Taking Russert Down a Notch?

Slate likes to take the opposite position of the Conventional Wisdom.

Generally, that's a very entertaining and interesting starting point for their articles.

But on the subject of the death of a great journalist, I think it's a little unseemly to write this.

I wonder whether the media grievers gave a moment of thought to how this Russert torrent they produced played with viewers and readers.

Did the grievers really think Russert was so important, so vital to the nation's course, and such an elevated human being that he deserved hour upon hour of tribute? I wonder whether any the responsible journalists paused to think, Hey, this is really weird. We're using our unchecked editorial power to soak the nation with our tears about our friend, and that's unseemly!

On days like this, I, too, hate the press.

Except that, actually, I *did* think Russert deserved that kind of tribute. And the people who didn't certainly didn't have to watch it. It's kind of weird to take a network to task for having bad programming, in the context of devoting *too much* time to the memory of a great man.