Good-Bye Friend

I never met Tim Russert, but for the last 5-8 years, I have felt like he's been a member of the family. Russert, the host of "Meet the Press", died of a heart attack on Friday, he was 58. I became a fan of "Meet the Press" mainly because of Russert. In addition to watching "Meet the Press", I'd also watch Russert's program on MSNBC (formerly CNBC) titled "Tim Russert", where Russert would interview a guest, or guests, for a full hour. In addition to my viewership of Russert's programs, I have also read his book "Big Russ and Me", as well as listening to podcasts and watching video podcasts of "Meet the Press". You could say, I was a full fledged member of the Tim Russert fan club.


In addition to viewing "Meet the Press", TIVO helped me also watch "Face the Nation", "This Week" and "FOX News Sunday". Russert turned me into a political junkie. I guess you could say I became like Russert. Like Russert, I am a huge sports fan and a huge fan of my father. It was impossible to be a devout viewer of "Meet the Press" and not know who "Big Russ" was. The affection that Russert preached for his father and his son, Like were heartwarming. But, in the hours and days of Tim Russert tributes on MSNBC, NBC and others, you could tell Russert loved all his friends as if they were family, and obviously if you have spent 15 minutes or 15 hours watching the tributes to Russert, you know his friends felt the same way about him.


My dad had called my wife Friday, after hearing the news from his neighbor. My wife woke me and told me the news. I awoke in shock. I couldn't believe it. So, I immediately rushed to my office, where I had been recording the U.S. Open to my Direc TV DVR. I knew the NBC coverage of the U.S. Open was two hours long. My DVR recorder 1 hour and 28 minutes of it. My wife informed me of a 1 minute power outage we had. So, I immediately began fast forwarding as fast as I could because I wanted to hear the news to make sure it was true. Then Dan Hicks tossed to Tom Brokaw in New York, who delieverd the sad news. It was true, my heart dropped even more. When I hear bad news, especially that of death, I try to pass it along to someone else. Especially, if I am passing it along to someone who liked the person that is no longer with us. Dad is normally the first call, but since he called me, I couldn't call him. Mom was next in line. I think I scared her half to death. I called and said I have sad news. Then, I couldn't be understood as I was choked up with emotion and trying to fight back tears. She was saddened as well. But, I don't know that anyone in my family was as devistated as me.


In my life span of paying attention to world and national events, I can't remember a journalist being taken from their network while still in their prime. David Bloom, was a NBC reporter, but Bloom was not as recognizable as Russert. Peter Jennings was not as present of a face at ABC, when he passed. Tom Mees was recognizable at ESPN, but as widely popular as "Sportscenter" is, I don't think it nets the viewership that "Meet the Press" garners.

I am sure I will reflect more on Tim Russert later, as he will never be duplicated.

Idol Buzz

Brooke White's gotta go. This past week should have been her exit, but instead Kristy Lee Cook (who could have probably won Nashville Star with her love for country music) was bounced instead.

Predicitions for next week
Bottom 3: Jason Castro, Brooke White and possibly David Cook (even though I do think he will be the eventual winner).

Brooke White and Jason Castro fill the bottom 2, with either one being bounced (but hopefully Brooke.). It's nothing personal, I am sure she is a sweet person (anyone who can take care of kids as young as she does, is a saint in my mind) but she's just wearing on me, so she has gotta go.

My biggest pet peeve

I would say I can be an angry person. Not angry at family or anything like that, but just events that take place in what I like to call the real world. My biggest pet peeve of everything that occurs in the real world is the following.....

The 24 hour news cycle.

I don't hate the media. If I made my career in a media related job for my life, that would be wonderful. I like news and I love sports. Sports media is a dream come true. With that being said, the 24 hour news cycle has turned this country into an ambulance chasing society.

Don't even get me started on the obsession we have with entertainers. The fact that the papparazi follows Spears, Hilton and Lohan into a resturaunt, back to their cars, into the bathroom, into the pet store, etc, is ridiculous. But the fact that people are making a stink of what was in the background of a "Merry Christmas" ad from presidential hopeful, Mike Huckabee is absurd.

I don't mind the occassional worthless fluff piece on Christmas shooping, or what people do when they first wake up, but to dissect a "Merry Christmas" ad. Shameful.

24-365

Creating a Blog

It was 4:10 AM on a Monday morning/Sunday evening. Getting ready to head into work, i decided to surf the web on my wife's lap top while watching Condi Rice on Sunday's edition of "Face the NatioN" on my TIVO (which happens to be the world's greatest invention). I digress. While surfing the internet, i went to CollegeRPI.com and was reading about college basketball. All of a sudden I saw the column on the left where it says my blog. I went and read the blog by Jerry Palm and decided, 'Hey, why i don't i do one of these things'. Don't ask me why because as my radio broadcast partner, Kyle Hoehne would wonder aloud "How many people do you think want to know about your life" did reside in my brain. But, with my future desire of my own personalized web site, i said 'Hey, why not start with a blog'. I used to feel my computer knowledge was average to above. Now i feel it is below, especially when it comes to HTML, posting picutres and "uploading", "downloading".

So bare with me on my journey and eventually you will be sharing my radio broadcast partner's sentiment.