The loss is still being measured — and with each day it’s clear it is even greater than originally imagined. From USA Today:
Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, says, “Russert was a political analyst more than a reporter. His commentary wasn’t based off opinions. He was assessing impact, direction and implications based off deep knowledge and deep research. … That is the kind of reporting that we don’t have enough of on network television.”
Cartoon by Brian Fairrington, Cagle Cartoons
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.