Gateway

Issue date: 7/8/08 Section: News

Mourners lay flowers at NBC affiliate WRC, located in Washington, D.C. (courtesy: D.B. King) [Click to enlarge]

PHILADELPHIA (MCT) - NBC's Tim Russert, 58, perhaps the most widely respected newsperson in all of television, collapsed and died of a heart attack while at work in Washington the afternoon of July 11.

Russert, a senior vice president at NBC, was the network's Washington bureau chief and had been moderator of "Meet the Press" for more than 16 years.

Virtually every major American political figure since 1992 had weathered his intense questioning, and he had been an imposing NBC presence on dozens of election nights, where his whiteboard and scrawled explanatory numbers became a TV institution.

Remembrances rolled in from all quarters, from President Bush to Barbara Walters to the thousands of nobodies who posted on MS-NBC's message boards.

On Fox News, Chris Wallace put Russert's place in perspective: "He was the king in Washington. He was the most important, influential reporter in Washington."

"Tim will be sorely missed," said Pennsylvania's senior senator, Arlen Specter, who averaged an appearance a year on the political talk show that had the highest ratings and made the most news, and where appearances were a badge of honor no matter how uncomfortable the outcome.

Born in Buffalo, N.Y., Russert had a degree from the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law and was chief of staff to Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., and counselor in New York Gov. Mario Cuomo's office before joining NBC in 1984.

"His years as a Senate staffer and probing TV journalist gave him special insights on political and governmental issues," Specter said.

Russert's whiteboard from election night 2000, when the analyst repeated, "Florida, Florida, Florida," is in the Smithsonian Institution. Even if other reporters could not get the tally right, "TV Guide" named that scene one of the 100 greatest moments in TV history. He is also credited with coining the red state/blue state designations for characterizing electoral politics, and this year, "Time" magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. No other journalist of any stripe made the list.

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