[ViaplyVuple]

June 13, 2008, 3:28 pm
NBC’s Tim Russert Dies
By Katharine Q. Seelye
Updated | 3:49 p.m. Tim Russert, the host of “Meet the Press,” and NBC’s Washington bureau chief, has died. He was 58.

Mr. Russert was a towering figure in American journalism and moderated several debates during the recent presidential primary season.

Tom Brokaw, the former anchor of NBC Nightly News, came on the air at 3:39 p.m. and reported that Mr. Russert had collapsed and died early this afternoon while at work. He had just returned from Italy with his family.

“Our beloved colleague,” a grave Mr. Brokaw called him, one of the premier journalists of our time. He said this was one of the most important years in his life, with his deep engagement in the network’s political coverage, and that he “worked to the point of exhaustion.” Mr. Brokaw said Mr. Russert was a true child of Buffalo and always stayed in touch with his blue collar roots and “the ethos of that community.”

He said Mr. Russert had just moved his father, who is in his late 80s, from one facility to another in Buffalo. He said he loved his family, his Catholic faith, his country, politics, the Buffalo Bills, the New York Yankees and the Washington Nationals.

“This news division will not be the same without his strong, clear voice,” Mr. Brokaw said.

After Mr. Brokaw made the announcement, the network switched to Brian Williams, the anchor of the NBC News, who is reporting from Afghanistan this week. Mr. Williams broke down as he tried to describe what the loss meant to his network family.

The network is struggling through shock and grief to bring the story of Mr. Russert’s life and journalistic achievements to its viewers immediately. Andrea Mitchell is describing him as “the pre-eminent journalist of our time” and said he was her mentor.

Mr. Williams said that Mr. Russert, trained as a lawyer, was “always about fairness.” The network is replaying moments of Mr. Russert and Mr. Williams co-moderating a recent debate.

Mr. Russert worked for two prominent New York Democrats, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Gov. Mario Cuomo, before being hired in 1984 by NBC in its Washington bureau. He became bureau chief four years later.

More to Come.


http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2...-heart-attack/

[goolen4you]

I almost made the mistake of posting this in another thread.

For us so-called 'political junkies,' "Meet the Press" is standard fare on Sunday mornings. Regardless of who was on, Tim Russert could be counted on to give a direct and information-laden grilling with past quotes and sometimes videos to bring home the points.

As the press gets softer and softer, and overchurn and overbalance rather than ask the hard questions and follow them up as needed, Tim Russert on the television side will be sorely missed.

I miss him already ...

[aquadayAquaks]

I am shocked, truly shocked.

None of us know what these folks are really like, but he certainly seemed eminently fair-minded but tough. He asked the hard questions and didn't back down. He would not let his interviewees evade the tough questions either, he pushed for answers. Yet he was very likable. This is a huge loss to the Fourth Estate and by extension to the country and that is not an exaggeration. This country is woefully bereft of journalists of his caliber.

I consider him to be an historical figure news figure equal in stature if not quite as much in tenure, with David Brinkley, Chet Huntley, Brokaw and Walter Cronkite.

It also reminds us all about how fleeting life can really be. I am watching MSNBC right now, and Olberman, et al. look like they have been hit by a train.



Rest in Peace.

[Maserati]

eddhead, I watched those MSNBC segments after reading your post. And I did notice that Keith Olbermann was sweating profusely, and there was the ever-present quiver in his voice. He was clearly shaken.

As I surfed around I saw much emotion being shown in several venues on Mr. Russert. Some people were able to respond with much eloquence.

[freddyujnf]

Terrible loss! Russert was brilliant and one of my all time favorites up there with Peter Jennings. He was one of the few real experts on politics out there and his death is a gigantic blow to good journalism and political discourse.

[myhackingtosh_ws]

It is sad to see someone die so suddenly and without any signs of illness.

