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Tim Russert Dies At 58
SputnikPanic writes "Tim Russert, NBC News' Washington bureau chief and moderator of the popular Sunday talk program Meet the Press, has died of an apparent heart attack. He was 58. Russert was known as an even-handed journalist who did not shy away from asking direct and often difficult questions of politicians regardless of their political persuasion. Earlier this year, Russert had been named by Time Magazine as one of the '100 most influential people in the world.'"
Well, Windows is the most influential OS in the world, and 1918 influenza outbreak was the most influential flu in the world.
Doesn't mean Tim will be missed much.
Obama likes poor people so much, he wants to make more of them.
I always looked forward to how Russert handled interviews and debates. Left or right, loony or sane, one always got a fair hand from him. He'd get on anyone who was hiding something, but I don't know of many who left his presence angry.
He was a rarity in the world of political journalism.
You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
Sundays will never be the same again. We lost one of our best journalists around. Goodbye Tim.
America has just lost one of the last great newsmen out there. I know my sunday mornings wont be quite the same.
that does not live in American when I say..
who?
--
Free Playstation 3, XBox 360 and Nintendo Wii
The problem with slashdot is that most of its users were bullied and stuffed into lockers as kids!
The irony is, on his show recently someone referred to his dad, "Big Russ", as being deceased. Tim had to correct him.
Unitarian Church: Freethinkers Congregate!
I'd have a heart attack too if I had to work around all those liberal douchebags at MSNBC.
RIP Tim. Fuck you Obermann!
While this is an interesting story, I don't see why it has anything to do with Slashdot. Tim Russard dieing is of very little interest to most geeks, and of especially little interest to people outside the US, since his whole sow was solely based on US politics.
Virtually no one in news asks candidates and newsmakers the tough questions anymore. You could always count on Tim to throw hardballs every time. He also was very good at ignoring spin when he didn't get a straight answer. Great interviewer and moderator. Condolences to his family and friends, he certainly was taken before his time.
good man, great reporter.
Does this seem strange to anyone? I'm not sure any politician would have a real motivation to have him taken out, but something doesn't smell right here. Of course that could just me my foil hat cutting off the circulation again...
~Eien no Inori wo Sasagete~ Searching for my Hatsumi...
He was one of the many TV "journalists" who helped deceive the American people into supporting the invasion of Iraq. Instead of doing his job and investigating the Bush administration's ridiculous claims, he and the rest of the mainstream media just went along with Bush's lies. Thousands of Americans and over a million Iraqis have died in this war, which should never have been waged. Russert shares some responsibility for that.
Tim Russert was one of the few journalists today who are worthy of that name. Hearkening back to the proud traditions of Walter Kronkite and Edward R Murrough, who asked tough questions of big players who could normally intimidate or frighten their way out of being asked the questions.
Instead, we're left with Barbara Walters asking what sort of tree people would be, and persisting.
Another blow to quality journalism in America.
Tim, your contributions to the linux kernel and the open source movement will never be forgotten.
Oh, wait.
Remind me again how this is "News for nerds, stuff that matters"? Call me when they launch his ashes into orbit or something.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
that Tim Russert is gone?
Oh, that's right. Every other mainstream reporter not employed by Fox.
Not to mention Slashdot itself.
Now let the ritual downmodding begin.
RIP.
but ...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-fiderer/the-nobel-prize-and-russe_b_9307.html
Why couldn't it have been Sean Hannity instead?
But I suppose that insults Russert by implying they were anything like peers.
cheers
Well, back to rejecting software patent applications.
Meet The Press was my Sunday morning staple, and it was because of Tim Russert. NBC will be hard pressed to find someone to fill his shoes.
I'll never forget Russert on the NBC coverage of the 2000 presidential election. Early in the evening, Russert wrote on his little whiteboard "Florida, Florida, Florida!" before anyone had any idea how close it was going to be. I stayed up with Russert and Brokaw that night until the next dawn, hoping to find out who the next president would be. Of course there were no conclusions, but Russert's exploration of the electoral college system and the implications of the vote returns were insightful and kept me watching.
