I was looking out on Chesapeake Bay, sipping a chilled white wine and nibbling a pear plucked from a tree outside my window when I heard that Tim Russert was dead. I didn't know him, but like everyone else who follows politics, I recognized him as a media hero for our time. Media heroes — reporters and pundits — are omnipresent if not omniscient in our lives.

It was not always so. Once, poets were society's heroes, swains who sang sweet songs about love and life reflecting ...

( Back to Article )