Russert’s Joy In His Work & Life Was Infectious
Posted on June 13th, 2008 at 3:50 pm by Contributor ArchiveWhen the networks broke in this afternoon just after 3:30 p m EDT to announce Tim Russert’s death, the gentle giant of political reporting had only been gone from this world for five minutes.
He collapsed of a heart attack in NBC’s Washington, D.C., offices, where he spent the last 20 years of his life as bureau chief. The rush to get the news on the air was a tribute to Russert’s sterling journalistic reputation.
It didn’t take long for my tears to flow. I watched him every Sunday on Meet the Press. I hung on his every word when election results were incoming. He was to me the essence of the best reporting. Definitely the best debate moderator.
Since word broke, I’ve been listening to his colleagues reminisce. It is part of his legacy that those recollections evoke smiles. Russert’s smile lit up a TV screen and radiated into our living rooms.
Although he wasn’t too much older than I, he was a bit of a father figure. Also an older brother. He was playful and impish and so obviously enjoyed his work. His joie de vivre was contagious and bridged the gap between the TV and the viewer. He was, simply put, a friend (though I never met him) who visited and shared his wisdom (voluminous) and seemed to have great fun doing it.
He a was a lawyer and a corporate bureaucrat before he became a journalist. Most of all, he was a man who unabashedly loved his family, both the blood and the sweat kind.
“There is a piece of all of us that is gone today,” said Keith Olbermann. Dat’s a fact.
Heart goes out to his wife Maureen and his son Luke, who just graduated from Boston College. And of course, Big Russ, whom Tim very recently moved into a care facility in Buffalo. Surely this will be his saddest Father’s Day.
When they announce whether there will be a memorial in DC, I’ll post it and try to get there to report to you PDers. Surely Russert’s greatness as a reporter and a human being transcends party lines.
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Well said, SA.
Also worth noting that he died in the midst of doing what he loved, a la Moliere. For someone whose work was a vocation, there is no better way to go.
Condolences also to his “sweat” family at NBC and MSNBC. And to his “electronic” (viewing) family across the world. We all are bereft.
Ya know, I never minded Friday the 13th until today…
Nicely done, SA, nicely done.
A sad, sad thing. A great journalist, a great man and respected by everyone.
Thanks for writing this, SA. The news of Russert’s passing hit me as well. I’m not much of a Sunday talk show watcher, but when I did watch, it was Russert. I didn’t always agree with him or his style, but I was always impressed by his professionalism.
I can’t help but note that he died doing what he loved to do. He’d just come back from a vacation with his family and he died right after recording some voice overs for this Sunday’s show. It reminds me of that baseball umpire a few years back who died right on the field.
Given a choice - and knowing that its not really up to me - I’d rather go the way Russert did - with my proverbial boots on.
Godspeed Tim.
Thanks for setting the bar high Tim. You will be missed.
Yesterday was a tough day for all of us. I was in the same building Russert died in just hours before he passed. I didn’t always agree with him or his personal politics, but he was a pro’s pro. A giant in the industry.
We should remember his wife and son. They must be overcome right now, both with grief and gratitude at the level of support from around the world.
I don’t think Russert had overt personal politics. As a newsman, he observed an ojectivity that skewered (fairly — always fairly) every party and offshoot.
He was just as likely to grill Hillary Clinton as he was Dick Cheney.
The questions he asked were the same that most Americans - red AND blue - would ask, if given the chance.
Sundays will never be the same…
Heard this on MSNBC earlier today. Is said to be one of Russert’s favorite Yogi Berra-isms (the retired baseball great), who Russert became friends with. Didn’t know it but was said today that Russert was on the Board of Directors of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Copperstown.
The joke, or Yogi-ism:
Baseball great Yogi Berra goes into a pizza joint in New York City. The owner sees him and goes crazy; loves Yogi. Tells Berra he wants to make him a personal pizza, do it himself. The owner makes the pizza, sticks his head over the counter and asks Yogi: “Mr. Berra would you like me to cut your pizza in six or eight pieces?’ Yogi looks at him and says: “You better cut it in six pieces because I don’t think I can eat eight.”
The moral of the story is not that he died doing something he loved but that he worked himself to death(although I am sure there were diet issues as well). I was a fan of Mr. Russert ,like most political junkies, but there is so much more to life than working and climbing the corporate ladder. RIP
He knew that, I think, as evidenced by his obvious devotion to Luke, Big Russ and Maureen, not to mention the Bills.
Anyone watching the memorial at Kennedy Center yesterday knew that he was about more than just the work (e.g., Mario Cuomo’s remarks).
He may, however, be the first fatality of the 2008 election. I think his heart “burst” (not literally, I understand about the plaque rupture, etc.) from the excitement of it all.
Today, his family is facing the hard reality after the ceremony. Sunday, it will hit the rest of us.
Godspeed, TR.