Tired of Dead People

In the news business, you get to cover a lot of fun stuff like people being killed, AWESOME! For the most part, the deaths we cover are generally spaced out, but lately I have had to cover 4 high profile murders and it is starting to take a toll. I am tried of it, it's not fun and you have to be serious. Day in and day out we have covered these local deaths with very little breaks. Being on nightside it is magnified, because 11pm producer wants something new. I don't blame her, it's just we have a limited number of night side crews and with the luck of the draw I'm covering one of the deaths.

You joke around about it, you try not to think about it, yet it is still there. Today I covered a vigil almost three hours away from the station. All the people there did not even know the girl, she didn't even live there. The only connection was she was found there. After four weeks of death I need a long break from it. Luckily, I have a vacation coming soon and hopefully after all the death stories will have passed

Tim Russert

Very few times you can walk into a newsroom and find every person gathered around a couple of televisions, the last time I can remember was 9 11. The reasoning why is we are so jaded it takes an event for us to get pulled away from doing our jobs and today we had one of those events, Tim Russert died from a heart attack. He is not a big dog like Tom Brokaw, but he is near the top in recognized news people. When ever NBC has something political he was always there. I believe most people in America knew who he was. They may not have watched Meet the Press or any other news, yet I guess most would say, "Oh yeah that guy."

On occasion I have been to big events where there are national crews there and most of the time I could careless. I never got a chance to be in the same location as Mr Russert, but I would have tried to find out where he was and walk over to see. For someone like me who doesn't get awe struck by celebrities that's pretty big for me. As a journalist I respected his political skills and ability to get answers out of his interviews. As Tom Brokaw said at the end of his special coverage, NBC news will never be the same. I agree, I am sorry that we will no long have a man like Russert, we may never see someone as his ilk again.