posted thread. As everyone knows, "twas MSNBC and NBC what killed our dear Hillary" and this is merely another example of Max venting over the primary.

Max, the bridge ain't quite burned yet. C'mon across, brother.

ARK. BLOG: Somebody has an obsession with Hillary, alright. Was she mentioned in this thread until you came along?

The NBC Nightly News had its anchor in Afghanistan and the only mention of Afghanistan was that he was there. Zip news was reported by NBC. Later that night one hour of primetime was devoted to Russert. I've no problem with the hour of primetime but you scrap the news?

It was way over the top.

Max, you had one miss in the piece. I know tons of people who don't remember where they came from and I bet you do as well. The wealthy who inherited their money who think they accomplished something. The folks who went to tax supported high schools and then colleges and paid for it with discounted government backed loans who think the government needs to spend less and cut out the wasteful things like education. The folks who think government interferes with business too much who have taken advantage of every single government hand-out to business. The people whose ancestors left crappy places to get a chance in America who want to make sure none follow their model.

No the world is loaded with people who don't remember where they came from.

You're right on here, Max.

It seems obvious to me that the marketing people - the ones who do the focus groups and such - have discovered that ratings are high for this kind of coverage. When most people would rather grieve in private, the MSM have discovered that using this as another way to make money works. They're all just actors anyway, both used to and desirous of celebrity. Crying on camera is just another way to "make the screen" and make the $$. For me it cheapens the whole event. Let the family, friends, colleagues mourn - in whatever way they wish - just don't make it a huge media event.

We grieve Russert because he was a very likeable guy. The deaths of likeable people hit closer to home. We realize our own mortality again. But we need not grieve Russert the entertainment newsman. He may have operated closer to a real journalist than anyone else, but that's no compliment in this day and age. He was no journalist.

If you want to mourn a television journalist, mourn Edward R. Murrow. There haven't been many since then.

Can you not just turn if off, or change the channel?

Am I missing something?

I agree with Max on this one and Oval Eugene - your Hillaryitis is breathtakingly, obvious and getting tiresome. Not everything that happens is connected to Hillary.

As for over-the-top funerals. I think this everytime someone famous or infamous dies. I will always believe it is the 24/7 news crap that is desperate for something - ANYTHING - to fill the hours. I felt to bad for Russert's family as they ponied up their part in this shameful feeding of the beast. There has to be some happy medium - Reagan's week long affair was grotesque - but the little blurb we sometimes get when someone we used to know is no longer there - is pitiful. I remember the first time I really got what death was all about - when a school friend of mine died - and I really got it that she was gone - never to be seen again. I would walk down the street of my little hometown and wonder why people were smiling and going on with their lives - it just seemed so unfair for anyone anywhere to be happy when we were so sad.

I know that I liked Russert but hated his willingness to jump on any bandwagon that came along - I think that's what being a tv journalist is these days - feed the beast and don't think about what is really important or true. Lies just don't deserve the same airtime as truth and facts, but if they are lies that will sell for a while - they get the airtime.

We can honor the human being and sympathize with the grieving family but using them in the shameless way they do with Di - Reagan - Russert, etal - is not honor, not sympathy - it's crass and grotesque.

What? Did Tim Russert die?

I guess this means I won't have to avoid him on the TV anymore.

As one who admired Russert, I'd say YES, media coverage of his demise was excessive. Entirely so. But even more "over the top" were all the political whores who busted their asses to be at the funeral yesterday. And sho' nuff over the top, to the 9th power: Obama and McInsane sitting together. Gimme a break.

That thing with the rainbow was too much. How did they do that?

Well the MSM has a fucked up idea of what is important news as it is. Last night CBS(?) spent what felt like 15 min talking about Tiger Woods and his knee.
It was the LEAD story.
WTH?
Nothing else important happened yesterday?
I'll be glad when Katie gets kicked to the curb and they put lara Logan in her place.
http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?videoId=173871

Russet?
Nice guy, sad story, over the top coverage.

Gimme a break is right, Durango......

Obama and McSenile sitting together and making nice for at least 15 min. prior to the service. Michelle kinda gushing over Laura Bush on The View, both Obama and McSenile opting out of public financing - Muslims in the photo-ops - makes us squirm - give the boot to the pastors for saying what they believe, let's remake the wife so she is softer and more acceptable, now let's spend hours making nice and begging supporters not to boo cause we realize we need her voters to swallow their pride and vote for our boy - cuz we gotta stop McSenile - the man who loves the environment so much he decided we DO need to drill offshore and run that straight talk express right into the waters of the east and west coast, the man bought and paid for by special interests while decrying special interests - yeah - the same man we sat with and played nice with, who is just a carbon copy of the idiot in the WH, whose adoring wife just got all buttered up by the made over wife "being nice" in the black and white dress, while we sit here at the funeral of the guy who didn't call any of our hands on any of it and wouldn't even if he were alive today because it's all about a game and ratings and getting yours before the next guy gets his - but he was a great father and husband and we all loved him.

