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Revision as of 19:38, 13 June 2008
 | This article is currently being heavily edited because its subject has recently died. Information about their death and related events may change significantly and initial news reports may be unreliable. The most recent updates to this article may not reflect the most current information. |
Tim Russert | |
|---|---|
 Tim Russert, 2007-10-22 | |
| Born | May 7, 1950 |
| Died | 13 June 2008 Washington, DC |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Notable credit(s) | Meet the Press moderator (1991–present) |
| Spouse | Maureen Orth (1983-his death) |
| Children | Luke |
| Website | http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4459759/ |
Timothy John Russert, Jr. (born May 7, 1950,[1]) was an American journalist who hosted NBC's Meet the Press since 1991. He was the Washington Bureau Chief for NBC News, and hosted Tim Russert, a weekly interview program on MSNBC. He was also a frequent correspondent and guest on other NBC News programs, such as The Today Show and Hardball. He co-hosted the network's presidential Election Night coverage. He also presented the polling results of the NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey on the NBC Nightly News alongside the anchor of the show. He had type 2 diabetes and died at 8:14am PST on June 13, 2008 of an obesity related heart attack.
Biography
Early life
Born in Buffalo, New York to Irish American Catholic parents, he received a Jesuit education[2]. Russert is an alum of Canisius High School in Buffalo, New York and a graduate of John Carroll University and Cleveland-Marshall College of Law at Cleveland State University. Although Russert was of age during the peak of the Vietnam War, he has no military service. He admitted, 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. Before joining NBC News, Russert served as counselor in New York Governor Mario Cuomo's office in Albany in 1983 to 1984 and was chief of staff to Democratic Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan from 1977 to 1982. An avid fan of the American Football team the Buffalo Bills, Russert usually closed Sunday broadcasts during the football season with some type of pro-Bills comment. He has also ended his show by mentioning the successes of Boston College football, baseball, and hockey.
Career
 |
Russert graduated from law school and went to work on New York Democrat Daniel Patrick Moynihan's 1976 Senatorial campaign. He later went to work on New York Democrat Mario Cuomo's 1982 gubernatorial campaign. In 1984 he was hired by NBC at their Washington Bureau. He became Washington Bureau Chief four years later. [3]
During NBC's coverage of the 2000 U.S. presidential election he calculated possible United States Electoral College outcomes on a marker board on the air. Four years later, Russert would again accurately predict the final battleground of the presidential elections: "Ohio, Ohio, Ohio." He often moderates political debates.
On MSNBC's show Tucker, Russert predicted that 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."[4]
The marker board is a recurring prop used by Russert during NBC election night broadcasts.
![[icon]](/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small} | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (May 2008) |
Personal life
In 2004, Russert penned a bestselling biography, Big Russ and Me, which chronicled his life growing up in a predominantly Irish working-class neighborhood in South Buffalo as well as his education at Canisius High School. Russert's father, a World War II veteran held down two jobs after the war, conveyed to his young son, through the methods of the "carrot and the stick," the importance of maintaining strong family values, the reverence of faith, and of never taking a short cut to reach a goal. He claimed to have received over 60,000 letters from people in response to the book, detailing their own experiences with their fathers.[citation needed] In 2005 he released Wisdom of Our Fathers: Lessons and Letters from Daughters and Sons, a collection of some of these letters, which also became a bestseller.[citation needed]
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 to do it 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.[5] 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.
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 game show What Would You Do?
Tim Russert is married to Maureen Orth, who has been a special correspondent for Vanity Fair since 1983. 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.[6]
Tim Russert passed away June 13, 2008 of an apparent heart attack. [7]
Ongoing CIA leak scandal
Scooter 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.[citation 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."[8]
Death
Early reports state that Russert died while recording a production track in Washington, D.C. on June 13, 2008, a day after returning from Italy.
The New York Times reports that Tim Russert died on Friday June 13th 2008 of a heart attack.
Further reading
- Russert, Tim. Interview with President George W. Bush. Transcript. NBC News' Meet the Press. MSNBC February 8, 2004. Accessed February 10, 2007.
- –––. Interview with Sen. John Kerry, D-MA, presidential candidate. Transcript. NBC News' Meet the Press. MSNBC April 18, 2004. Accessed February 10, 2007.
External links
- Tim Russert NBC biography.
- Tim Russert Official CNBC webpage.
- "Tim Russert" news posted at The Huffington Post.
- Template:PDFlink. Court Records of United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
- Tim Russert
- Russert Addresses PRSA [1]
- Tim Russert: BuzzFlash Media Putz of the Week Award [2]
- ^ TIM RUSSERT DIES FROM APPARENT HEART ATTACK
- ^ TIM RUSSERT, JOHN CARROLL UNIVERSITY CLASS OF '72, TO MODERATE DEMOCRATIC DEBATE
- ^ CNN.com - Transcripts
- ^ Tucker, June 15, 2007.
- ^ Bruce Springsteen 1975
- ^ This Russert will be interrogating athletes on radio - The Boston Globe
- ^ http://www.nypost.com/seven/06132008/news/nationalnews/tim_russert_dies_from_apparent_heart_att_115384.htm
- ^ Dana Milbank, "Washington Sketch: In Ex-Aide's Testimony, A Spin Through VP's PR," Washington Post January 26, 2007, accessed February 10, 2007