I don't necessarily agree with the accolades. He was not unbiased in his reporting and he was just one of the huge crowd of reporters as journalism crumbled in the face of the current presidential administration.

He was a television personality. We saw his face a lot.

He is gone and won't be on anymore. That's the shock of it.

[Mangoman]

It is sad to see someone die so suddenly and without any signs of illness.

I don't necessarily agree with the accolades. He was not unbiased in his reporting and he was just one of the huge crowd of reporters as journalism crumbled in the face of the current presidential administration.

He was a television personality. We saw his face a lot.

He is gone and won't be on anymore. That's the shock of it.

Having watched Meet the Press for years, I disagree. He didn't shill for anyone that I could see. He asked tough questions and had a great knack for pulling out facts that contradicted someone's reply to a question. He was however, civil. Which is what I liked about him, as did most people who encountered him, including those he interviewed.

If he were a hyper partisan asshole, like some reporters or analysts are, he wouldn't be receiving such accolades on all the news networks, and his death wouldn't be a 15 minute lead story on the competing networks nightly newscasts.

[nannysuetle]

Very sad. He looked much younger than his 58 years.

[popandopulus]

May he Rest In Peace. He was a pioneer in sunday morning news and always put his guests in the spotlight. NBC will never be the same.

[MinisuipGaicai]

This was intended as an in depth follow-up to the original article quoted by MTG at the start of this thread (at its conclusion, you will note that this version contains attribution to Katharine Q. Seelye). I also thought the pictures were particularly interesting, and have sampled a few of them here.





Tim Russert, 58, NBC’s Face of Politics, Dies


By JACQUES STEINBERG
Published: June 14, 2008


Tim Russert, a fixture in American homes on Sunday mornings and election nights since becoming moderator of “Meet the Press” nearly 17 years ago, died Friday after collapsing at the Washington bureau of NBC News. He was 58 and lived in Northwest Washington.

His death was announced by Tom Brokaw, former anchor of “NBC Nightly News,” who broke into the network’s programming just after 3:30 p.m.

An NBC spokeswoman, Allison Gollust, said in an e-mail message Friday night that Mr. Russert had died of a “sudden heart attack.” His internist, Dr. Michael A. Newman, said on MSNBC that an autopsy had found that Mr. Russert had an enlarged heart and significant coronary artery disease.

Mr. Russert, who was also the Washington bureau chief and a senior vice president of NBC News, had just returned in the last couple of days from a trip to Italy, where his family had celebrated the recent graduation of his son, Luke, from Boston College. When stricken, he was recording voice-overs for this Sunday’s program.



Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images

Mr. Russert also served as NBC's Washington bureau chief.

With his plain-spoken explanations and hard-hitting questions, Mr. Russert played an increasingly outsize role in the news media’s coverage of politics. The elegantly simple white memo board he used on election night in 2000 to explain the deadlock in the race between George W. Bush and Al Gore — “Florida, Florida, Florida,” he had scribbled in red marker — became an enduring image in the history of American television coverage of the road to the White House.



Photo: Eric Thayer/Meet the Press, via Reuters

Sen. Barack Obama shared a light moment with Mr. Russert
during an appearance on "Meet the Press" in Des Moines, Iowa,
in November 2007.

More recently, he drew criticism for his sharp — some said disproportionately sharp — questioning of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in her pursuit of the Democratic presidential nomination, most notably in a debate between her and Senator Barack Obama in Cleveland in February. But he asked tough questions of Mr. Obama, too, as well as any number of Republicans.

He also leavened his prosecutorial style with an exuberance for politics — and politicians, on both sides of the aisle. And the easy way he spoke on camera belied his fierce preparation, often to the detriment of his social life. He rarely ventured out on Saturday nights.

“He really was the best political journalist in America, not just the best television journalist in America,” said Al Hunt, the Washington executive editor of Bloomberg News and former Washington bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal.