More of the same, more of the same........

I agree Max. This was Tim Russert not Tom Brokaw. The media was way beyond self-indulgent.

>>He was very successful. Was he perfect? Hell, no. Was he enthusiastic and entertaining. Yes. Television is the entertainment business.<< by Nemo

Glad you got us straightened out on that one Nemo. Fuck the news, informed society, free press and all that junk. We just need entertained with Bush Lies, 24/7. But since you called it as you did was the funeral entertaining enough for you? Celebrity level was high, music was ok, poetry rated a "D" otherwise the funeral was a pretty good show.

Russert was indeed as influential as any person in the media, but it is a stretch to refer to him as a "journalist." He was relentless but hardly objective, and tended to shade his interviews based on whatever his personal feelings for the person in the hot seat.

Fact was, Russert was a really talented political analyst who was a master entertainer in the political arena. He was charming, tough and very bright. He damned sure died too young. But, pending sainthood aside, Tim Russert could be pretty brutal and not every one of his interviews served the country well.

I will always believe that Russert is personally responsible for tipping the scale toward Bush the Younger in the runup to the 2000 election. When Gore appeared on Meet the Press, Russert bore into him like a carpenter bee on the front porch rafters, pressing Ole Al in a way that made him squirm. Yet when W appeared, it was Good Ole Boy laughs all the way, skimming past the chance to ask Governor Lightweight a few serious questions that might have shown just how ill-prepared he was for the job. That was one time that called for real journalism, and it was missing.

I'm with everyone (well, except Orval and GUMM) in thinking the attention this has gotten is a little ridiculous. Yes, yes, Mr Russert had a cool career, and a nice family; so did the guy who had a crane fall on him the other week a few blocks from my office.

There's one thing this thread hasn't discussed yet, which I think is the number one reason for all this hoopla:

Who runs the news stations, the newspapers, the radio? Who makes up the bulk of the dwindling crowd that gets up Sunday morning to watch Meet the Press, reads the newspaper, or watches the presidential debates? Whose sons just graduated from college? Who's taking blood pressure drugs and cholesterol drugs and thinks their health might just be a little worse than they know...?

WHITE MEN OVER 50! JUST LIKE TIM! (And to be fair, some 50+ women, who incidentally are far more likely to be under- or untreated for congestive heart failure, coronary artery disease, and acute myocardial infarction).

This Russert thing scares the bejesus out of you aging babyboomers. It scared the bejesus out of my 30s boyfriend. Anna Nicole Smith dies - well, it's sordid, we all wanna know what chemical did her in...but ultimately, it ain't no shock when a habitual drug user keels over at an early age. But when it happens to someone that looks like us, reminds us of us, with a family like ours? Right out of the blue? With no warning at all?

Well, then we get people crying on the TV and this weird multi-media version of sitting shivah.

When I was in high school, a kid a year ahead of me died in a car accident. Everyone at the funeral was sobbing. Some of them because they were going to miss their friend. But most of us were crying because we were confronted by our own mortality, and that was freaking terrifying.

Just my opinion.

when GE/NBC pays someone millions of dollars a year to ask prominent politicians "questions" on nation-wide television, they know what they are buying for their money, and the people accepting the money know what is expected of them.

Tim Russert did his "job" well.

too well.

NBC is going to milk this thing to the last drop. What else do they have?

I have invested about as much time watching this as I have the news story about the woman who almost put her eye out taking off her Victoria's Secret thong.

Amen, Martha and muleboy.

25 years ago, 50 corporations controlled the vast majority of all news media in the U.S. Now, we're down to 6.

If something is being reported in the MSM it's only because those who own the {pick your favorite medium or outlet} choose for it to be reported. And they report it in the manner they choose. Of course, Fox (NewsCorp) is the most egregious, but they all control what gets out, and how often it's repeated.

As DBI has said many times, there are no more Cronkites or Murrows, etc. The head you see talking on the TV is just reading from a teleprompter, and it's reading what the head office has approved.

