Friday, June 13, 2008

Oh no - Tim Russert has died

The "Explainer-in-Chief." One of the bright shining lights in the media darkness. His famous whiteboard he uses on Election Night should go in the Smithsonian. How can we have an election without him? I'm shocked.

Update: He collapsed today from a heart attack while at his NBC News office here in Washington and died.

From here.

NBC News is reporting that Tim Russert has died. Russert was the managing editor and moderator of "Meet the Press" and political analyst for "NBC Nightly News" and the "Today" show. He also anchored "The Tim Russert Show," a weekly interview program on MSNBC. He wrote to New York Times #1 bestsellers -- "Big Russ and Me" "Wisdom of Our Fathers." Russert took over "Meet the Press" in December 1991. It became the most watched Sunday morning interview program in the country. It is the longest-running program in television history. Russert joined NBC News in 1984. He was born in Buffalo, N.Y., on May 7, 1950. He graduated from Canisius High School, John Carroll University and with honors from the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. Before joining NBC, Russert served as counselor in the New York governor's office in Albany in 1983 and 1984 and as special counsel in the U.S. Senate from 1977 to 1982. He was admitted to the bar in New York and D.C. Russert is survived by his wife, Maureen Orth, a writer for Vanity Fair magazine, and their son, Luke.

2 comments:

RMBruton said...

I have always appreciated excellence in any field of human endeavor, regardless of on'e politics or religion. Tim Russert seems to have exemplified such excellenceand will be missed by people ranging from farmers and factory laborers to executives and politicians; pretty much anyone with some common sense. We are richer for his having been amongst us and poorer for his loss.

Anonymous said...

There's a great article in this week's Newsweek magazine about Tim and how his devout Roman Catholicism thoroughly infused his whole life. I didn't think it was possible to respect him more than I already did, but he was by all accounts a true follower of Jesus.