We were wondering how the corporate media's coverage of Tim Russert's death was going to play out. Because like we've said before, when it comes to turning themselves into the story, the corporate media goes wall to wall. Such is the case with Russert. A tragic story--yes--but enough is definitely enough.
When you stop for a moment to consider the money, energy, and time the corporate media is investing covering the Russert death, you can't help but wonder a little. Could they use that money, energy, and time covering something else--that might actually impact lots of people?
Turns out, yes, they could. Larisa has just a short list of things that might just be worthy of some additional attention:
The wall to wall coverage of Russert's passing reminds us of Chevy Chase's classic parody of the corporate media's coverage of Generalissimo Francisco Franco's death back in 1975:Disaster in Iowa:
Iowa under curfew because of flooding disaster
State officials in emergency underground bunker
24,000 homeless due to flooding
It looks like Katrina
Bush MIA, againTaliban Prison Break:
Kandahar locked down after 870 prisoners escape (you remember the Taliban don't you?)
NATO declares Taliban jail-break a tactical successKosovo Independence:
Constitutional democracy begins?
Russia says not-so-fastAmerican dead and the "War on Terror":
US military deaths as of Saturday, 4, 098
UK "ghost" forgets intel documents on Al-Qaeda, found on train
Al Qaeda branch claims recent attacks on Algeria (Bush is really winning the war of terra)
...Larisa's article here. Wikipedia here.
On slow news days, United States network television newscasters sometimes noted that Franco was still alive, or not yet dead. The imminent death of Franco was a headline story on the NBC news for a number of weeks prior to his death on November 20.
...
From that point on, Chase made it clear that SNL would get the last laugh at Franco's expense. "This breaking news just in", Chase would announce - "Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead!"[3] The top story of the news segment for several weeks running was that Generalissimo Francisco Franco was still dead. Occasionally, Chase would change the wording slightly in order to keep the joke fresh, e.g. "Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still valiantly holding on in his fight to remain dead."[4]
Remember folks, the people who cover (or read) the news are interesting! And important!
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