Tribute(s) to Tim Russert ...

The tributes:

Washington Post:

For Russert, a Host of Tributes From Near and Far

By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 15, 2008; A02

An extraordinary outpouring of tributes to Tim Russert continued nonstop yesterday as ordinary people left flowers and notes at NBC's Washington bureau, the presidential candidates praised his fairness and his network planned a special edition of "Meet the Press" for this morning.

The moderator's chair, filled by Russert since Dec. 8, 1991, will be left empty to honor the 58-year-old political analyst who died of a heart attack Friday.

"We hope to do him proud," Betsy Fischer, Russert's longtime executive producer, said yesterday. "What I really want to get across is what Tim did for 'Meet the Press' -- where he took the show and how much it meant to him." She said she was touched by the fact that former staffers have been showing up to help, including a producer who flew in from California.

Tom Brokaw, the network's former anchor, will lead a discussion with such friends as commentator Mike Barnicle, political strategists James Carville and Mary Matalin, historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, PBS's Gwen Ifill and Maria Shriver, California's first lady.

More than 13,000 messages were sent to the network's Web site yesterday ( Russert.Condolences@nbcuni.com). Others posted their thoughts on Facebook pages.

A memorial service will be held in Washington this week, but no details have been released. Buffalo, Russert's beloved home town, plans a candlelight vigil in a park named for the man who became NBC's Washington bureau chief.

On a special edition of "Today," Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, said yesterday that in an interview before he spoke at the party's 2004 convention, Russert "suddenly pulls out a quote from a Cleveland Plain Dealer article that I had completely forgotten about" and tripped him up. "And it showed me he had the best research on television, but we also talked football afterwards. . . . He was never mean-spirited about it. You know, he would hold you accountable, but you always had a sense that he was fair, that he wasn't trying to make himself more important in the process."

Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, who appeared on the show 52 times, said: "He was always fair. He was always tough. He always would send a little trepidation through me when I would see a quote thrown up on the screen, because he always did his homework."

Vice President Cheney said Russert "was never into 'gotcha' journalism. He'd ask you tough questions. He'd remind you of quotes you'd made previously in other settings or on earlier shows, so you never got away with anything going up vis-a-vis Tim, but the main thing was it wasn't just politics. It was substance."

Russert was a wealthy Washington pundit who touched a nerve among viewers, perhaps because he wrote a book about his father, "Big Russ," and talked about his blue-collar roots in Buffalo. That connection was highlighted by an impromptu shrine that took shape in front of NBC's Washington bureau on Nebraska Avenue NW.

Dozens of store-bought bouquets, candles, handwritten notes and a Buffalo Bills banner were piled near the studio entrance in tribute to a broadcaster who had become as familiar as family in many households.

"Dearest Tim, How can we have an election without you?" read one message, scrawled on the kind of whiteboard that Russert made famous with his on-the-fly election night analysis.

"God and politics, what a Sunday roundtable that will be," read another.

Courtenay Dunn was in tears as she viewed the sidewalk tributes. "It's amazing that it feels like losing a friend," said Dunn, a federal employee who said "Meet the Press" was among her favorite shows.

"I've been preoccupied with it ever since I heard. I think he must be the preeminent journalist of our time, as political commentator," Dunn said.

Russert was a board member for 13 years of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Washington, which said yesterday that he had given or directed millions of dollars to the organization, without fanfare.

Fischer, who was with Russert when he collapsed at the bureau Friday, said he was about to record the words "Our issues this Sunday -- ." She accompanied him in an ambulance but said she knew before they reached Sibley Memorial Hospital that he wasn't going to make it.

"It was very quick," Fischer said. "It was pretty instantaneous. We couldn't get him back."

Staff writer Steve Hendrix contributed to this report.

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Boston Globe:

The tributes are pouring in for Tim Russert, the NBC News Washington bureau chief and "Meet the Press" moderator who collapsed and died of an apparent heart attack this afternoon.

And those from the political world include the presidential candidates, whose every up and down he had been chronicling for viewers.

From presumptive Republican nominee John McCain: "I am very saddened by Tim Russert's sudden death. Cindy and I extend our thoughts and prayers to the Russert family as they cope with this shocking loss and remember the life and legacy of a loving father, husband and the preeminent political journalist of his generation. He was truly a great American who loved his family, his friends, his Buffalo Bills, and everything about politics and America. He was just a terrific guy. I was proud to call him a friend, and in the coming days, we will pay tribute to a life whose contributions to us all will long endure."

Democrat Barack Obama told reporters: "I’ve known Tim Russert since I first spoke at the convention in 2004. He’s somebody who, over time, I came to consider not only a journalist but a friend. There wasn’t a better interviewer in TV, not a more thoughtful analyst of our politics, and he was also one of the finest men I knew. Somebody who cared about America, cared about the issues, cared about family. I am grief-stricken with the loss and my thoughts and prayers go out to his family. And I hope that, even though Tim is irreplaceable, that the standard that he set in his professional life and his family life are standards that we all carry with us in our own lives.”

