In the middle of a voice-over today, NBC’s Tim Russert slumped over and was gone.
The host of NBC’s “Meet The Press” was only 58 and expected to live forever. He had just moved his 80-year old father to a better nursing home.
The rumors had been buzzing around Washington D.C. for hours, until Tom Brokaw appeared on the Peacock network and confirmed the news. Every journalist that I’ve spoken with is shocked and slack-jawed. The broadcast lion seemed unstoppable; an irresistible force that would never meet its immovable object.
Others who knew him better will talk about personal grace and his unegoistical connections to ordinary people, about his love of his family, his church and his Buffalo Bills. I want to remind you of his public qualities.
He was two things that most Washington journalists are not: tough and fair.
He delighted in asking a question, letting the politician answer, and then putting the same politician’s past words on the screen. Once the trap sprung and the contradiction revealed, he would ask them to explain. That is how journalists are supposed to hold the powerful accountable. But it does not happen very often. Too many Washington hacks want to befriend their sources, not vex them. Thus they end up serving their sources instead of their readers. Yes, it makes life easier not to challenge political leaders, but the easy way is not the path to glory. Russert knew that. While friendly and charming in a distinctly Irish way, he raked every one over the coals. As a result, his Sunday show was not typical of the genre–what Joe Bob Briggs once called “brunch with the living dead”–but an arena of joyful combat.
And he was fair. While a partisan Democrat who had worked for an old-school Speaker of the House and bookish New York senator, he knew a fair response when he heard it. He would nod and move on, if he got a honest answer. That is why so many Republicans were willing to be grilled by the staunch Democrat. He was fair.
Tough but fair. There is no better epitaph for any journalist and Russert deserves no less.
Among some Catholics, there is a convention when someone passes out of this life and into the next. They say he has “gone home.” It means both that he is in a better place and that he is no longer around for us to talk to. So it is both happy and sad to say.
Much sooner than any of us would have liked or expected, Tim Russert has gone home.
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28 Comments
newton:RIP Mr Russert. And thanks.
Jun 13, 2008 - 3:18 pm Xanthippe:We’re all a little worse off with this news. Tim Russert was a gem.
Jun 13, 2008 - 3:40 pm John:As a person that hates the media with white hot intensity for its inability to fairly and objectively report the news, I loved Tim Russert. He was The Last Fair Journalist Left on Earth.
No one will ever utter those words about Matthews or Olbermann or Stepanopholous.
Jun 13, 2008 - 3:47 pm Linda Brecht:RIP He was certainly tough(made them better) on Republicans and fair to Democrats.
Jun 13, 2008 - 4:02 pm Anon:Ask this question, he had just come back from a Vacation in Europe (and his family is still flying back) - Who’s house were they staying at - and when you find out, ask if there might be a conflict of interest
Jun 13, 2008 - 4:06 pm Skip Keats:Requiescat in pace, Magister Russert, homo honorabilis plurimus.
He has gone home indeed, and cannot be replaced. I am in shock. Sunday morning before church will not be the same, nor with the elections this year without him. While he was tough on all, he was fair — and insightful. His love of politics was self-evident, and infused his show and enlightened all he wrote.
He will be greatly missed. My sympathies go out to his family in this, their time of mourning.
Jun 13, 2008 - 4:52 pm Anita Hope:A quality of man we seldom see or listen to on todays media. Questioning, listening and being objective, then analizing and giving his summary has he saw it, yet making his guest feel comfortable. The press says he had an enlarged heart according to medical reports, that heart and his great mind made him the wonderful man he was. Sunday morning at 8 am channel 4 will never be the same for myself and all of us
Jun 13, 2008 - 7:23 pm Pittsburgher:in Los Angeles who tuned in.
Too his family our hearts and thought’s our with you.
It is heartening to hear tributes to a man who was a faithful Catholic, proud of his family and his hometown and a hard worker. Of course I liked his toughness but more than that, there was always that gleam in his eye that said “I am having so much fun - I can’t believe I get paid to do this!” I will even forgive him for being a Bills fan.
So much focus is often placed on the dysfunctional in our society - like the months spent on Anna Nicole Smith ad nauseum.
He rose to great heights and had a wonderful life. Even those in high places are mortal and any one of us can be gone in an instant.
Jun 13, 2008 - 7:50 pm Andrew:Good article. I’m conservative and thought he was great. I can’t think of any other major tv journalist in the US today who was as hard/fair with everyone he interviewed as Russert was. Sunday talk will not be the same without him.
Jun 13, 2008 - 8:04 pm Pinkie Ann LeBrainne:Tim Russert was an amazing person, but somehow Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) managed to insult Russert by saying this: “His rise from working-class roots to become a well-respected leader in political journalism is an inspiration to many.”
I think Tim Russert was enormously proud to have working class roots—indeed I believe his self-respect was entirely based on his “roots,” and his entire work ethic was predicated on working-class roots, rather than the things that Sen. Reid appears to value.
