Like anyone else who’s spent any time in Washington these past 20 years, I was stunned by the sad news of Tim Russert’s death, aged just 58, on Friday. these must be terrible times for his friends and family. Like Matt Yglesias, I’ve criticised Russert before, but de mortuis nil nisi bonum and all that. For myself, I never thought Russert as “tough” as his legend suggested. “Tougher than Bob Schieffer” isn’t quite the same thing.
American journalism – and politics – of course, makes a virtue of having a less cynical, less antagonistic style than that which those of us brought up in Britain are accustomed to enjoying. There are strengths to that approach, of course, but Russert’s attitude often seemed designed to cry “gotcha” when politicians were revealed to have broken the unspoken rules and assumptions of the Washington Game.
He was good, and a “Washington institution” and it is still shocking to think that he’s dead so young, but… I agree with Marc Cooper that to judge from the tenor and quantity of the press coverage today you could be forgiven for thinking that a head of state, or a pope, had died, not a chap who gave up his Sunday mornings to ask politicians a few questions.
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