June 14, 2008: An excerpt from a story in the New York Post:
TOUGH TITAN OF TV NEWS DEAD
By CHARLES HURT, DON KAPLAN and CHUCK BENNETT
Tim Russert, the political lion of NBC News whose weekly grilling of the nation’s leaders on “Meet the Press” was a Sunday-morning staple for 17 years, died of a heart attack yesterday at his network’s Washington studio.
The 58-year-old Buffalo native and one-time New York political insider-turned-journalist had just returned from a family vacation to Italy Thursday to celebrate son Luke’s graduation from Boston College.
NBC interrupted its regular programming at 3:39 p.m. to announce the veteran newsman’s death.
“It is my sad duty to report this afternoon that my friend and colleague Tim Russert, the moderator of ‘Meet the Press’ and NBC’s Washington bureau chief, collapsed and died early this afternoon while at work at the NBC News bureau in Washington,” an emotional Tom Brokaw, the former “Nightly News” anchor, intoned with a solemnity usually associated with a president’s death.
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June 14, 2008: An excerpt from a story in Newsday:
Politicians remember ‘tough, hardworking newsman’
By CRAIG GORDON and JAMES T. MADORE
WASHINGTON – Politicians from Albany to Washington remembered Tim Russert as a man who mixed with presidents and popes, yet never lost his common touch — a fair-minded inquisitor whose Sunday morning hot seat was a rite of passage.
Sitting for a Russert-style grilling meant “that was the big leagues. People are watching you. It’s serious business,” said Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford).
“It was like studying for a very tough final exam,” said King, a “Meet the Press” guest nearly a half-dozen times. “On a lot of shows, you can talk your way out of stuff, and you know, with Russert, you couldn’t do that. He would give as much time as you needed — either to make your case, or hang yourself.”
President George W. Bush, informed of Russert’s death while at dinner in Paris, swiftly issued a statement of condolence that praised the NBC newsman as “an institution in both news and politics for more than two decades. Tim was a tough and hardworking newsman. He was always well-informed and thorough in his interviews. And he was as gregarious off the set as he was prepared on it.”
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June 14, 2008: An excerpt from a story in The New York Times:
Tim Russert, 58, NBC’s Face of Politics, Dies
By JACQUES STEINBERG
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.
….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?”
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June 14, 2008: An excerpt from a story in The Washington Post:
Journalist Revitalized Washington Talk Shows
By HOWARD KURTZ
Tim Russert, the NBC commentator who revolutionized Sunday morning television and infused journalism with an unrelenting passion for politics, died of a heart attack yesterday.
….Russert was ubiquitous during the primaries. “Nobody enjoyed covering 2008 more than Tim,” said Democratic pollster Peter Hart. “How many times did I hear him say, ‘It doesn’t get any better than this.’ “
CNBC’s John Harwood said he and journalist Gerald Seib taped an appearance yesterday morning on Russert’s MSNBC talk show, and that as they left, “Jerry observed that he didn’t think Tim felt well.”
One of the last people to see Russert alive was Michael Hart, a Comcast technician from Waldorf, who struck up a friendship and said the newsman delighted in getting Washington Wizards tickets for Hart’s six children. Hart said they were laughing and joking as he set up cable service for Russert’s son in a Georgetown apartment.
As they rode down in the elevator, Hart said, “we talked about the upcoming campaign. He said, ‘Thank you for looking out for my family. Happy Father’s Day.’ He put both his hands on mine and I gave him a hug.”
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June 14, 2008: An excerpt from a story in the Washington, DC newspaper, The Examiner:
Mourning ‘the explainer in chief’
By JEFF DUFOUR
Washington, D.C. — The nation’s leaders — and the journalists who cover them — reacted with shock and sadness to the death of NBC’s Tim Russert on Friday.
….Apart from his work on NBC, Russert had become a major force on the American cultural landscape.
In 2004, he published his autobiographical bestseller, Big Russ and Me, about his relationship with his father. He followed it the next year with Wisdom of Our Fathers, which also became a bestseller.
Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. He was much in demand as a speaker, and was the subject of a parody sketch on “Saturday Night Live.”
“So many times he ended his a “Meet The Press” show with his patented ‘Go Bills!’ that it became part of our Game Day morning rituals,” read a statement from the his hometown Buffalo Bills football team. The mayor of the city ordered flags to fly at half staff.
Russert was a trustee of the Newseum, and strongly advocated its new building on Pennsylvania Avenue.
“It was fitting that one of the very first events at the Newseum was to honor Tim and celebrate the 60th anniversary of “Meet the Press,” said Newseum CEO Charles Overby. “The guest list was more impressive than a White House state dinner list. Without trying to be, he was Washington’s leading luminary.”
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June 14, 2008: An excerpt from a story in the St. Petersburg Times:
Political journalist Tim Russert dies at 58
By ERIC DEGGANS
A host of pundits had predicted it for weeks. But somehow, Hillary Rodham Clinton’s quest for the Democratic presidential nomination didn’t truly seem doomed until May 6, when Tim Russert told the world Barack Obama would win the race.
