Losing the real deal

Tim RussertJournalists have been given a hard time lately and rightfully so. They editorialize when they should be reporting. And the traditional tough questions have been replaced with ’softballs.’ Friday, June 13th was a sad day for journalism because we lost areal journalist. A man that worked hard, asked tough questions and did his job the way it was meant to be done. He didn’t have ‘Ditto heads’ or ask ‘What say you?’ He wasn’t lumped into the ‘liberal media elite,’ he was simply regarded as a talented journalist and a well-liked and respected professional. Tim Russert was known for his straight-forward interviewing style and was one of the first journalists to actually ‘quote’ his guests and have them explain the true meaning behind it. When the guest tried to talk around the question, he’d re-read them their exact quote and ask them to explain the rationale behind their words. Now that’s a journalist! When watching him interview someone, I never walked away wondering why he didn’t ask the obvious questions, because he did. He asked the questions his guests didn’t necessarily want to answer, but that all of us wanted to hear. It seems as though our journalists are getting younger and prettier instead of smarter and simply better at their jobs. Unfortunately, for us the viewers, with the loss of Tim Russert, we will most likely be stuck watching wanna-be actors and actresses more interested in their white teeth than the White House.

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