In Memoriam: Tim Russert

When I heard that Tim Russet was dead, I felt like I'd been punched in the stomach. I wasn't processing his passing as a standout news anchor or thinking about particular interviews I had loved. I missed him emotionally, the way I would have missed Grover (the muppet, not Norquist) if I had been told he had died. After all, I had been fans of both at the same time.

My dad gave (and still gives) current events talks at Long Island libraties, so he watched all the Sunday politics talk shows.
9 - 10 am Sunday Morning (CBS)
10 - 11 am This Week (ABC)
10 - 11 am Reliable Sources (NBC) (taped upstairs to watch later)
11:00 - 11:30 am Meet the Press (NBC) [only the second half, so he'd often watch the first half when it was repeated at 6pm that evening]
11:30 am McLaughlin Group (CBS)

I was a big fan of all of these shows (for the volume, if not the content) from a young age. When I was three years old, I'd run into the room when the 'Gokkin Goop' came on, for the pleasure of yelling "Issue One!" with host John McLaughlin. Tim Russert, with his obvious love for his work, was a delight to watch, even if I didn't understand what he was doing. When I got older, I began to enjoy his show for his remarkable interviews and insights. The many tributes to him have done a beautiful job of eulogizing him. I just want to praise the enthusiasm and passion he brought to his reporting that was powerful enough to move a three-year-old and inspire an eighteen-year-old.

It is still unclear who will replace Tim Russert on Meet the Press, but the blog Web 2.Oh...Really? has an interesting post calling Russert the last of the 1.0 newsmen. Russert's
whiteboard is the stuff of legend, soon to be replaced by

[T]he new host[,]... he (or she: Katie?) will become, like Wolf Blitzer of CNN, a moderator and curator of digital data streams, remote interactive liver feeds and public discussion. A 2.0 website will be kitted out. The competition will follow.

And Tim Russert will be missed.