Jun 13, 2008 - 9:56 pm jimmy arone:God Bless Tim Russert…may he rest in peace.
Jun 13, 2008 - 10:53 pm JK:“Joyful combat.” A metaphor I’ve not seen but appropriate. Exuberant, thorough, fair. All true. The Demo lefties that he worked for in his youth received their skewering as good naturedly as the Republicans. Only because Mr. Russert was at heart, dedicated to the principle of, “in the common weal.”
In the roughly first half of my life there was no Tim Russert where one could go to, to get a fuller understanding of all the sides. I’m a few years younger than Mr Russert was today, well five actually. But my point is: when I watched Mr Russert I came away having the feeling that I didn’t need to look much further.
Admittedly in most stories one must look at all the various takes on the issues, MTP occupied only the one weekly hour. To get it correct too often nowadays, one must look at many different takes, from the many different angles, and then as Mark Twain reputedly said, “The truth lays somewhere in the middle of all you’ve read” (no 24 hour cable news cycle in Mr Clemens’ age).
God Bless you Mr Russert. Rest in peace.
Jun 14, 2008 - 2:39 am Connie:My husband told me last night that Tim Russert had died. I couldn’t believe it. We’ve watched Tim every Sunday for soooo long: it’s almost as if he’s a member of the family. What will we do tomorrow when he isn’t with us?
He is only 58. If he’d been covering a war zone, it wouldn’t be so shocking. But he wasn’t in a war, he was an office guy. I can’t believe he’s gone.
Jun 14, 2008 - 5:10 am Glenn:It’s the working class roots that provide the personal standard. Harry (real estate deal) Reid will never understand, he’s not smart enough
Jun 14, 2008 - 5:12 am Just Some Guy:What an enormous loss! What a great service Tim Russert offered to the country!
Jun 14, 2008 - 5:58 am kiwikit:I agree that compared with the usual clap-trappers, Russert was a gem but, for the life of me, I can NOT understand any real Catholic supporting the abortion-pushing Democrat party. I wonder if the 40 million aborted children will parade his route going home.
Jun 14, 2008 - 7:40 am ElliotNC:Dear Pinkie,
Get over the Obama-like bristle at perceived insults.
It was unusual in television news for a major talking head to have not come through an Ivy League school (Cleveland State College). That said, he sent his son to Boston College.
The television media is all over this story. It’s the biggest event since the death of Anna Nicole Smith.
Jun 14, 2008 - 8:24 am ElliotNC:BTW: Senator Reid came from a one room shack without running water.
Jun 14, 2008 - 8:25 am Javelin:RIP Tim Russert
“John:
Jun 14, 2008 - 10:59 am Javelin:As a person that hates the media with white hot intensity for its inability to fairly and objectively report the news, I loved Tim Russert. He was The Last Fair Journalist Left on Earth.”
What about all the right wing hacks you take so seriously too? People who babble pap like you usually mean the media isn’t putting the spin on that you like.
So now some little people here are twisting Senator Reid’s comment into some insult. You are reaching low, but that is your MO, always looking for a reason to feel outraged. Why, so you can feel self righteous and superior? And this pap blog is sending the MSM down the river, don’t think so!
Jun 14, 2008 - 11:04 am patsy:It might be early to think of a replacement
Jun 14, 2008 - 4:06 pm SONNY MILLS:for Tim, but I see the others sites are
commenting already.I think they should look
outside of NBC. Maybe Fred Thompson or
David Brookes to name a few.
But there is only one TIM RUSSERT. He was is
and was the MAN.
WHEN SOMEONE DEPART`S THIS WORLD, WHY CAN`T PEOPLE SAY NICE THING`S ABOUT THEM? NOT LIKE THE NINNY ON CNN THAT SAID TIM IS IN HEAVEN HAVING A BEER WITH FRIEND`S, WHAT A DUMB STATEMENT………NO DRUGG`S IN HEAVEN MY FRIEND, AND ALCOHOL IS A DRUGG…..U DIG.
Jun 15, 2008 - 7:01 am SONNY MILLS:WHEN SOMEONE DEPART`S THIS WORLD WHY CAN`T PEOPLE SAY SOMETHING GOOD ABOUT THE PERSON? NOT LIKE THE INSANE STATEMENT THE NINNY ON CNN MADE SUGGESTING TIM IS IN HEAVEN HAVING A BEER WITH FRIEND`S……..NO DRUGG`S IN GOD`S HEAVEN………………U DIG NINNY…….
Jun 15, 2008 - 7:05 am SONNY MILLS:VERRY WELL SAID KIWKIT…….
Jun 15, 2008 - 7:08 am william:Help me… I’m very confused.
Jun 16, 2008 - 10:09 amDid Tim Russert die, or did the cable networks and so-called celebrities on them, just want to talk about themselves?