So long as we’re questioning awards, what do we think of NBC News donating the furniture from Tim Russert’s Washington office to be reassembled for a Newseum exhibit?
TVSquad plays it right down the middle:
The fact that Russert was on the Newseum’s board of directors might have something to do with this honor, but you can’t argue with the fact that for Meet the Press alone, Russert earned the recognition.
Not to take anything away from Russert, but neither his career nor his office are worthy of commemoration, let alone veneration. The only plausible explanation for the assembly and display of a bunch of second-class relics from the life of Tim Russert is a religious one. I don’t think anybody believes that Russert—no matter how thorough some of his interviews might have been—performed any miracles during his lifetime. Nor do any of his fans regard him a religious martyr. But the adoration being expressed for Russert through his workaday artifacts strikes me as fundamentally spiritual. By making a pilgrimage to the Russert shrine, his disciples hope to prove their faith and intensify their closeness to him.
Past Newseum exhibits include unabomber Ted Kaczynski’s shack.