From the Media Reform Information Center; full article at bluename:

*Snip*

In 1983, 50 corporations controlled the vast majority of all news media in the U.S. At the time, Ben Bagdikian was called "alarmist" for pointing this out in his book, The Media Monopoly. In his 4th edition, published in 1992, he wrote "in the U.S., fewer than two dozen of these extraordinary creatures own and operate 90% of the mass media" -- controlling almost all of America's newspapers, magazines, TV and radio stations, books, records, movies, videos, wire services and photo agencies. He predicted then that eventually this number would fall to about half a dozen companies. This was greeted with skepticism at the time. When the 6th edition of The Media Monopoly was published in 2000, the number had fallen to six. Since then, there have been more mergers and the scope has expanded to include new media like the Internet market. More than 1 in 4 Internet users in the U.S. now log in with AOL Time-Warner, the world's largest media corporation.

In 2004, Bagdikian's revised and expanded book, The New Media Monopoly, shows that only 5 huge corporations -- Time Warner, Disney, Murdoch's News Corporation, Bertelsmann of Germany, and Viacom (formerly CBS) -- now control most of the media industry in the U.S. General Electric's NBC is a close sixth.

*end of snippage*

If Tim Russert was a good journalist, then his boss, Dick Cheney, is the Holy Spirit.

Remember the Scooter Libby trial when TIm, under oath, said something close to.. if folks don't specifically tell me something is ON the record.. then I don't report it.

That's not journalism.. that's a high priced whore of a messenger service on the sly.

Tim demonstrated just enough "gotcha moments" to prove the myriad of moments he passed up were indeed harmful to our country and to his profession.

WJ sends along a comment on this subject and isn't registered to post, so here it is:

Thanks for bringing out the Daily Howler's work on the true Russert. It made me sick to watch how the eastern press memorialized this corporate hack. Anyone with any sense of fair journalism could see from the beginning that Russert was a paid political assassin for GE's Jack Welch. The poor American people have paid for this through war, high gas prices, etc. And your blog writer 'orvaleugene' epitomizes my point: Russert and his clan have so corrupted news reporting and opinion journalism that 'orvaleugene' doesn't understand the difference between your responsibilies and straight news reporting. It's a sad day for America

It's inappropriate and unprofessional. Period. Any coverage over the basic news on a fellow journalist smacks of cronyism. The nice remembrances and memorial tone on last week's Meet the Press was the place to put the rest, and to put it, and him, to rest.

I don't know about ya'll, but the red flag alarm system inside me is really nervous about this latest hysterical shift in the east coast news outlets. It's been coming for a long time, and now here it is.

Before the next 10 years are up, there are going to have to be reforms in news coverage on a wide scale.

BILL MOYERS: Was it just a coincidence in your mind that Cheney came on
your show and others went on the other Sunday shows, the very morning that
that story appeared?

TIM RUSSERT: I don't know. The NEW YORK TIMES is a better judge of that
than I am.

BILL MOYERS: No one tipped you that it was going to happen?

TIM RUSSERT: No, no. I mean-

BILL MOYERS: The Cheney office didn't leak to you that there's gonna be a
big story?

TIM RUSSERT: No. No. I mean, I don't have the-- This is, you know-- on
MEET THE PRESS, people come on and there are no ground rules. We can ask
any question we want. I did not know about the aluminum tubes story until
I read it in the NEW YORK TIMES.

BILL MOYERS: Critics point to September eight, 2002 and to your show in
particular, as the classic case of how the press and the government became
inseparable. Someone in the Administration plants a dramatic story in the
NEW YORK TIMES And then the Vice President comes on your show and points
to the NEW YORK TIMES. It's a circular, self-confirming leak.

TIM RUSSERT: I don't know how Judith Miller and Michael Gordon reported
that story, who their sources were. It was a front-page story of the NEW
YORK TIMES. When Secretary Rice and Vice President Cheney and others came
up that Sunday morning on all the Sunday shows, they did exactly that.

My concern was, is that there were concerns expressed by other government
officials. And to this day, I wish my phone had rung, or I had access to
them.

BILL MOYERS: BOB SIMON DIDN'T WAIT FOR THE PHONE TO RING.

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/btw/transcript1.html

"And to this day, I wish my phone had rung, or I had access to them." tim russert

we all wish your phone had rung Tim (or maybe it did?)

"If Tim Russert was a good journalist, then his boss, Dick Cheney, is the Holy Spirit.

Remember the Scooter Libby trial when TIm, under oath, said something close to.. if folks don't specifically tell me something is ON the record.. then I don't report it.

That's not journalism.. that's a high priced whore of a messenger service on the sly."

