No, it’s not yet Sunday, but what a shock – the sad passing of Tim Russert. NBC/MSNBC pulling out a massive tribute. Our Sunday mornings will never be the same – “Meet the Press” without Russert? The rest of the presidential campaign without this man and the white board?
It seemed quite fitting that Tom Brokaw, the longtime leader/face of NBC News, got to present the story:
And, I do agree with Tom: NBC won’t be the same – but, even more so – neither will broadcast news, which is increasingly marginalized and broken into different forums on the Internet or cable. In a way, I feel as I did when Peter Jennings passed – when I realized nothing would be quite the same with how we watch or learn from the news. At least we all knew Tim Russert. Tim (whom I felt I could look on as a first-name basis as I would the Dan/Tom/Peter era) was the face of politics on news television, and a man who made us think about our fathers and our sons. How sad that he passes before Father’s Day. His “Go, Bills” at the end of “Meet the Press” during football season, to remind viewers of his love of the Buffalo Bills; his love of Buffalo; and his great gotcha moments when he would point a Senator to the screen to see his own words – a litigator’s move to learn and appreciate; a New Yorker who became the consummate Washingtonian insider, without forgetting that he was a man who connected with other human beings.