Russert wasn't afraid of asking tough questions to powerful people. When they would try to weasel their way out of a direct answer, he would ask again, and again if necessary. If only all journalists would have that kind of conviction.
He will be missed. My condolences to his family.
-molo
Using your sig line to advertise for friends is lame.
And this is somehow important enough to nerds to be convered here because? Great guy, sorry he's gone, but is this really worth clogging the site with? I'm sure the tiny fraction of readers here who care about US politics would inevitably come across news of his death via sites that cover political news, which should only be this one when said politics directly impacts technology.
Sad news indeed.
Here is his interview on Readers Digest a while back.
http://www.rd.com/poll-archive-parent/games-and-humor/celebrities-and-pop-culture/politicians/tim-russert/article26850.html
My fav. part is
After he was named moderator of Meet the Press in 1991, Russert called Larry Spivak, one of the show's original panelists, for advice. "Learn as much as you can about your guest, and his or her position on the issues," Spivak said. "Then take the other side. If you do that, you will have a fair and balanced program."
I think he followed that mantra throughout.
My wife and I had only one TV program in common...alas..our sundays won't be same.
RIP Mr. Russert.
The world of political news, especially with this historic national election coming up, will be poorer for his passing. I wish he could have lived to see it and report on it.
+++ATH0
You might want to ask Vince Foster what happens when a Clinton is unhappy. Could there be any unhappy Clintons floating about right now?
Seth
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
Now correct me if I'm wrong, (I definitely could be) but if somebody dies of a heart attack wouldn't a physician be able to immediately tell that the cause of death was indeed a heart attack?
He called Bill Clinton the Democratic nominee early for the '92 election...called Florida the "must win" state in 2000, and you could always count on him saying something that sounded like it was from left feild but would come true in a few months.
A few days ago, after Obama secured the nomination, I saw him smile a little while talking about him on Nightly News. Smiling not for the candidate, but I think he was really, really, really excited that he would might see a black man get elected president of his great country in HIS lifetime. He looked like a little kid...sad he did not live to see what will be.
Didn't know him personally, but great journalist. A lot will miss him.
My father died of a massive heart attack at the exact same age.
And tough questions like: "There's been a lot of discussion about the Democrats and the issue of faith and values. I want to ask you a simple question. Senator Obama, what is your favorite Bible verse?" What a hard-hitting issues question.
Yes, a great loss to the hard-hitting news media of our time.
That is all.
when he died? And no, I'm not comparing Tim Russert to Pol Pot. I'm just saying that "honoring" *any* person, just because they die, is silly.
While I doubt any of his family or friends is going to see this, for what it's worth, my condolences go to you.
Tim Russert was both an amazing man and an incredible journalist- a tremendous asset to the fourth estate, our nation, and the world. His unique blend of hard-hitting questions and high standard of impartiality have made our politics richer, our people better informed, and our politicians that much more honest.
Without any doubt, Mr.Russert's passing is a terrible blow to the once-noble profession of journalism. He will be sorely missed both by those who knew him well and by those of us who knew only the good he did in the public eye. His death, early as it was, should be taken by all of us as a reminder of our transience, and of the need to preserve the work of our lives for the generations that come after us. Tim Russert's great work, the great effort of his life, was to restore to journalism the spirits of integrity, honesty, and candor that once characterized the mighty fourth estate. It would be a great shame to his memory if those spirits were to die with him; if, in the absence of the man himself, we allow his dreams to wither.
For everyone reading this, I hope you can find a way to honor a man who worked so hard to make this world a better place in which to live- to build upon his life's work, and to bring even one more iota of honesty to the political process. Register a voter, write a letter to your representative or the editor of your newspaper, join a campaign- and always ask the hard questions. I don't think he would've liked anything better.
RIP, Tim. If you see God, I hope you get an exclusive.
I respected Tim Russert a great deal. He was one of the few out there who still seemed like he wanted to do hard news and prevent bias as much as he could.