Leave it to Eureka Springs to (1) open a post with a casually blasphemous comment; and (2) denigrate someone's professional ethics. It figures. Russert had ethics. When Dan Rather, whom I imagine you rather admire for his effort to get Bush, regardless of the facts or ethics, passes on, we'll see if you decry the coverage of his passing as being over the top.

While Rather and his folks were rightly disciplined for buying into the forged document, no one ever proved that the message of the document wasn't true. The purported author of that letter denied the letter, but never denied that Bush was AWOL during his days in the Texas National Guard. Rather was trying to be a journalist - to seek the truth. He and his folks just screwed up in the way they went about it. No apologies for his rightful banishment for his error. But he erred while trying to find the truth.

Hey, everybody. Read my post again.

I think it was pretty clear I agreed with the thread as stated, was even glad to see that someone had finally said something about the extreme coverage of Russert's death and funeral.

Yeah, I brought up Hillary, but only to illustrate how your ongoing Obama hate has tainted my perception of anything else you bring up, Max, as I'm sure it has others.

I'm not tag-teaming with Orval Eugene, so don't mistake his tone for mine.

ARK. BLOG: Oh, so the reason for your blind hatred is me? Poor excuse for going off on an unjustified tangent, even if true. But it must be a comfort to always have a Clinton to blame for whatever ails you. It certainly has comforted the Repubs all these years.

Pines - If you call that ethics, so be it... I am not ignoring what he said his ethics involved and what happened to American opinion because so many American citizens trusted him, while Tim spoon fed us all Cheney's choice of what should be quoted, without basic scrutiny, at best... may have been intentional lack of scrutiny on Tims part.

Nor am I about to compare the Rather situation, or his ethics, in any way, to Tim.

You may not approve of my direct crass style, but we are dealing with some very nasty folks and bringing a string of pearls (for clutching) to a knife fight is not working anymore. Our troops are still needlessly conducting genocide for NOTHING BUT LIES today.

I have to agree with Max on this subject. Russert's death coverage was getting old quick with the manner NBC/MSNBC covered it. Of course with the national MSM limited to Newscorp (FOX), GE/NBC, CNN-Time Warner, ABC-Disney and a few other outlets its an irony in an age with so many "choices" that the actual choices are limited.

A closer example of the "old media" is local radio/TV in Little Rock. Craig O Neil anchoring KTHV news? NPR (KUAR) being the only decent source of radio news in Little Rock in an FM band filled with classic rawk, country, Razorback "sports talk", lite favorites, hip-hop, and AM radio a wasteland of Rwingnut talk and brokered religion?

And just wait three months--KATV's old school over the top coverage for the Arkansas-Texas game....that's enough to make one vacation in Yellowknife for that week.

Blind hatred?!?

Hating Clintons?!?

WTF?!?

I'm just someone with an opinion that doesn't happen to be just exactly like yours. I not only voted for Bill twice but attended his election night parties. Listening to Tony Bennett for free with my wife at the dawning of Bill's second term was one of my most cherished memories, but I've moved on, I was never a "Clinton Hater" of any sort.

I keep thinking I'm reaching out here and all I keep getting is the "titty baby" screamer. I'm sure my ability to convey this sentiment is lacking, but there is also a bit of a lack of an attempt on your part to see anything but what you want to, in this case that I'm somehow a typical Clinton hater, or a blind mysoginist

Max, you've lost your bearings on this one, man. I'm not a troll or some other kind of maniac, just someone who's been reading the blog and the Arkansas Times for as long as the two have been in existence. I also haven't subscribed to a local newspaper since you and the Gazette were under the same management. I still have that cover of you trying to rally the troops to make it employee owned somewhere in my sentimental archives.

Until this election, you were someone I would listen to on local issues when I didn't have enough info on a subject. I thought I knew you to be a trustworthy source. Now, I'm just not sure. I figured you had some substantive difference with Obama that would eventually come out, but all you seem to have is venom for those of us who support him.

So, yeah, Max, maybe it is about you, but it's not blind hate, it's just disappointment. Honest disappointment.

Let the name calling begin.

ARK. BLOG: It's real simple. When you misconstrue a thread that has nothing to do with the Clintons as something to do with the Clintons, I think it's nuts. If a disagreement over the presidential race causes you to discount everything written here about any other subject, regardless of how unrelated or much context is available to positively evaluate the comment, I think that's, well, over the top But, if so, you're entitled. Knock yourself out.

Zelda, Zelda . . . .

