WASHINGTON - Tim Russert, NBC News%u2019 Washington bureau chief and the moderator of %u201CMeet the Press,%u201D died Friday, NBC News said. He was 58.
No further details were immediately available.
Russert, the recipient of 48 honorary doctorates, took over the helm of %u201CMeet the Press%u201D in December 1991. Now in its 60th year, %u201CMeet the Press%u201D is the longest-running program in the history of television.
In 2008, Time Magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
In 2005, Russert was awarded an Emmy for his role in the coverage of the funeral of President Ronald Reagan. His %u201CMeet the Press%u201D interviews with George W. Bush and Al Gore in 2000 won the Radio and Television Correspondents%u2019 highest honor, the Joan S. Barone Award, and the Annenberg Center%u2019s Walter Cronkite Award.
Russert joined NBC News in 1984. In April 1985, he supervised the live broadcasts of NBC's "TODAY" show from Rome, negotiating and arranging an appearance by Pope John Paul II, a first for American television. In 1986 and 1987, Russert led NBC News%u2019 weeklong broadcasts from South America, Australia and China.
Russert was born in Buffalo, N.Y., on May 7, 1950. He was a graduate of Canisius High School, John Carroll University and the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. He was a member of the bar in New York and the District of Columbia.
Even though many members disliked his debate questions in his presidential debate, I hope that he and his family find peace.
I'm sure that some other "media whore" will replace him and ask equally bad questions. It's just a matter a time and the nature of mainstream media.
Perhaps Democracy Now! should start hosting Democratic debates? Somehow I think that it would make most candidates, even the "liberal" ones, a little hot under the collar. But, you know, that might give Dennis Kucinich a fighting chance in the election.
Holden_Caulfield
Ann Arbor, MI
April 2004
JUN 13, 2008 12:43 PM