I remember reading about a young woman (25) who died after getting off a flight to Australia fron a DVT blood clot. She apparently didnt leave her seat for the whole 13 hour flight.
Since I fly a lot, I make sure that on flights longer than an hour or two, I get up and walk the length of the airplane, just to keep the circulation going.
Russert, being overweight, would be prime for a DVT Heart Attack. One little clot, it breaks loose, blocks a blood vessel in the heart, and boom, you die.
I would not be surprised that this happened to Russert. Shame, he was as fair as a liberal gets. I'm not trolling, either. I liked him.
It makes me sad to see people memorializing Russert as a giant of journalism. At best he was a non-abrasive talker tossing softballs. The standard for journalism only seems to get lower and lower.
It's too bad he has died but it's only bad for journalism because so many of his competitors are loudmouth idiots. A calm demeanor has been enough to make him look like Walter Cronkite but for those of us with longer memories Russert is not notable.
Someone is likely to try to take over the balanced format that he started. The name Tim will always remind me of the ABC episodes of Jim Henson's Dinosaur Sitcom. "Gonna need another Timmy!"
It is only Karma that came back to him.
For:
Selling out and becoming a pundit.
Making the news instead of reporting it.
His handling of reporting on the Iraq War and selling the war to the American people. He sold out the American people on the truth about the war. He assisted the Bush Administration on its propaganda for the war.
He helped still the nomination from Clinton for Obama, because it was a more sensational headline.
And I'd recommend reading Scott McClellan's book to see how the press was manipulated. And is still being manipulated.
McClellan's book also has about the only decent quote from Russert about Gulf War II.
Lou Dobbs asks harder questions about immigration almost every single week than Russert ever did about the war.
Jon Stewart is the best journalist we have and he's limited by whatever he can turn into a joke.
Tim Russert was not even-handed. He was a former White House staffer.
He typically softballed Republicans and turned his investigative skills loose only when interviewing Democrats. I know real even-handed journalists at (and above) Russert's level who have commented to me that they think he is a disgrace, even that there should be some prohibition on former political operatives taking jobs like moderator of Meet the Press, as it is clearly a conflict of interest for our Press to be in bed with our politicians.
I wish Media Matters went back farther than two years. It would be interesting to compare Scott McLellan's admissions of the lack of due diligence by the White House Press Corps with a log of Russert's failings in the days leading up to the war.
http://mediamatters.org/issues_topics/tags/tim_russert
Russert had earlier been diagnosed with asymptomatic coronary artery disease, but it was well-controlled with medication and exercise, and he had performed well on a stress test in late April, Newman said. An autopsy revealed that he also had an enlarged heart, Newman said.
This is what all that Omega3 fish oil is supposed to prevent? Time to go kill a salmon!
Get your facts straight.
Did you honor Pol Pot as a person when he died 10 years ago? It's a simple "yes" or "no" question.
... never heard of him. If he is worthy of mourning then I wish all those affected all my condolences.
No, your children are not the special ones. Nor are your pets.
Once again, I find myself rather glad that I don't know who some random celebrity is.
Modding Trolls +1 inciteful since 1999
Didn't Stephen Colbert recently make fun of a Hillary Clinton aid for making threats at Tim Russert's dad, saying that they'll put him in heaven if Russert doesn't play nice with them? (Damn. It was just a week or two ago...)
Help! I'm a slashdot refugee.
Am I the only one who thought Russert was the spitting image of Jimmy James from Newsradio?
There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell 'em.
... Who? I never watch TV and I've never seen him mentioned on /. that I remember. He effectively doesn't exist to me.
"Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?"
Even if you are outside of the United States of America, what happens in the United States of America can and will effect you.
Tim Russert will be surely missed. He was a leader.
He set The Standard when it came to investigative political journalism.
He was prepared for every interview with whomever he met.
He only sought Truth.
Those of you that are mourning tonight, must look ahead.
Tim would want that of you. Embrace your role now.
Be prepared and dig. Dig as hard as PJ at Groklaw digs for the truth.
