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Tim Russert

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Tim Russert
Tim Russert, October 22 2007
Born(1950-05-07)May 7, 1950
Buffalo, New York, U.S.
DiedJune 13, 2008(2008-06-13) (aged 58)
Washington, D.C.
OccupationJournalist
Notable credit(s)Meet the Press moderator
(1991–2008)
SpouseMaureen Orth (married 1983)
ChildrenLuke
Websitehttp://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4459759/

Timothy John Russert, Jr. (May 7 1950 – June 13 2008)[1] was an award winning American TV journalist. He was the longest-serving host of NBC's Meet the Press, serving as moderator for more than 16 years. He was NBC News' Washington Bureau Chief and also hosted the self-titled CNBC/MSNBC weekend interview program Tim Russert. He was a frequent correspondent and guest on NBC's The Today Show and Hardball. He is noted for his coverage of presidential elections from 2000 until his death and for his presentation of the NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey on the NBC Nightly News during U.S. presidential election, 2008. Russert collapsed in NBC's Washington, D.C. studios on Friday June 13 2008 while taping voiceovers for Meet the Press, and was pronounced dead a short time later at Sibley Memorial Hospital.[2]

Biography

Early life

Born in Buffalo, New York to Irish American Catholic parents, he received a Jesuit education.[3] Russert was an alumnus of Canisius High School in Buffalo. He received his B.A. from John Carroll University and his Juris Doctor from Cleveland State University Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. Russert commented on Meet the Press that he went to Woodstock, "in a Buffalo Bills jersey with a case of beer". Russert was admitted to the bar in New York and the District of Columbia. He served as counselor in New York Governor Mario Cuomo's office in Albany from 1983 to 1984 and was chief of staff to Democratic Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan from 1977 to 1982. While in law school, an official from his alma mater, John Carroll University, called Russert to ask if he could book some concerts for the school as he had done while a student. He agreed, but said he would need money because he was running out of money to pay for law school. One concert that Russert booked was headlined by a then-unknown singer, Bruce Springsteen, who charged $2,500 for the concert appearance. Russert told this story to Jay Leno when he was a guest on the The Tonight Show on NBC on June 6 2006.[4] On September 28 2007, Springsteen and the E Street Band played live on the Today show in Rockefeller Plaza, and Russert could be seen listening to the music in casual dress toward the front of the stage.

File:Russertmarkerboard.jpeg
Russert with his trademark white marker board during the 2000 presidential election

Career

Russert graduated from Cleveland-Marshall College of Law and then worked on New York Democrat Daniel Patrick Moynihan's Senatorial campaign in 1976. He worked on New York Democrat Mario Cuomo's gubernatorial campaign in 1982. Russert was hired by NBC at their Washington Bureau in 1984. He arranged for Pope John Paul II's first interview on American television in 1985.[2] He became Washington Bureau Chief in 1988.[5]

Russert took over the Sunday morning program Meet the Press in 1991, and would become the longest serving host of the program. Its name was changed to Meet the Press with Tim Russert, and went to an hour-long format in 1992. Russert was known especially for his extensive research in preparation for interviews. One common approach he used was to find old quotes or video clips that he would present to guests that were inconsistent with their more recent statements, and then ask them to clarify their positions. Russert, who was a Senior Vice President of NBC News, often moderated political debates.

Russert calculated possible United States Electoral College outcomes on a marker board on the air during NBC's coverage of the 2000 presidential election and memorably summed up the outcome as dependent upon "Florida, Florida, Florida."[6] Russert again accurately predicted the final battleground of the presidential elections of 2004: "Ohio, Ohio, Ohio." On the MSNBC show Tucker, Russert predicted the battleground states of the 2008 presidential election would be New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona and Nevada, saying, "If Democrats can win three of those four, they can lose Ohio and Florida, and win the presidency."[7]

An avid fan of the Buffalo Bills football team, Russert usually closed Sunday broadcasts during the football season with some type of pro-Bills comment. He had also ended his show by mentioning the successes of Boston College football, baseball, and hockey.

