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Tim Russert dies
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The Times is reporting on their front page, with no article linked, that Tim Russert, host of Meet the Press, has died of a heart attack.
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Less is more
The New York Post is also reporting the story (I linked to it from Drudge).
Condolences to the Russert family. He always came across as a decent man on Meet the Press.
The Buffalo Bills have lost one of their biggest fans.
My deepest condolences to Tim’s family
Scott you’re right, I put it up about 10 minutes before on Whirled News:
Tim Russert - host of “Meet the Press” NBC has just dropped dead.
Ouch. This hurts.
Russert had that ‘everyman’ element and persona. He made talking politics fun and accessible, like talking about football, cars. He was one of the guys, and it came out in his Buffalo Bills passion, his affection for his working father ‘Big Russ’, and the way he honorably approached his role as curator of the long-running ‘Meet the Press’ property.
I remember when the revered Charles Kuralt passed away a few years ago. It was said that we’d never again see someone like a Kuralt succeed today - old, fat, balding, with an overly deliberate delivery. Today’s Network Execs would weed someone like him out early in their focus groups in favor of someone like Anderson Cooper or Stone Phillips.
I always felt Russert was cut from the same cloth as Kuralt. An immensely talented communicator.
He will be missed.
I’m sorry to hear about Russert. I respected him. He was only 58 (20 yrs younger than I, for those of you who doubt “only”).
As World says, “Man knows not his time.”
This is especially sad on Father’s Day weekend. In addition to being a great on-air journalist, Russert was a bestselling author of two books that dealt with fatherhood: Big Russ and Me and Wisdom of our Fathers.
Russert seemed to be a good guy, working in a swamp.
NBC news, which was already in big trouble, is, well, in BIG trouble now.
I came home this afternoon to hear the announcement made by Charlie Gibson. What a shock. He always did a good and fair interview. I was looking forward to Tim Russert’s electoral college calculations in November. He had his own little board. As noted, he will be missed.
As my daughter said at dinner tonight: What will election night be like without him? He is one newsperson that we will all miss.
I was so sorry to hear this news. As a reporter at an L.A. area daily newspaper, I always appreciated his fairness and “homespun” manner as a journalist.
One of our college interns in the newsroom today told us she had the opportunity to meet Tim Russert several times at journalism conferences. He always remembered her name, she said.
#4 Travis, I liked Kuralt as well but wasnt he the guy who had a couple of mistresses in different states??
A couple of other items:
Russert was a practicing Catholic — it was part of his life.
On a sadder note, the weekend before, Russert had moved his dad into a home. On the television interviews last night you could see how his father had already slipped. It’s sad to think of him being deprived of the comfort of his son.
Ok, so I’m seeing a lot of “sorry he’s gone” stuff, but WAS HE SAVED?
Because while we’re all typing these nice platitudes, he’s standing in front of an Almighty God and answering the question…”what did you do about my Son?”
Anyone know if he was saved? Anyone?
13. WAS HE SAVED?
12. “Russert was a practicing Catholic ”
My experience with devote Catholics says there was a very good chance he was saved. The rite of Confirmation is very similar to the evangelical alter call. You are asked to confess before the Church that you wish to be a follower of Christ and that he is Lord of your life. When I did mission trips in predominantly Catholic areas we were taught to ask if they had been confirmed. If they had we were to assume they were saved and move on.
Roman Catholicism does not teach the biblical doctrine of justification by faith alone. For this reason it cannot be considered a Christian church anymore than can the denomination of The Church of Christ or any other Pelagian or semi-Pelagian religion.
That being said, only God knows where Tim Russert is, and wherever he is, a just God put him there and it was no mistake.
Oh brother, here we go.
Here we go with what?
Was he saved? Are Catholics “real” Christians? Blah blah. The man’s been dead about 24 hours, and the thread hasn’t even reached 20 comments before the bickering starts.
Now that he’s gone, Russert seems to have been the canary in the coal mine. His premature death from heart disease tells us something about what we all have been through and what his role in it was.
Several posters here celebrate the working class identity of this most powerful of elite journalists. Russert was loved because he did not allow the demands of his profession — skepticism and objectivity — to override the loyalties, the interests, and the patriotism of his tribe.
