If there was one topic that focused media attention this weekend it was the death of one of the industry’s own: Tim Russert. Russert’s passing provoked praise and grief across all the media and a good amount of talk about journalism and its practitioners. It’s no surprise. Over decades at NBC Russert, host of the flagship Sunday program Meet the Press had become a massively influential media presence.

For me one moment stood out. It was Friday, soon after the news broke, NBC anchor Brian Williams, was interviewed on camera from Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan. Calling Russert’s death “an unfathomable loss” he appeared to choke up and you could hear the pain in his voice.

Watching him there in Afghanistan, or it could as well have been Iraq… I couldn’t help but think. After how many hundreds of thousands dead in the US’s two assaults on those two countries — what if Williams, or Russert or any of the big power news men ever expressed emotion about those deaths. What if we saw them choke up – even once – at the slaughter of an Afghan family in a US missile attack, or the blowing to bits of an Iraqi father as he lined up to buy food or find work?

I know it’s possibly a subversive thought and heaven forbid – but – what if in journalism — mourning – not to mention expressing feeling wasn’t saved up just for journalists? What then, do you think?

The F Word is a daily commentary by Laura Flanders.

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