About 16 years before, Mr. Russert made the same call for Clinton’s husband, a scrappy governor from Arkansas. Mr. Russert also correctly called Florida as a battleground state in 2000 and coined the terms “red state” and “blue state” to explain America’s ideological divide.
In Washington, Mr. Russert’s word was strong — when he spoke, the political establishment listened.
On Friday, that voice was stilled forever when the 58-year-old died after collapsing at NBC News’ Washington offices while recording voiceovers for Sunday’s edition of Meet the Press. Though paramedics rushed him to Sibley Memorial Hospital, Mr. Russert died of a sudden heart attack.
As the longest-running host of the longest-running program on TV, Mr. Russert stood as television’s undisputed king of political news — also serving as an NBC News vice president, the company’s Washington bureau chief and host of a self-named CNBC interview program.
But longtime protege and friend Gwen Ifill, now host of PBS’s Washington Week, remembered Mr. Russert as the man who insisted she leave the New York Times to become a TV journalist.
“It was a dare … he basically goaded me into trying something new,” said Ifill, who worked for Mr. Russert at NBC from 1994 to 1999, when he helped her leave a contract early to take over Washington Week. “From Tim, I learned it was possible to be first and right, thorough and polite. … Tim commanded the field because everybody knew when they came on his show, they would get a fair shake.”
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June 14, 2008: An excerpt from a story in the Richmond Times-Dispatch:
Relentless TV host, sharp political analyst
Lawmakers and colleagues praise his work on ‘Meet the Press’
By STAFF and WIRE REPORTS
Tim Russert, the NBC News Washington bureau chief who was renowned for his tough questioning of politicians, died of a heart attack after collapsing at work yesterday. He was 58.
….Obama, speaking to reporters yesterday in Columbus, Ohio, said, “there wasn’t a better interviewer in television, not a more thoughtful analyst of our politics.”
Arizona Sen. John McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee for president, called Mr. Russert’s death a “shocking loss” and called him the “pre-eminent political journalist” of his generation.
“I was proud to call him a friend,” McCain said in a statement.
His colleagues and competitors offered universal praise for him today.
“It is a tough day,” CBS News correspondent Bob Schieffer, moderator of “Face the Nation,” said in an interview with WTOP radio in Washington.
“Nothing pleased either of us more than to scoop the other. When you got one past old Russert, you felt like you had hit a home run off the best pitcher in the league.”
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June 14, 2008: An excerpt from a story in The Buffalo News:
Buffalo flags fly at half-staff as city mourns the death of Tim Russert
‘Meet the Press’ moderator stayed rooted in Buffalo
By MAKI BECKER
Tim Russert — who put the world’s most powerful people on the hot seat on NBC’s enormously influential “Meet the Press” while managing to stay true to his modest yet proud South Buffalo roots — died unexpectedly Friday after collapsing in NBC News’ Washington bureau. He was 58.
….But nowhere was Russert’s passing felt harder or deeper than in Buffalo, where he was born May 7, 1950.
When Russert’s father, Timothy J. Russert Sr., who was immortalized in “Big Russ/Father and Son: Lesson of Life,” learned his famous broadcasting son had died, the 83-year-old retired truck driver broke down in tears. His son’s death came at an especially heartbreaking time — two days before Father’s Day.
He was in the Orchard Park assisted living facility, where his son had helped him to move just a week ago.
“Big Russ knows his son died. He’s crying right now,” said Joseph Passafiume, the son of Jean Passafiume, Big Russ’ companion for three decades.
Breaking the news to Big Russ were his daughter Kathryn, the last of Tim Russert’s siblings living in Western New York, and Michael Shea, a family friend.
“Kathy and Mike are with Big Russ,” Joseph Passafiume said. “Kathy’s also taking it bad. . . . My mom’s completely heartbroken.”
Mayor Byron W. Brown ordered flags on city property lowered to half-staff.
Russert was famous for peppering his interviews with tidbits from his past in Buffalo and, during football season, often ended his shows with an unwaveringly optimistic “Go Bills!”
Russert grew up in a tight-knit, Irish-Catholic neighborhood in South Buffalo. He attended Canisius High School. The Rev. James P. Higgins, president of the elite high school, called Russert “unquestionably our most accomplished and conspicuous alumnus in 138 years.”
He went on to John Carroll University, becoming the first member of his family to attend college, and Cleveland- Marshall College of Law, but returned to New York, where he began his career in politics. He served as Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s chief of staff and was Gov. Mario M. Cuomo’s press secretary, before he turned to the news business.
He had been host of “Meet The Press” since 1991, making him the longest-serving moderator of the NBC news show.
Russert won an Emmy in 2005 for his coverage of President Ronald Reagan’s funeral. Earlier this year, Time magazine named him one of the most influential people in the world.
Russert is survived by his wife, Maureen Orth, a Vanity Fair writer he met at the 1976 Democratic National Convention, and their son, Luke. The Russerts recently had traveled to Italy to celebrate Luke’s graduation from Boston College.
