I have been a Slate reader and occaisional poster for some time now and I can honestly say that I have never agreed with a single thing that Jack Shafer has written until now. The interminable paeon to Russert would, I'm sure, embarass the crap out of him. Not only would he be personally humiliated by the effuvia of his friends but professionally offended at their collective lack of perspective and judgment or regard for their responsibility to their audience. This is a real disservice to a man that struck me as someone who took pride in delivering the news - not being it.

I can only add that I think you mean "paean" (and "effluvia", as well).

Anyway, red pencil aside, I agree that this has gone way beyond reporting on a real news story and has turned into the same sort of celebrity garbage that pollutes so much of the news, and that in turn magnifies the reputation of a good, old-fashioned tough, smart journalist like Russert into some sort of God of the Sunday interview.

Thanks for your response. I'll plead guilty to "paeon" for "paean" although my dictionary lists it as an alternate. Effuvia was my attempt to make a noun out of the adjective "effusive" not effluvium (flow) . But enough for creative English, I believe that we both agree that the line was crossed from appropriate to exploitive in the coverage of Russert's untimely death.