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Timothy John Russert, Jr. (May 7, 1950 – June 13, 2008[1]) was an American journalist who hosted NBC's Meet the Press. Serving 16½ years as moderator, he was the longest-serving host of the program. 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 co-hosted the network's presidential Election Night coverage and presented the polling results of the NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey on the NBC Nightly News. Russert collapsed and died in NBC's Washington studios on Friday June 13, 2008.[2]
BiographyEarly lifeBorn 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 and a graduate of John Carroll University and Cleveland-Marshall College of Law at Cleveland State University. 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. 
 CareerRussert graduated from law school and 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 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] The marker board was a recurring prop used by Russert during NBC election night broadcasts. Due to the significances of the board, the Smithsonian acquired it.[8] 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 often moderated political debates. 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] Personal life
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.[citations needed] 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. 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.[9] Ongoing CIA leak scandalScooter Libby, 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 did not tell Libby of Mrs. Wilson's CIA identity.[citations needed] Russert testified again in the trial on Wednesday, February 7, 2007. During the trial, another witness, former Cheney communications director Cathie Martin, testified that she "suggested we put the vice president on Meet the Press," hosted by Russert on NBC, and that it was "a tactic we often used....It's our best format."[10] DeathOn the afternoon of June 13, 2008, while recording voiceovers for the Sunday Edition of Meet the Press, Russert collapsed at the offices of WRC-TV, which houses the Washington, D.C. bureau of NBC News where he was the bureau chief. 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. News of his death was reported live on NBC, CNBC, and MSNBC by Tom Brokaw.[11] He had just returned from a family vacation in Italy, where he went to celebrate his son's graduation from Boston College. Given the sudden, unexpected nature of his death and his history of diabetes mellitus, it is believed that he experienced sudden cardiac death. An autopsy was ordered to be performed to determine the precise cause of death.[12][2] 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. References
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