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Tuesday, June 17, 2008 at 10:00 AM UTC
TV News After Russert
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A wake today for Tim Russert in Washington. Funeral and burial tomorrow for the TV news analyst and much-loved interrogator and host of NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

When Russert was felled by a heart attack Friday, his star was high. But his style of television news and political analysis — old-school, straight-arrow, buttoned-down — was already headed out the window.

The cable TV news pundits — Olbermann, O’Reilly, Matthews, Hannity — have been racing into higher and higher attitude terrain. And taking American politics with them.

This hour, On Point: All attitude — TV, and the world after Russert.

- Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Peter Boyer, staff writer for The New Yorker. His article in the current issue, “One Angry Man,” looks at how Keith Olbermann may be changing TV news.

Robert Thompson, director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University.

Nathaniel Persily, professor of law at Columbia University and an expert on American politics and public opinion.

 

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