Mr. Russert’s skill at political analysis was born of experience: he worked as a counselor to Gov. Mario M. Cuomo of New York in 1983-84 and for five years before that was special counsel to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York. He was chosen to run Mr. Moynihan’s New York City office before he turned 30.



Photo: Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times

Tim Russert was counselor to Governor Mario M. Cuomo in 1983 and 1984.

He left government for the media world at the urging of Lawrence K. Grossman, then president of NBC News, Mr. Hunt said.

“He was intrigued by it as a career choice,” said Mr. Hunt, a close friend who first met him during Mr. Russert’s days working for Mr. Moynihan. “He absolutely set the standard for moving from politics to journalism. He proved it could be done.”

Or, as Ethel Kennedy, the widow of Robert F. Kennedy, told NBC on Friday: “He had done his homework, so we didn’t have to do ours. We longed to hear what his take on world events was.”

Mr. Brokaw is to host a special edition of “Meet the Press” on Sunday, which will pay tribute to Mr. Russert’s life and career. With Mr. Russert’s unexpected passing, NBC will soon be forced to confront a question with no immediately easy answer: how to replace its lead political analyst with the presidential election less than five months away.

“Meet the Press,” the top-rated public affairs program on television, is viewed by nearly four million people each Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research. As word of Mr. Russert’s death spread across BlackBerry and computer screens, tributes poured into NBC from the highest elected officials and competitors on other networks. Thousands of loyal viewers also posted tributes on media Web sites.

In a statement, President Bush described Mr. Russert as “an institution in both news and politics for more than two decades.”

“He was always well informed and thorough in his interviews,” Mr. Bush said. “And he was as gregarious off the set as he was prepared on it.”

Former President Bill Clinton and Senator Clinton issued a statement saying, “Tim had a love of public service and a dedication to journalism that rightfully earned him the respect and admiration of not only his colleagues but also those of us who had the privilege to go toe to toe with him.”

With his bulky frame, thick face and devilishly arched eyebrows, Timothy John Russert Jr. was an unlikely television star. And it was not just that he was a graduate, with honors, of the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, or that he was the son of a onetime garbage collector in his native Buffalo. (Even casual viewers of “Meet the Press” would learn of his passion for the Buffalo Bills football team and his strong embrace of the city itself, where on Friday flags flew at half-staff.)

When he joined NBC in 1984, it was as an executive working on special news projects. Among his earliest “gets”: arranging an appearance a year later by Pope John Paul II on the “Today” program, broadcasting from Rome.

Behind the scenes, Mr. Russert’s colleagues at NBC News soon learned that he had a gift for making the most complex political machinations understandable and compelling.



Photo: Brendan Smialowski for the New York Times

Chris Matthews, the host of "Hardball," watched as Mr. Russert
departed after being interviewed on that show in 2007.

“He had a better political insight than anyone else in the room, period,” said Jeff Zucker, the chief executive of NBC Universal, who was then an up-and-coming producer.

As Mr. Zucker told it Friday, Michael Gartner, Mr. Grossman’s successor as president of NBC News, went to Mr. Russert at some point in the late 1980s to ask him to be the Washington bureau chief.

“Michael came back from the meeting,” Mr. Zucker recalled, “and said he had also decided to name him the new moderator of ‘Meet the Press.’ ”

“This was a guy who had no on-camera experience,” Mr. Zucker said. “Forget that he had never hosted a program. He had never appeared on television.”

He made his debut as moderator in December 1991. Eight years later, Bill Carter wrote in The New York Times that Mr. Russert had reinvented “Meet the Press,” which first appeared on television in 1947, “changing it from a sleepy encounter between reporters and Washington newsmakers into an issue-dense program, with Mr. Russert taking on the week’s newsmaker.”

Among those who submitted to Mr. Russert’s pointed questions (which he often set up with evidence, frequently from the subject’s own mouth, cued on videotape) were Mr. Clinton and Mr. Gore, President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, John Kerry and John McCain.