Critics faulted Russert for allowing the Bush Administration to use him to promote the war at odds with the facts. Some journalists, less exalted than Russert, asked sharper and more disturbing questions. I have no doubt that Russert could have too. But faced with Cheney’s rationale for war, Russert drew a line at the bottom of the account and credited the balance to solidarity and faith in our country and its leadership. If Saddam was about to give nuclear weapons to Al Qaeda, Tim Russert was going to give the United States the benefit of the doubt.
He should have revealed the awful truth about our government then, when people might have erected barricades across Pennsylvania Ave. But now that he’s gone, we can see more clearly what Bush and Cheney did to him.
19. So it’s all Bush’s fault?
SteveG in post #18 shows his non-christian attitude. Steve, there are certain spiritual laws that cannot be broken. It’s quite simple, really.
God makes the rules, and it’s spelled out in Holy Scripture. (John 3:1 - 3:16 amongst alot of other verses) There are just 2 places a person will go to when they die. It all depends on what they do with Jesus in this life. Tim Russert made his decision for all eternity at his point of death.
If you die and you rejected Jesus all your life, you deserve to go to hell forever.
If you die and you’ve accepted Jesus as your saviour and Lord, you deserve to go to heaven forever.
so………..what will you do with Jesus, Steve-O?
Justus, you miss my point. This is a thread for remembering and honoring a prominent person who died unexpectedly.
It’s crass, I think, to wade into that demanding to know whether the deceased man had the “right” religious beliefs, and then to devolve into a spat about whether members of his faith are “real” Christians or not.
One of the most devout Christians I have ever read was an old-school preVatican II RC member, William F. Buckley Jr.
The RCC has only a handful of believers like Bill: Pat Buchanan, Phyllis Schlafley etc.
I wouldnt question their relationship with the Lord ever.
#22…crass? Crass? That kind of old-school, “I-wouldn’t-ever-dare-to-bring-up-questions-of- faith-because-it’s-crass” thinking is exactly why many people lead good lives and then end up in hell. It’s exactly what the Lord said NOT to do, and it’s one of satan’s best tools. While you’re living, if you happen to end up around me, then I’m gonna bring up Jesus and let the chips fall where they may.
It’s still legal in the U.S., and you can’t kill me for it (at least not yet).
Dav … who said anything about killing you?
Dav .. I suppose you’re one of those who think it’s perfectly fine for the minister preaching a funeral to inform the mourners how their loved one is in hell because he wasn’t a Christian, eh?
Classy.
SteveG. What do you think of Scoopmoth’s using the occasion to “get Bush”. Talk about crass.
KBells: That too.
A man has died. His family is mourning and, because of his influence, so are a lot of others who liked and respected him.
There are plenty of threads to question salvation or make political points. This should be one where we can leave that aside and talk about the man and his life and work.
Bianca - Having a precisely correct understanding of all points of theology is NOT the test. It whether one places one’s faith in Christ as one’s savior.
The vast bulk of devoted Catholics have a saving faith. Their RC’s poor theology as to Sola Fides does not make the people’s faith false, or insufficient.
Russert seemed to be one of the least biased of the MSM reporters.
KBELLS: So it’s all Bush’s fault?
Just as they made a fine off-Broadway play about the Frost-Nixon interview, you can bet they’re making a stunning play about the Russert-Cheney interviews.
I’m not sure if Russert would still be alive if he had drilled down to the truth, or if the stress would have killed him then in 2002/2003. To intuit the truth about that would take a great playwright such as HSK. I’m not sure if it was all Bush’s fault, but he definitely won’t be exonerated.
STEVEG: I’m concerned…perhaps the altitude on that high horse of yours has caused some oxygen issues…
~~~This comment is not about Tim Russert~~~
kbells #14: The rite of Confirmation is very similar to the evangelical alter call. You are asked to confess before the Church that you wish to be a follower of Christ and that he is Lord of your life.
No. I went through it at the tender age of 10. It is rote memorization which is meaningless to most practitioners. It has nothing to do with salvation any more than the infant baptism practiced by RCs and others.
Dav … the only high horse I’ve seen is the one you galloped in on demanding to know if Russert had the right beliefs to meet your approval.
Grow up!!!!!