Rest in Peace, Tim Russert, the Americans will expose Truth.
You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.
It seems to exemplify what is wrong with modern journalism/punditry. They're acting as if Russert wasn't just the guy telling the story, he was a part of the story.
This was worthy of a breaking news bit, and some coverage on the 6pm news, along with a memorial 2 hour special a week later. But they've been going on non stop since like 4 pm this afternoon.
I doubt Walter Cronkhite will ever get this kind of coverage when he dies, and he was 10 times the reporter all of these people are I see on the tubes today.
I am originally from Buffalo and I always had a great sense of pride to have that common bond with Tim Russert, a man who I watched intently on Sunday mornings. Though beyond that, his CNBC interview show was always fascinating as well as his regular commentary on MSNBC, especially on 'Morning Joe'.
Tim Russert was one in a billion. We'll never see the likes of him in our life time. It's a truly sad day for America, Tim's extended family.
Kathy Nooan said today: "Tim was a patriot, he had a love of country that just radiated..." Perhaps that should be inscribed on his tombstone.
As someone in my early twenties, Meet The Press is by far the best political show I have ever watched. I distinctly remember the first time I happened to catch it while channel surfing on MSNBC. Tim Russert would take 'gotcha' quotes from many years ago and read them directly to a politician's face, forcing them to respond and justify their new positions. He was always fair and neutral, able to play devil's advocate to draw out the facts that the American people needed to hear. Even after watching only one episode, you could tell it was leaps and bounds above the political talk shows on the rest of 24 hour cable news. I hope NBC can find someone appropriate to succeed his position. Condolences to his family, especially his son.
Tim,
Wherever you are, I want to say thanks for helping me relate to the world of politics.
I didn't watch all the time, but I must admit that my perverse interest in watching politics on Sunday mornings could only have been shepherded by trust in a man that radiated genuineness.
You will be missed, friend.
Russert was probably the best news interviewer on US TV. Unfortunately in all the interviews I saw him conduct he didn't push the interviewee as well as an average UK one, for candidates from any party. His great virtue, I think, was his evenhandedness, but that came at the expense of pushing for the truth. A sad event, even so.
Tim Russert was always interesting to watch on TV.
He came the closest to asking the follow-up questions that everyone wanted to throw back at the politicians.
This story should have had more prominence on the Slashdot front page.
There are only three "famous" people whose deaths made me sad to the point of weeping. The first was Jim Henson, the second was Johnny Carson. Tim Russert is the third. He was truly irreplaceable, and no matter what you think of his politics, his love of life and family were to be admired and emulated. Tim, you will be missed.
"Was it a millionaire who said 'Imagine No Posessions?'" -- Elvis Costello
Slashdot is an American website. It is United States centric, and will remain so. If you don't like it, you are welcome to leave, install Slashcode on a server in Portugal or wherever the fuck you're from, and have a Portugal-centric site.
Failing these, you are also quite free to fuck off.
+++ATH0
He had good days and bad. Some interviews were harder some softer. One interview that still pisses me off was the interview with Dick Cheney and he's helping to hold up drawings of elaborate underground bunkers. It appeared, at least to me, he was swallowing it hook line and sinker. He gave Cheney a voice that I passionately disagreed with. I suppose that comes with balanced reporting. By definition I should have trouble with 50% of his interviews.
The 2008 election of Obama will be bitter sweet without him.
-[d]-
I used to watch this regularly on Channel 7 (in Australia) when it aired at 2am, I liked the way Russert would let the guest respond to a question and move on, I always think this is far more effective (if the response is BS) than trying to debate the point and get the person to acknowledge they may be wrong.
I had my fill of US politics a while back but Meet the Press made for good Sunday night viewing for Americanophiles. Some episodes were very entertaining and others not so entertaining, and I found it interesting during elections to see Russert's interaction with Katie Couric, outside of his element perhaps.
Ok, now that the "24-hour-can't-say-anything-critical-about-a-dead-man" period is over, can I just ask - huh? Are you sure you're talking about the right Tim Russert?