I'm SO with you on Ronald Reagan and THRILLED to know this second-rate actor and third-rate President has finally been buried after all these years.

I mean, I'm taking you at your word, Zelda.

Because one can lie in state only so long before things start getting hinky. So I'm glad his corpse is finally interred. Whew.

But, last I saw, Nancy Reagan was visiting Ronnie's grave for some occasion or other. Bless her heart. Older now. Stooped with osteo because she forgot to take her calcium pills for 60 years. Squinting through coke-bottle Jackie-O oversized glasses trying to find Ronnie's grave, wearing that fabulous old red Oleg Cassini coat she's bounced around in for years.

Sad. Because Ronnie's grave / monument was actually HUGE and right in front of her. Covered with flowers for the occasion. Looked like P. Allen Smith farted gladiolas all over the marble tiers. Too Rose Bowl Parade for the somber occasion, IMHO.

What struck me, however, was the Eternal Flame. You know. Like Jackie ordered for JFK's final resting place.

Started me thinking; distracting from the occasion's solemnity. (I forget the occasion. Ronnie had / has so many. Then again, he's forgotten too. Even before, um, passing.)

Like, how much does it cost to run the gas piping from wherever to the gravesite?

What's the monthly gas bill? Comparable to frying a hamburger patty 24/7/365?

Is the amount itemized in Nancy's monthly Bel-Air domestic gas bill? Is somebody else taking care of it?

What if it pours down rain? (Southern California is one thing. But with Arkansas' weather it could cost a pretty penny to pay some caretaker to keep that mother eternally lit, I'm thinkin').

Do any Arkansas cemetaries offer Eternal Flame-Ready gas hookups?

No disrespect for the dead intended.

Oh, wait.

Yeah, I guess I did. Since Reagan (this former Screen Actors' Guild President "20 Mule Team Borax" hawker) disrespected so many of the living. Not to mention the Constitution and the Law.

Ollie North, Hogs? Not a word about AIDS at its horrific onslaught?

Water under the bridge, I suppose.

Except Reagan (and the Republican Party then) is the precursor to Bush (and the Republican Party now).

If you want to know the truth about Ronald Reagan, read Dan Moldea's "Ronald Reagan, MCA and the Mob."

Documented, annotated, factual. (Couldn't be, and never was, sued back in the day when it was written.)

Reagan idolators and religionists hate the book. Can't refute it, but hate it.

Like they hate any Truths that shatter their ongoing tyrannical theocratic instincts.

Anyway, Zelda, thanks for starting me thinking.

And may all our farts be gladiolas.

I think the proper thing to do in this energy crisis is to put out all Eternal Flames and replace them with red and silver tinsel & cellophane deally-whoppers that blow in the wind and give the illusion of a flame. We should paint the Statue of Liberty with glow in the dark paint and turn off those big power-thirsty flood lights.

And since Arlington Cemetery is running out of room we should start selling advertising space on the graves of anyone dead longer than 100 years. Imagine how many EXXON signs you could plant on the grave of William Howard Taft, our fattest President! Or use up all of band leader Glenn Miller's grave cause ya see.....Glen ain't in there....his body was never found. You could plant a GE Christmas tree on his grave and the roots wouldn't ever touch a dead body.

We really should start having all these big defense contractors sponsor the dead bodies of our returning troops from Iraq. Let dead body number 4102 be the Honeywell Dead US Soldier of the Week! Give his widow a lifetime supply of Honeywell wall thermostats! Without a husband to help feed her kids she can hock them thermostats out the back of the car at high school games or in the corner of a Wal-Mart parking lot before the blue vests run her ass off.

Let's get off all these old myths and useless honors...and make a big damn pile of money. Don't make a cent off lighting graves of dead Presidents, and wasting all that land on dead bodies that no one is alive to cry over......let's make us some money America! Then we can afford to build virtual web-grave-sites with lush grass that never needs mowing and interactive displays that let you ask the dead questions. For an added fee you can see them naked. Let's make some money America!

Okay, DBI.

I was pretty much able to keep up with you through the "red and silver tinsel & cellophane deally-whoppers that blow in the wind and give the illusion of a flame" because I have the same gimmick in my fireplace. Fools nobody. "Isn't that cute?" is the usual comment, if you can hear it over the fan blowing the fucking cellophane deally-whoppers.

Until you went off into marketing death and and the glow-in-the-dark Statue of Liberty and stuff.

I'm all over that shiz.

You nailed it. And not in a "Christian" way.

I don't know. There's something about turning national monuments like the Statue of Liberty into black velvet paintings that make me moist.

But that's just me.