The network morning news shows could not have cared less about the passing of conservative columnist Robert Novak. While ABC, CBS and NBC all ran obituaries during their August 18 evening news shows, ABC’s Good Morning America and CBS’s The Early Show completely skipped over Novak this morning, not once mentioning his death.
Over on NBC’s Today, fill-in news anchor Hoda Kotb squeezed in a brief item during the 7am update: “Friends and fellow journalists are remembering famed columnist and TV commentator Robert Novak. He died Tuesday in Washington after a battle with brain cancer. Robert Novak was 78 years old.”
Novak was hardly a niche conservative or Washington figure, but someone well known to millions of Americans, with his syndicated column running in more than 300 newspapers for many decades and co-hosting three different CNN programs over a 20-year period before eventually moving to the Fox News Channel in 2005. Nor was he some figure from the distant past, stepping down from his daily column only after his illness was diagnosed in mid-2008.
While downplaying Novak, all three morning shows had another update today on Michael Jackson, who died 55 days ago.
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ASSHATS
August 19, 2009 - 17:29 ET by MES41067No class asshats!!!!!!!!!
(Lenin called them "useful idiots" I for one have no use for them.)
Well, perhaps Meet the Press will give him a shout out Sunday
August 19, 2009 - 17:34 ET by nwahsHe was on Meet the Press 248 times - perhaps they'll honor him.
I am the mob. Don't tread on me.
Robert Novak R.I.P
August 19, 2009 - 17:52 ET by thestalkinghorseConservatives and conservatism are invisible to the morning shows
LIKE HELL THEY ARE...
August 19, 2009 - 21:45 ET by danybhoyConservatives are very visable on the morning shows. They trash them & demonize them every chance they get.
"...How blind can you be, don't you see...
...that the gambler lost all he does not have..."
Nightwish
RIP
August 19, 2009 - 17:57 ET by hbestRIP Mr. Novak. No one rooted harder for you on Crossfire or any show you were on holding the Conservative line. That night you cussed old Snakehead and walked off the set, my wife cussed me for having to get the Windex to clean the smudges off the screen where I was kissing it!
current talking heads
August 19, 2009 - 18:08 ET by philipjamesActually you can't expect much from the current crop of talking heads on these networks because they aren't journalists anyway.... they are some sort of creepy copy readers/entertainers who sit in front of a teleprompter and wouldn't know how to do half the things that Novak could do.
But, who cares, the internet with blogs and online "publications" is the new reality (you can see that in the TV news ratings) although I enjoyed the real interaction that used to occur on some of the earlier panels.
Out of proportion
August 19, 2009 - 21:24 ET by nkviking75Meanwhile, 60 Minutes will devote the entire hour to its creator, Don Hewitt, who died today. No student of journalism can deny Hewitt's importance, but Novak was hardly a trivial figure.
“Always love your country — but never trust your government!" -- Bob Novak (1931-2009)