Daily Briefs: The State of American Journalism

By CHRIS PACKHAM

Meet the Press host Tim Russert died on Friday, and there’s not a damn thing anybody can do about it.%{[ data-embed-type=”image” data-embed-id=”57150c4c89121ca96b9622bd” data-embed-element=”aside” ]}% What do you tell the children when the host of a major network’s Sunday talk show passes through the veil between heaven and assy-smelling, malaria-ridden old planet Earth? I think you tell them the truth: Sometimes TV round-table moderators die suddenly and without warning, occasionally while interviewing Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt. Meanwhile, stinky old Anne Rice remains well above room temperature, publishing books made entirely out of florid adjectives and crap. Let it be the first in a long, unremitting series of examples that life is totally unfair and arbitrary, and that there’s absolutely nothing they can count on. After the jump, some ruminations on Jesus, journalism and Brush Creek. Click here, or you can choose between this photo of thanatoid death rictus James Carville or Title IX Women’s Division death rictus Anne Rice: