Slate: The Canonization of Saint Russert hmmm, where have I read those words before?

As if all the NBC News airtime isn’t enough, MSNBC plans to broadcast a private memorial service for Russert from the Kennedy Center on June 18 at 4 p.m.

I’m not surprised. I predicted it.

As interim coverage, prior to his burial, the insiders are speculating on who will replace Russert. Again, my feelings are: “who cares?” – except for the inside-the-beltway cousins.

Russert apparenly was a great guy. But – this is for those of you who didn’t read earlier posts – he was just that, a guy, on TV, talking politics. Important to no one but his family.

The Washington Post tv critic writes today about how critics are panning the seemingly constant eulogies, but the viewers love it.

Poynter Institute’s Al Tompkins spanked NBC Universal for the “hour upon hour that NBC and MSNBC devoted to coverage of his death.” 

Balloon Juice:

Tim Russert was a newsman. He was not the Pope. This is not the JFK assassination, or Reagan’s death, or the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion. A newsman died. We know you miss him, but please shut up and get back to work.

Tompkins adds that the subscription only site NewsBlues.com said this yesterday.

The sudden death Friday of Washington Bureau Chief Tim Russert rattled through NBC with such ferocity that the stunned network briefly lost its journalistic equilibrium, transforming the entire “NBC Nightly News” into a self-serving eulogy for its fallen comrade.