During his career, Russert received 48 honorary doctorates and won several awards for excellence in journalism including the Edward R. Murrow Award from the Radio-Television News Directors Association, the John Peter Zenger Freedom of the Press Award, the American Legion Journalism Award, the Veterans of Foreign Wars News Media Award, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society Journalism Award, the Allen H. Neuharth Award for Excellence in Journalism, the David Brinkley Award for Excellence in Communication and the Catholic Academy for Communication's Gabriel Award.[2] Russert also received an Emmy Award in 2005 for his coverage of the funeral of Ronald Reagan.[8]

Personal life

Russert's recent book, Wisdom of Our Fathers

Russert penned a bestselling autobiography, Big Russ and Me, in 2004 (ISBN 978-1401352080), which chronicled his life growing up in a predominantly Irish working-class neighborhood in South Buffalo and his education at Canisius High School. Russert's father, a World War II veteran who held down two jobs after the war, emphasized the importance of maintaining strong family values through the methods of the "carrot and the stick", the reverence of faith, and of never taking a short cut to reach a goal. Russert claimed to have received over 60,000 letters from people in response to the book, detailing their own experiences with their fathers.[7][9] He released Wisdom of Our Fathers: Lessons and Letters from Daughters and Sons in 2005, a collection of some of these letters, which also became a bestseller.

Russert appeared briefly in a scene on the television drama Homicide as himself.[10] On that show, one of the fictional characters, Megan Russert, was his cousin. Russert also appeared on the Nickelodeon game show What Would You Do?

Tim Russert married Maureen Orth in 1983. They met each other at the 1976 Democratic National Convention. Orth has been a special correspondent for Vanity Fair since 1993. They have a son, Luke, who graduated from Boston College in 2008 and hosts the XM radio show 60/20 Sports with James Carville. Russert was a Washington Nationals and Washington Wizards season ticket holder.[11] Russert was elected to the board of directors of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York in 2003.[12] According to NBC News, he named his son, Luke, after St. Luke. A few days before he died, he had an audience with the Pope. He was in Italy for a family vacation but returned home before the rest of the family, who was still in Italy when he died.

CIA leak scandal

Scooter Libby, convicted chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney, told special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald that Russert was the first to tell him of the identity of Central Intelligence Agency officer Valerie Plame (Mrs. Joseph C. Wilson). Russert testified previously, and again in United States v. I. Lewis Libby, that he would neither testify whether he spoke with Libby nor would he describe the conversation.[13][14] Russert did say, however, that Plame's identity as a CIA operative was not leaked to him.[13]

Russert testified again in the trial on February 7 2007.[15] At the trial, the prosecution asserted that a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent had called Russert regarding Russert's phone call with Libby, and that Russert had told the agent that the subject of Plame had not come up during his conversation with Libby.[15]

During the trial, another witness, former Cheney communications director Cathie Martin, testified that she "suggested we put the vice president on Meet the Press, which was a tactic we often used. It's our best format", allowing the administration to "control the message".[16][17]

Death

On the afternoon of June 13 2008, Russert collapsed at the offices of WRC-TV, which houses the Washington, D.C. bureau of NBC News where he was the Bureau Chief, while recording voiceovers for the Sunday edition of Meet the Press. Despite immediate attempts at resuscitation by EMS and transportation to Sibley Memorial Hospital, Russert never regained consciousness and was pronounced dead a short time later at 4:15 p.m. EDT (GMT-4). News of his death was reported live on NBC, CNBC, and MSNBC by Tom Brokaw.[18] Russert had just returned from a family vacation in Italy, where he went to celebrate his son's graduation from Boston College.[19] While his wife and son remained in Italy, Russert returned to prepare for his Sunday television show.[20]

An autopsy, performed on the day of his death, determined that his history of diabetes mellitus and coronary artery disease led to sudden cardiac death. The immediate cause of death was an occlusive coronary thrombus.[21][2] On the special reports program, Russert's friend Dr. Nancy Newmann stated that the autopsy showed coronary artery disease in the left anterior descending artery, and a fresh blood clot was visible on one of these plaques.

On the evening of his death, the entire, nearly commercial-free half hour of NBC Nightly News was dedicated to Russert's memory, featuring previous news segments with Russert and interviews with some of Russert's colleagues. The broadcast also included tributes to Russert by presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama, as well as Ethel Kennedy, Bob Schieffer, Tom Brokaw, Andrea Mitchell, Ron Paul,Bob Woodward and others. Dateline NBC also served as a memorial for Russert, by highlighting the heights of both his early life and political and journalistic career in television. No other news was covered in the broadcast. Other major public and cable news agencies, including CBS, CNN, and Fox News also devoted large segments of their programming on June 13 to Russert's life and memory. MSNBC, a station which he had spent much time working at, devoted several continuous hours of commercial-free interviews with Russert's colleagues, during which host Keith Olbermann teared up several times.