During last year’s perjury trial of I. Lewis Libby Jr., Mr. Cheney’s former chief of staff, Mr. Russert was put in the unfamiliar position of answering questions himself, from the witness stand. Mr. Libby had said that he first learned of the identity of a C.I.A. operative, Valerie Wilson, from Mr. Russert in a July 2003 conversation. Mr. Russert denied the claim, and prosecutors have asserted that Mr. Libby concocted that account to avoid acknowledging that he had learned about her from fellow officials.

Those reporters who covered the television beat saw many sides of Mr. Russert, whether it was in a direct phone call or voice mail message sternly questioning the accuracy of a particular reference to him, or the way he would seem to melt when being asked about one of his heroes, Bruce Springsteen, who was known to receive Mr. Russert backstage at his concerts.

Off camera and away from the office, Mr. Russert was a mentor to young colleagues, a gregarious man with a rolling laugh and a roster of friends who were in his life for decades, a devoted Roman Catholic proud of his Jesuit education at John Carroll University in Ohio.

Those who were in the presence of him and his son were long struck by the closeness of the relationship. Mr. Russert was known to steal away from work during the day to greet his son upon his return from school, or to surprise him while he was caddying at a golf course in Nantucket, Mass., where the family had a home.

Four years ago, when the younger Mr. Russert was preparing to depart Washington for Boston College, several friends wondered aloud to the father how he would survive being so far away from his son.

In addition to his son, Mr. Russert is survived by his wife, Maureen Orth, a special correspondent for Vanity Fair magazine, whom he met at the 1980 Democratic National Convention, at Madison Square Garden in New York; his father, Tim Russert; and three sisters. His father is the subject of Mr. Russert’s best-selling book, “Big Russ & Me.”

Mr. Hunt, of Bloomberg News, said that in one of the last of their nearly weekly conversations, early this month, he and Mr. Russert relished the opportunity to cover this year’s presidential campaign. As his old friend recalled through tears Friday, Mr. Russert marveled, “Can you believe we get paid for this year?”


Katharine Q. Seelye contributed reporting.


Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

[Fluivelip]

I

I don't necessarily agree with the accolades. He was not unbiased in his reporting and he was just one of the huge crowd of reporters as journalism crumbled in the face of the current presidential administration.

He was a television personality. We saw his face a lot.

He is gone and won't be on anymore. That's the shock of it.

I disagree with the notion he was biased. What I think is registering in your post is an undercurrent of disappointment with regard to how the press failed to challenge the Bush administration's case for going to war. Perhaps you believe Russert too failed to make the challenge.

I Think Russert worked very hard to ensure his show did not become a type of O'Reilly Factor show where partisans including the moderator shout over each other to make their point. Instead, his objective seemed to have the principle him or herself establish the public record and than to be held to it.

The Dick Cheney interview was classic. Russert did not editorialize. He did not suggest that the administration was falsifying evidence or manufacturing the case for war. He did not see that as his role. But he did get Cheney on record saying we would be granted as liberators and that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. And he did get Cheney to indicate that was the justification for going to war. That interview became THE public record regarding the administration's stance and has been used over and over again.

I am sure Cheney rues the day he said that on Meet the Press, and Russert is the one who pushed him to it. True he did not challenge him hard that day, but he got him on record and that counts for something too.

[haittiweerved]

So sad. To die so suddenly with no known health problems at all.

The autopsy might reveal something. This sounds almost familiar of actor John Ritter when HE died so suddenly in '05 from a heart ailment that he didn't know he had.

[WGRocky]

Actually Post # 10 does reference the autopsy:

"His internist, Dr. Michael A. Newman, said on MSNBC that an autopsy had found that Mr. Russert had an enlarged heart and significant coronary artery disease."

[Gypejeva]

Judging from the photos it looks like he didn't exercise.

[vesiasmepay]

you can tell that from photos?