I remember a Tim Russert who insisted in open court that his personal journalistic philosophy was that, when talking to a public official, anything that was said was implicitly off the record unless that public official said that it could go on the record, explicitly.
I remember a Tim Russert who adamantly refused to testify during the Libby trial, who refused to testify against a source who had committed treason against the United States (according to George HW Bush), a Russert who privileged his own journalistic access to the nation's elites over the interests of the people his journalism was meant to serve.
I remember a Russert who, in 2004, basically rolled over for the President. I don't remember any "hardballs"; I remember a craven submission to the bamboozlement of an administration he, along with the rest of his Beltway buddies, allowed to lie to us for years.
I remember a Tim Russert who the Bush administration knew was a sympathetic media outlet to their talking points, a Tim Russert whose "Meet the Press" was a preferred venue because, in the words of a top Cheney aide, they could "control the message."
I can't for the life if me imagine how you remember Russert as some kind of dogged truth-seeker who stuck politicians to the sticking place. Those of us who were paying attention to his show know that Russert was at the head of the destruction of American journalism; the leader of an abdication of their responsibilities as the Fifth Estate.
Who the fuck are you talking about? Because it wasn't, in any way, Tim Russert, official stenographer for the Bush Administration.
P.S. Maybe he was a great dad, and a great guy, I don't know. I feel bad for his father, I really do. But this Tim Russert you keep talking about, the one who was so brave and asked such probing questions... well, I sure as hell wished that Tim Russert had actually existed, instead of the craven, obsequious Tim Russert we actually had on Meet the Press, because maybe with a media that actually did it's job we wouldn't be in so many of the messes we're in.
I never have frustrations, the reason is, to wit:
If at first I don't succeed, I quit!
Russert was the broadcast version of print's David Broder: a Very Serious "journalist" who's very tough on Democrats, but bends over backwards for Republicans. Cheney's media director suggested he go on MTP for message control. Russert couldn't wait for Gore to conceed in 2000 so Bush could become president. He asked Bush about the number of nuclear missles under a Start II treaty and gave Bush a pass when he didn't know. Four years later, Howard Dean didn't know the exact number of active duty troops in the U.S. and Russert tore him a new asshole.
No, the only reason Russert looks good is because most of the press is so bad - he wasn't fit to tie the shoelaces of Cronkite or Murrow.
Russert wasn't fit to tie the shoelaces of Murrow or Cronkite. Russert wasn't a great journalist, he was a Very Serious Journalist. As in he would kiss the ass of right wingers like Dick Cheney while playing petty gotcha games with everyone else.
Bruce gave a tribute to him from the stage at Cardiff last night. It's on the front page of his website http://www.brucespringsteen.net/news/index.html.
ian
I know that for you US guys this must be an iconic figure.
But that Time names a US interviewer, that few people out of the US know, one of the *world's* most influential people, just comes to show the complete and utter lack of journalistic integrity in your country, where the press has stopped to inform you and instead patronizes you and gives you frequent pats in the back.
If this individual was raising the bar a little it is indeed bad news his early demise.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
I, like a few others in this thread, don't think of Mr. Russert as a journalist at all, let alone a tough incisive one. However, most of the people posting in the thread have only high praise for his objectivity. Can you direct me to any inteviews by Russert that demonstrate this? Asking questions about real issues that demanded thoughtful answers? Pressing guests in the face of evasive answers? Most of what I see from "tough" journalists is comprised of questions about what I'd call distractions. The questions may make the guests fidget, but they don't have merit.
When the axe came to the forest, the trees said, "Look out - the handle was once one of us."
I really hate the new display. Your comment appeared just one indent in from Veramocor's, directly below Fritzed's. Your remark offended me when I thought it was directed to Veramocor's comment, so I viewed all to see what exactly to put in my return flame to you, only to find that you were talking to Phairdon and I completely agree. I'm sure I'll get used to this just like I did to the last change, but right now I hate the current design.