Tom Russert was at the peak of his career, when his life abruptly ended in 2008 at the age of 58. He was mostly famous for his appearances at
NBC's Meet the Press, and he is the longest-serving moderator the show has had. In 2008, Russert was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by The Times; alongside that, he had received over forty journalism awards, including the American Legion Journalism Award and an Emmy in 2005. On the day of his death, the entire
NBC Weekly News show was dedicated to Tim Russert, and his private funeral was attended by guests such as George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
Russert was born in May 7, 1950 in Buffalo New York and, as most youths of the 70s, had developed an interest in rock music, and, as a student, helped organize shows for acts such as Bruce Springsteen. Springsteen wasn't that famous at the time, though. After graduating from law school, Russert marched into politics as a campaign organizer for democrat Senators, for example, he worked on Daniel Moynihan's Senate campaign in 1976. Although often criticized for belonging to a party, Russert later dismissed the claims by making unbiased news that often pounded the democrats.
Tom Russert's journalism career began with
NBC news in 1984, where he was the broadcast supervisor for the
NBC's show TODAY, starting from April 1985. In the following several years, he supervised
NBC's foreign broadcasts from several countries, such as China, Australia and South America. He often recalled his work as a correspondent and later said that his sometimes unbearable job as a correspondent gave him confidence to break through as a journalist.
Due to his activity as a foreign correspondent, Tim was later hired by
NBC News Washington and became bureau chef in 1989. Two years later, he started anchoring his perhaps most notable show, the morning program called Meet the Press. The show mainly featured in-depth interviews of high profile celebrities, and Russert became famous for his quite aggressive interviews. A hobby of his was gathering videos with old quotes of his interviewees; the quotes often contradicted the live sayings of those he interviewed. The show was eventually renamed Meet the Press with Tim Russert and remained highly popular until his death. Not long before his death, Russert also wrote two New York Times bestsellers - "Wisdom of Our Fathers" (2006) and "Old Russ And Me" (2004).
Russert was arguably the most famous journalist alive; although he was an alien internationally, in the U.S. Russert was considered a prominent news figure as well as a fighter for journalism without borders. Russert was an advocate against the war in Iraq and unsuccessfully balloted for the withdrawal of U.S. troops in 2007. He single handedly shaped the press opinion on many nationally important events, not only the war in Iraq, and, because he knew the right people, he remained a highly influential figure until his death.