According to his doctor, Russert was known to be at risk for hear disease and had started an exercise plan, mostly low impact cardio treadmill stuff.Brokaw claims he was addressing his weight problem and and had dropped 10 lbs but needed to do more.

Zephyr The photos really do add something to the story

[SinyugiN]

He did not suggest that the administration was falsifying evidence or manufacturing the case for war. He did not see that as his role. Well, I think he should have seen it as his role to aggressively expose what must have been clear to someone with his exposure to information. What he managed to get on the record with Cheney wasn't enough in light of that despicable criminal's myriad treasonous acts. These "journalists" with the big names and big salaries are just too beholden to power. They have mortgages and lifestyles to maintain, and one doesnt do that anymore by rocking the boat. I think it is a bit depressing when Russert is put in the same category as Walter Kronkite (who recently denounced the state of the corporate news) who functioned in a different era when the economics and control of news departments were different. NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, FOX and all of their alphabet soup offshoots are a big part of the problem.
Russert wasn't the worst of the modern shills, but he was a controlled puppet like the rest of them if you ask me. He knew what lines not to cross.
Look at his pathetic questions at the debate...what a disgrace to the idea of informing us on the real issues.
I say, may he rest in peace because he was a fellow traveler on this road of life, and I'm sure he made the choices he felt he needed to, but I can't find many people to truly respect anymore on the major news broadcasts here in America.

[betraaaus]

Russert and Mathews were my favorite. He was truly great journalist , no need for hype and dramatic music for ratings.
RIP Tim.

[AbraxiaAsus]

@MTG

Well, I think he should have seen it as his role to aggressively expose what must have been clear to someone with his exposure to information. What he managed to get on the record with Cheney wasn't enough in light of that despicable criminal's myriad treasonous acts. You can make that case I suppose, although I think your assessment is harsh. In retrospect I think the point raised above in quotes is to some degree fair, and I think that is where BR was going as well.

Right or wrong, Russert's style was to diligently research and investigate instances where his subject's actions were not consistent with statements recorded to the public record as represented in the form of other interviews or publications. In turn that infers a more retrospective rather contemporaneous style of reporting. Yet I would would not classify his style as "gotcha" journalism either.

Using that method he nailed David Duke while Duke was gaining traction as an alternative right wing political force in the 90's. He was also able to get Colin Powell on record to admitting he presented false information to the UN. And as I mentioned previously at least he got Cheney on the record, on one else seems to have done so.

Still I get your point

BTW Here is Cronkite's quote on Russert's death:

Walter Cronkite: “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.”

[Adimonnna]

Yes, Cronkite is a real gentleman and I would expect him to say no less.

Still, what I have observed happen to this country for the last 8 years, not to mention the election of 2000, has caused me to have nothing but contempt for the corporate news in this country. They have watched from the sidelines as this nation's treasures were pillaged, sons and daughters were sent wrongfully to war, and the constitution has been trampled upon by the regime.
None of this could have happened if people like Russert weren't negligent in their duties. I can't blame a man like Russert completely, for he played ball within and for a power structure that discourages shaking too many branches. There is no mystery to a lot of this stuff that has gone on, just a lot of covering up and journalists who just want to keep their six or seven figure salaries because it is oh so much easier that way.
Like I said, he was not even the worst of the bunch but that isn't saying much.

[AlexanderPalamayr]

I came across this and it is a good example of how it has typically gone for Bush with all of these "journalists". My guess is Russert had his orders on how to behave himself with Bush. They know to stick to softball with the guys who'll give GE, owner of NBC, the war that's so great for profits all around.

from http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh020904.shtml

THE LAST BULLDOG DIES (PART 1)! Bulldog Tim rolled over and died. Can we stop calling Russert a bulldog?
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2004

THE LAST BULLDOG DIES: Tim Russert’s first question showed a small bit of promise. “On Friday,” he said to his guest, “you announced a committee, a commission to look into intelligence failures regarding the Iraq war and our entire intelligence community. You have been reluctant to do that for some time. Why?” But instead of an answer, he got a long speech—the first of many he’d hear this morning. “Let me step back and talk about intelligence in general,” his slow-talking guest slowly said:

