Every Sunday morning, Joe Mande and Noah Garfinkel watch all the network news shows looking for news about the news, or "news news," and then report their findings here on the following day. Join them, won't you?

This week we lost a huge name in the field of journalism, as Tim Russert passed away from a tragically sudden heart attack. Under Tim Russert's reign, Meet the Press was perhaps the most prolific maker of news as well as news about news. His presence will be sorely missed every weekend. From now on we will forever say, "If it's Sunday, it's me depressed."

With the passing of Tim Russert, two of the Sunday morning news shows produced nothing even remotely silly. In fact, they were both super sad, powerful, and somber. So, instead of showing clips from Meet the Press and the Chris Matthews Show, please take this moment to watch the following video and reflect the end of an era (and also how tight Bone Thugs used to be).

Now onto the other Sunday morning shows. This week, most of the shows stepped up and tried their best to pick up the news news slack. That is, of course, with the exception of CBS and ABC.

SUNDAY MORNING LOSERS

Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer (CBS)

Guests: Newt Gingrich, Bobby Jindal, Jim Vandehei

Review: In this time of sorrow, nothing would have been more comforting than to see Bob Schieffer in the moderator's chair. What we got instead was guest moderator Chip Reid. While Chip Reid is amazing at having a very Caucasian name, his skills as an interviewer are lackluster at best. Watch as he asks Newt Gingrich a question in which it is assumed that Roe vs. Wade is three small things instead of one big one.

Yeah, there's three reasons...and a lot of other reasons. Thanks, but no thanks, Chip. We want Bob back (...safely). At least Newt Gingrich pulled his weight on the show this week. Look at him making this very well-thought-out and academic point:

A first class political thinker that Newt is. He's like the Michael Winslow of political punditry.

Rating: Blech blech blech blech...boing!...*fart noise*

This Week with George Stephanopoulos (ABC)

Guests: George Will, Sam Donaldson, Torie Clarke and Robert Reich

Review: This Week on This Week, George Snufalufagus held his own roundtable discussion about the life and death of his former Sunday morning rival, Tim Russert. It was all well and good, until Sam Donaldson (who looks great by the way) got all mixed up and forgot who died.

Too soon! This is no time for fat jokes, Sam Donaldson. Bad form, sir. Bad form indeed. Why don't you go back to being an animatronic wild-west banker or whatever it is you do to look like that?

Rating: Two tons of shame on you.

SUNDAY MORNING WINNERS

Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace (FOX)

Guests: Kay Bailey Hutchinson, Byron Dorgan, Red Cavaney, Bill Kristol, Juan Williams, Brit Hume, Mara Liasson

Review: Even on this saddest of sad weeks, Fox News Sunday knocks it out of the park with silliness. One of the guests is Red Cavaney, president of the American Petroleum Institute. At the beginning of his segment, he cites God being sneaky as the main reason it's so hard to find oil.

That dern ol' pesky God, always hidin' that there oil underground so we have to go a'huntin' for it!

The show only got better as time went on. Here, Senator Byron Dorgan explains why all this oil God hid from us is getting so expensive.

If we could only get those speculators to stop having sex parties, maybe we could all stretch our paychecks a little further. If you’ve never seen a speculation orgy, it looks like this:

By the time everybody was done talking about oil, they were all pretty tired. So tired, in fact, that they could barely stay awake while Juan Williams talked. First Bill Kristol smiles at Juan, then immediately dozes off (smile still displayed). Then Brit Hume gets caught waking up from a nap of his own.

Rating: Really solid effort from the Fox team. If God hid stars, we'd drill for them in the arctic wildlife refuge and give five to Chris Wallace.

The McLaughlin Group (Syndicated)

Guests: Monica Crowley, Pat Buchanan, Eleanor Clift, and Michelle Bernard

Review: Best show of the week by far. Everybody on the panel came to play. Specifically Monica Crowley, who was showing off a pretty serious boob mole.

John McLaughlin gets so distracted by the boob mole that he forgets what he's talking about and starts making funny noises. Then he panics and goes to commercial.

Then the sexual tension somehow reaches out of the show and infects the commercials too. Watch this promo with local CBS food critic Tony Tantillo, as he creepily pets a bell pepper.

Gross. Real Gross. So, you'd think after all this animalistic behavior, the panel would try to end the show with some class, but no. McLaughlin tries to sign off with a somber tone to remember Tim Russert, but as they go silently to credits watch carefully as Pat Buchanan points something out. (Something = Monica Crowley's boob mole.)

And what is it we think Pat is saying as he points at Monica? Almost certainly "Hey look! A boob mole!"

Rating: B+ (The B, of course, stands for "boob mole," which is equal to an A.)

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