Tim Russert, the NBC News' Washington bureau chief and moderator of Meet the Press, died today at age 58.

According to NBC, Russert was recording voiceovers for this Sunday's Meet the Press when he collapsed and could not be revived. He had just returned home from a family vacation in Italy where he and his family were celebrating the graduation of his son, Luke, from Boston College.

Tim Russert was best known for hosting Meet the Press, the longest-running program in television history. Russert took over the role of host in 1991, but he was also the vice president of NBC News. He provided nearly round-the-clock coverage on NBC and MSNBC on election nights as the head of the network's Washington operations.

Russert's two books, Big Russ and Me (2004) and Wisdom of our Fathers (2006) both made it to the New York Times bestsellers list. He was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2008.

After law school, Russert went to work for the Senate campaign of Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y. and then for Mario Cuomo's New York gubernatorial campaign. Shortly thereafter, Russert joined NBC News. In April 1985, he supervised the live broadcasts of the TODAY show from Rome, negotiating an appearance by Pope John Paul II, a first for American television.

Of his job as Meet the Press moderator, Russert said in a 2007 Time magazine interview, “Lawrence Spivak, who founded Meet the Press, told me before he died that the job of the host is to learn as much as you can about your guest’s positions and take the other side, and to do that in a persistent and civil way. And that’s what I try to do every Sunday.”

Russert was “one of the premier political journalists and analysts of his time,” said Tom Brokaw, former anchor of NBC Nightly News. “This news division will not be the same without his strong, clear voice.”

Born in Buffalo, New York on May 7, 1950, Tim Russert is survived by his wife, Maureen Orth, a writer for Vanity Fair magazine, and their son, Luke.



-Debbie Chang, BuddyTV Staff Writer
Source: MSNBC
(Image courtesy of MSNBC)