Journalists from multiple news organizations and politicians of all viewpoints praised Russert's commitment to the highest standards of well-researched journalism and fair play. CBS News anchor emeritus Walter Cronkite wrote: "Tim Russert was a giant in our field — a standard-bearer of journalistic integrity and ethics. His masterful interviews and round-table discussions are legendary."[22]

Washington Post journalist Carl Bernstein wrote: "Tim Russert was a transformative journalist. He changed American television news, by bringing to it his own values: integrity, fairness, good humor, humility, and a unique sense of how reporting, history, and politics are bound together. He was masterful at exposing hypocrisy. I knew him as a source, a colleague, a competitor, and — on the air — as the subject of his tough questions. His approach to every role was always the same: he loved what he did, and sought a way to the truth, often unconventionally."[22]

Sen. John McCain (Arizona), Republican Party's expected presidential nominee, described Russert as "the preeminent political journalist of his generation."[22] "Tim Russert was at the top of his profession. He was a man of honesty and integrity. He was hard, but he was always fair."[23]

Washington Post columnist, Sally Quinn, appeared on NBC Nightly News telling how warm and religious Russert was. She said he was kind to her son, Quinn. Twice, she even referred to Tim Russert as Quinn.[24]

Sen. Barack Obama (Illinois), Democratic presumed presidential nominee, said: "I've known Tim Russert since I first spoke to the convention in 2004. He was somebody who over time I came to consider not only a journalist but a friend. There wasn't a better interviewer in television nor a more thoughtful analyst of our politics, and he was also one of the finest men I knew."[23]

Gwen Ifill reported Russert's death and acknowledged Russert's impact on the world of television journalism on her PBS show Washington Week broadcast of June 13, 2008. She considered Russert a friend, described how he brought her into the world of broadcasting on a dare, and lamented his loss.

References

  1. ^ Hurt, Charles (2008-06-13). "Tim Russert Dies from Apparent Heart Attack". New York Post. Retrieved 2008-06-13.
  2. ^ a b c d "NBC's Tim Russert dead at 58". msnbc. Retrieved 2008-06-13.
  3. ^ "Tim Russert, John Carroll University Class of '72, to Moderate Democratic Debate". Retrieved 2008-06-13. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |publiisher= ignored (|publisher= suggested) (help)
  4. ^ "John Carroll University, Cleveland, OH". Brucebase. Retrieved 2008-06-13.
  5. ^ "Interview With Tim Russert". CNN Reliable Sources. CNN. May 23 2004. Retrieved 2008-06-13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ Howard Kurtz, Washington Post: In the Hot Seat, Washington Post, May 23, 2004.
  7. ^ a b Tucker, June 15, 2007
  8. ^ "About Meet the Press". MSNBC. 2008-06-13. Retrieved 2008-06-13.
  9. ^ Tim Russert liked St. Louis. KSDK-TV. 2008-06-13. Retrieved 2008-06-13.
  10. ^ Tim Russert at IMDb
  11. ^ Reiss, Mike (2006-02-05). "This Russert will be interrogating athletes on radio". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2008-06-13.
  12. ^ Bloom, Barry M. Late Russert left mark on baseball. Major League Baseball'. 2008-06-13. Retrieved 2008-06-13.
  13. ^ a b Template:PDFlink. United States of America v. I. Lewis Libby. United States District Court for the District of Columbia. 2004-06-04. Retrieved 2008-06-13. Page 3.
  14. ^ In the indictment of Libby, the grand jury found that Russert did not ask Libby if Libby knew that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA. Template:PDFlink. United States of America v. I. Lewis Libby. United States District Court for the District of Columbia. 2005-10-28. Retrieved 2008-06-13. Page 19.
  15. ^ a b Lewis, Neil A. NBC's Russert Wraps Up Prosecution Case in Libby Trial. The New York Times. 2007-02-09. Retrieved 2008-06-13.
  16. ^ Milbank, Dana (2007-01-26). "In Ex-Aide's Testimony, A Spin Through VP's PR". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2008-06-13.
  17. ^ Greenwald, Glenn. Favorite quotes of 2007. Salon. 2007-12-26. Retrieved 2008-06-13.
  18. ^ "Tim Russert dead at 58". CNN. 2008-06-13. Retrieved 2008-06-13.
  19. ^ Kurtz, Howard and William Branigin (June 13, 2008). "NBC's Tim Russert Dies at 58: Host of 'Meet the Press' Stricken While at Office". Washington Post. Retrieved 2008-06-13. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  20. ^ Seelye, Katharine Q. (June 13, 2008). "NBC's Tim Russert Dies". The Caucus. New York Times. Retrieved 2008-06-13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  21. ^ Morgan, David (2008-06-13). "TV newsman Tim Russert dies of heart attack". Reuters. Retrieved 2008-06-13.
  22. ^ a b c "Reactions to Tim Russert's death". msnbc. Retrieved 2008-06-13.
  23. ^ a b "Obama, McCain on Tim Russert". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 2008-06-13.
  24. ^ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2008/06/13/DI2008061302404.html?nav=hcmodule

Further reading

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