Before I read this I had every intention of visiting the holy Russert tomb every morning and wallowing in the dewy grass with fervent hope of absorbing supernatural powers. Now that FW has steered me from error I'll revel in my superiority over those deceived masses; if any do indeed exist. Now there's a question: what is more mythical, a Supreme Being or Hitchens straw men, straw mass movements and conspiracy theories?

That agents of media are credulous, ridiculous and inept is a reality that dawns on the man who would be Orwell occasionally. But all is motes and beams to those pesky believers who would rightly place him a tree in the forest that is mainstream media. The canonization process is a presumption of Catholics and other kingdom of this worlders, it ain't likely to influence the almighty. The fourth estate is keen on allusions to Christian tradition however crudely they construct them. Christians doubt, believe, fail and succeed as individuals. It would be Christian to hold that many a man has been unjustly judged by his peers. The institutional trappings and pronouncements are tainted worldly creations. An old occultist, W. B. Yeats put it brilliantly: (this is from memory)

He with body waged a fight

but body won it walks upright

then he struggled with the heart

innocence and peace depart

then he struggled with the mind

his proud heart he left behind

now his wars on God begin

at stroke of midnight God will win.

It would be best to let Mr. Russert rest in peace after a decent mourning and move on. The fawning and drooling is what media celebrities do to sidestep their lack of imagination and dodge the responsibility of making trenchant observations. Hitchens' attention to the subject is merely the same thing packaged differently. Nobody, even at that temple of gullibility known as the National Press Club, believes the hand of divinity was active at Russerts memorial service. The pretense that anyone propounds such a thing seriously is a damned lame excuse to play rational skeptic and iconoclast.

The banishment of journalists with a commitment to the facts, like Ashley Banfield, and the preservation of convicted liars, like Geraldo Rivera, demonstrates exactly what kind of priorities prevail at the Ministries of Truth that issue Mr. Hitchens various paychecks. So any canonizing done from those holy synods is a joke. This is no reflection on Tim Russert except as he was, to some degree, one of them. This Fighting Words column just serves as an attempt to dignify the whole institutional mass media process. At roughly the same age CH is doubtless wondering what kind of reception will greet his demise. As far as the value of his future literary output is concerned they may as well hold his memorial service now, before he is too much deader.

Hitch has been slowly running out of gas lately. Couldn't mount any decent articles on John McCain or Robert Mugabe. Could be his convoluted history of being a former lefty is confounding his current incarnation as conservative contrarian.

So you don't have any comments on his actual points, then?

Oh no, only his inactual ones. Like that there really are people associating miracles with Russert's memorial service. Meaning other than journalists, of course, that are willing to believe anything if they think they can make copy out of it. Street-wisdom is absolutely verboten in the MSM and hence Hitchens ridiculous column, wasn't I clear?

Now was there some other point that you gleaned between the lines or that your special computer finds that speak only to you?