From Hillary Clinton and former president Bill Clinton: "We were stunned and deeply saddened to hear of the passing today of Tim Russert. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife Maureen, his son Luke, his father who we all have come to know as Big Russ, his extended family and all of his many friends and colleagues at NBC who have suffered a tremendous loss. Always true to his proud Buffalo roots, Tim had a love of public service and a dedication to journalism that rightfully earned him the respect and admiration of not only his colleagues but also those of us who had the privilege to go toe to toe with him. In seeking answers to tough questions, he helped inform the American people and make our democracy stronger. We join his friends, fans and loved ones in mourning his loss and celebrating his remarkable contribution to our nation."

The Associated Press reported President George W. Bush's statement on Russert:

"Laura and I are deeply saddened by the sudden passing of Tim Russert. Those of us who knew and worked with Tim, his many friends, and the millions of Americans who loyally followed his career on the air will all miss him.

"As the longest-serving host of the longest-running program in the history of television, he was 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.

"Most important, Tim was a proud son and father, and Laura and I offer our deepest sympathies to his wife Maureen, his son Luke, and the entire Russert family. We will keep them in our prayers."

Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts added his condolences:

"Tim Russert was a gentleman and giant, not just in politics and journalism, but in life. And through that life, he gave us all a model worth emulating. With a reasoned voice, a sharp mind and a fair hand, Tim took the measure of every Washington official and all those that sought to be one. He was a great journalist and an even better friend. His passing is a tragic loss for us all, but especially for the family he loved so much. Our thoughts and prayers are with Tim's wife Maureen and his son Luke.”

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Chicago Tribune:

NBC Lost More than a Newsman ...

By Phil Rosenthal

If it's Sunday, it's "Meet the Press," as Tim Russert said so many times in his unmatched 161/2 years as moderator of network television's longest-running show.

Yet, without Russert, who died Friday at age 58, Sundays, "Meet the Press," broadcast journalism and, certainly, NBC this political season won't be quite the same.

"He was, without question, the most important, influential reporter in Washington, print or broadcast," Chris Wallace, a "Meet the Press" alumnus who now anchors rival "Fox News Sunday," said from D.C. "He had an authority I don't think anyone else in this town had."

Take that night early last month, when Hillary Clinton was routed in the North Carolina presidential primary and only eked out a victory in Indiana. Russert declaring the race for the Democratic nomination over became news itself.

"There was kind of a sense that if Russert says it, it's over," Wallace said. "That's a big thing to lose, someone who had that kind of authority, that kind of credibility, not only in the media world but also in the political world."

Russert, officially, was a senior vice president at NBC News, its Washington bureau chief, managing editor and moderator of "Meet the Press," anchor of MSNBC's "The Tim Russert Show" and NBC's political analyst.

He was really NBC News' anchor.

Not its anchorman, its anchor.

He kept NBC News grounded.

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann said, by e-mail, that if critics try to use Russert's absence to further their attacks on

NBC News "they can go to hell," and that Russert's "last e-mails to me were insistent that I keep fighting back."

The network, which is wrestling with its identity as the opinions of its MSNBC hosts are used by critics to cast aspersions on its broadcast reports, has benefited from Russert's perceived neutrality.

Without him, that counterbalance is gone.

Others will replace Russert in front of the camera and behind it, but no one except perhaps former anchorman Tom Brokaw is as well-regarded by viewers.

It was Russert who so often bridged the network's broadcast and cable news outlet with his seemingly ubiquitous appearances.

He was the most visible link to NBC News' past after Brian Williams succeeded Brokaw on "NBC Nightly News."

And even as the voluble hosts of MSNBC generated criticism, Russert, a former Democratic operative, nearly always stayed out of the line of fire.

On Fox News Channel, Brit Hume said Russert initially was "regarded by guys like me who have never been anything but reporters with a little suspicion," but he won them over.

Russert's great lasting legacy is likely to be his role in saving the nearly moribund "Meet the Press" (which dates to 1947) and, probably, the Sunday-morning genre.

His stunningly simple idea was to confront politicians with earlier sound bites and direct quotes no longer in sync with current stances.

It's a template commonplace today everywhere from "The Daily Show" to every political blog.

"He turned Sunday-morning talk shows into a first-rate lawyers' cross-examination, and it gave Sunday-morning talk a whole new vitality and energy," Wallace said.

Some of that vitality and energy died Friday with the Washington insider who never lost touch with his blue-collar Buffalo roots.

What NBC has lost, in what looks to be a hotly contested presidential race, is not only its chief guide, but perhaps its compass too.

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