You can all be sad over Heath Ledger ...

[veronica_rich]

(Who was a good actor and I'm sure a very nice man, BTW. Not saying anything bad.)

But for me, the death of Tim Russert is shocking and particularly sad. Russert was accused by the Bush administration for a good while as the person who leaked Valerie Plame's name to the public (he didn't), and NBC actually defended him instead of throwing him to the wolves (coughDanRathercough) - after which he went on tear of hard questions to Bush backers and staffers.

No journalist is perfect (except maybe Edward R. Murrow), and I did see the guy stumble once in a rare while by not asking a question he should've - but more often than not, he knew how to ask questions, would keep pushing an issue as far as he could, and always had proof to back up his questions and assertions, to put public officials in their place if they tried to lie or back up over themselves.

Dead at 58. RIP.

Comments

[smtfhw.livejournal.com]

The loss of any good, effective, ethical journalist in this day and age is very bad news indeed. There's precious few of them left. I suspect we're better off here in the UK for that sort of journalist, but even so the world needs all of them.