Kurtz: Journalists Mourn Russert Out Of "Journalistic Insecurity"

Scratch the surface of all those glittering tributes for Tim Russert and you might find an undercoating of journalistic insecurity.

The NBC analyst was hailed as a symbol of old-fashioned, carefully balanced, substance-driven reporting, an approach that, while not exactly extinct, often seems drowned out by today's loudmouth television culture.

But why was his passing depicted as the end of an era? What, after all, is stopping the networks from putting on other hour-long programs of sustained political interrogation, even if its practitioners are less skilled than Russert?

The answer is that news organizations are too often captives of the convenient. The networks still air their half-hour newscasts at 6:30, despite declining audiences, because trying an hour in prime time is deemed too risky. The cable networks lean toward loud and opinionated shows because such fare brings in the hard-core audience. Despite Russert's success, many producers today are terrified of boring the audience. Most interviews last six or seven minutes before it's time to move on to the next segment about Michelle Obama doing fist bumps on "The View."

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