BUSH: Well, at first, let me step back and talk about intelligence in general, if I might. Intelligence is a vital part of fighting and winning the war against the terrorists, because the war against terrorists is a war against individuals who hide in caves in remote parts of the world, individuals who have these kind of shadowy networks, individuals who deal with rogue nations, and so we need a good intelligence system. We need really good intelligence. And so the commission I set up is to, obviously, analyze what went right or what went wrong with the Iraqi intelligence. It was kind of lessons learned. But it’s really set up to make sure the intelligence services provide as good a product as possible for future presidents as well, which is a part of analyzing where we are on the war against terror.
There is a lot of investigations [sic] going on about the intelligence service, particularly in the Congress, and that’s good as well. The Congress has got the capacity to look at the intelligence gathering without giving away state secrets, and I look forward to all the investigations and looks—again, I repeat to you, the capacity to have good intelligence means that a president can make good calls about fighting this war on terror.

Can you find any hint of an answer to Russert’s question? Bush was asked why he dragged his feet on setting up a probe. His answer? Terrorists are people who hide in caves. Bush’s languorous “answer,” by the way, lasted a minute and 32 seconds. That was 92 seconds the slow-talking guest had managed to take off the clock.
But readers, you know that ol’ bulldog, Tim Russert! Surely he got in Bush’s face with a tough-talking follow-up question, a question designed to force his guest to get himself back on the mark! After all, Russert is the toughest pundit in all punditdom, pundits say. He’s just “like a prosecutor,” they like to say. You can run—but you can’t hide from Russert.

But no, Russert didn’t follow up when Bush gave a speech to avoid his first question. As he did throughout the hour, he simply moved on to Question 2 when Bush failed to answer Question 1. What happened to that frightening bulldog—the one the press has talked up for years? You saw it—that bulldog turned to a puddy-tat, coughed a hairball and died. What became of Bulldog Tim? That “dog” didn’t bark, hunt or slobber.

Irrelevant “answers” went without follow-up. Blatant misstatements by Bush went unchallenged. Bush was allowed to give long, windy speeches—speeches so long and so slow that it sometimes seemed that Russert must have left the building. And where, on where were those film clips Tim loves—the clips where he highlights his target’s past statements? Such clips had been sent down the memory-hole, along with the “bulldog” your fake pundits love. “No no no no no no no?” Russert loved lecturing Dean last June. This Sunday, the phrase wasn’t heard.

But don’t worry—pundits immediately began pretending that Russert really put Bush through the hoops. They know the script, and they love to recite. We’ll examine the clowning all week.

SHALES KNOWS SCRIPTS: Every scribe is reciting the script today, so perhaps we shouldn’t jump on Tom Shales. But in this morning’s Washington Post, the reigning expert on Kathy Lee Gifford says what all pundits are saying:

SHALES (pgh 1): What did the president really know, and what made him think he really knew it? That was sort of the question put over and over to George W. Bush by Tim Russert of NBC News on a special edition of Meet the Press yesterday. Russert interrogated Bush on the matter of faulty intelligence and the role it played in Bush’s decision to invade Iraq.
(2-3) The portly inquisitor concentrated so relentlessly on that subject, in fact, that there may have been insufficient time for other topics…Somewhat reminiscent of Raymond Burr as Perry Mason when he bore down on a victim in the witness chair, Russert proved a tough questioner without becoming a showoff…

According to Shales, a “relentless inquisitor bore down on his victim.” Why, it was just like the old Perry Mason! It’s what all pundits know they must say. In fact, Imus pandered even harder to Russert today—while savaging Bush for a hapless performance (quotes tomorrow). What really happened on yesterday’s show? Bulldog Tim rolled over and died. But all major pundits know not to say it. More notes on this program all week.