Sunday's Deafening Silence

Sunday's Deafening Silence

By: Bob Brumfield, Account Manager, Fusion PR

My corner store is usually loud on Sunday morning. Simon, the guy who owns the place, usually presides over a charming gallery of kibbitzing busybodies, ‘Meet the Press’ playing on screen behind them, its content being referred to intermittently, sometimes with praise and other times with derision, spinning off in all imaginable directions. This occasionally results in a pointed political question being hurled at someone with a splintering hangover, just trying to get a cup of what passes for coffee.

So, this Sunday morning, going in to get coffee sucked. Only Simon and one other guy were in there, neither talking, both very visibly sad. ‘Meet the Press’ featured a panel of weeping journalists, pundits, historians, etc. We watched as Tom Brokaw broke down crying when he talked about Russert’s sense of patriotism.

The funereal mood was exacerbated by the fact that Simon was running no overhead lighting, instead relying on the sunlight to illuminate the place. The light was eerie and sad, shifting with the clouds. It sort of gave you a feeling of watching a disaster take place inside a movie, where little disasters are viewed on television screens as the environment around these disbelieving players flickers with infrastructural breakdown.

Here is some of what has been said about Tim Russert this weekend. He was awesome and will be missed.

‘Meet the Press’ remembers Tim Russert
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25174195/

The Talk: Remembering Russert
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-talk/2008/06/remembering_russert.html

Tim Russert, ‘Meet the Press’ Host, is Dead at 58
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/14/business/media/13cnd-russert.html?scp=1&sq=tim%20russert&st=cse

Top US TV journalist Russert dies
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7454098.stm