Dayhoff Westminster Soundtrack: 20080614 Wall Street Journal: TV Journalist Tim Russert Dies at 58

Saturday, June 14, 2008

20080614 Wall Street Journal: TV Journalist Tim Russert Dies at 58

TV Journalist Tim Russert Dies at 58

By REBECCA DANA and SUSAN DAVIS

-- Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg and Jackie Calmes contributed to this article.

June 14, 2008

Tim Russert, dean of Beltway political journalists and the hard-charging anchor of NBC's Sunday morning interview show "Meet the Press," died Friday of a heart attack at the NBC bureau in Washington. He was 58 years old.

Mr. Russert had been a fixture in Washington for a quarter-century. Through books, commentary and his two, hour-long television news shows, he established himself as one of the toughest questioners in journalism and an outsize personality in political circles.

Early Friday, Mr. Russert was back in Washington after a trip to Rome with his wife, Vanity Fair contributor Maureen Orth, to visit their college-age son, Luke.

[…]

A native of Buffalo, N.Y., Mr. Russert was a lawyer by training and had a brief but accomplished career in politics, including stints as aides to New York Governor Mario Cuomo and New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. He joined NBC News's Washington bureau in 1984, graduated to bureau chief four years later and remained there for the rest of his career. Mr. Russert took over "Meet the Press" in 1991. He also served as a roving political commentator and hosted an hour-long talk show for the cable news channel CNBC.

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