Eulogizing bad people

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I don't speak ill of the dead unless I would have spoken ill of them while they were alive.

Tim Russert was the moderator of venerable Sunday public affairs show Meet the Press which, to his embarrassment (presumably), was revealed during the Scooter Libby trial as Dick Cheney's favorite venue for launching new partisan political narratives and slanderous whispering campaigns disguised as news commentary.

Tony Snow was a right-wing media personality who used his talents to promote illegal war, inhumane economic policies, and perpetuate an ideology that empowers and invites transnational corporations do whatever they wish with our democratic republic while Grover Norquist's cosa nostra tries to twist its frail neck shut forever.

Media commentaries like this one after the death of people like Russert and Snow, by one Bob Franken, are to be expected, I suppose, if the author happens to be an "Emmy-award winning reporter, recently inducted into the Society for Professional Journalists Washington Hall of Fame." I accept Franken's assertion that Russert and Snow were both, on a personal level, nature's noblemen; all Hall of Fame Washington journalists have probably shared many liters of alcohol and buckets of chicken wings with both of the late worthies. And, no doubt, both Russert and Snow "squeezed every last bit of pleasure" from their work, as the Franken notes, with a concomitant amount of joie de vivre.

Well, why wouldn't they enjoy their privileged lives to the hilt? Both Russert and Snow must have felt indescribable thrills with each success catapulting the propaganda on behalf of absolute power. But Tim and Tony were not "champions of the honorable disagreement, where skeptical reporters and passionate advocates could hash out the best solutions to society's problems through intense debate", as the eulogist Franken wants us to believe. Russert was a skilled interviewer who used his position to deny adequate access to opposition points of view, and too often played "gotcha" journalism with them when he did invite them. Tony Snow was a political propagandist who promoted a right-wing agenda in every public appearance I ever saw or heard. Russert and Snow were champions of the "honorable disagreement," as Franken calls it, only because they could easily afford to patronize the guests they vanquished with sophistry, phony civility, and by owning their own venues.

The families and loved ones of such men must grieve for their loss because (1) nobody can choose their family members and (2) the deceased were no doubt kind and generous to a fault... to those who belonged to their tribe. Josh Marshall, who may be the most authentic gentleman among liberal bloggers, characterized the loss of Tony Snow to cancer at age 53 as "sad news." But the news was not sad for me. Just to be clear, the news was not happy for me either, even though I do not hesitate to say good riddance to both.

In his 18 months as the senior propagandist for the Bush administration, and as a substitute host for Rush Limbaugh, and as a right-wing commentator for Fox and CNN and syndication, Snow must in the end accept his share of blame for thwarting the public will for affordable universal health care, and for undermining the public's faith that the U.S. government is capable of providing it. I think it is safe to assume that Snow's health care never suffered as a result of government policy. And the administration's efforts to promulgate illegal war, torture, and cataclysmic economic policies never suffered as a result of the decisions Tony Snow made about how to use his media talents.

Russert, who gave more-than-equal time to our government's worst sociopaths and corporate looters, as well as their enablers and hangers-on --- while shutting out or piling on those with opposing voices --- can petition his sky god for entry through The Pearly Gates despite his role in neutering the press in the service of absolute power. His professional malfeasance, in my opinion, is even worse than Snow's. A constitutional democracy can't survive without a robust, independent press that questions authority and doesn't accept the propagandist's answers at face value. Russert, for reasons unknown to me, chose to abet power instead of the everyday people with whom he claimed to be as one.

Without meaning to denigrate anyone's personal grief for either man, I see nothing wrong with stating my belief that America is a better place today without Tim and Tony. Both men contributed directly or indirectly to the misery of untolled thousands (at least) throughout the world... and the grief of the many must count for much more.