Tim Russert and the ultimate sacrifice
Much has been said and written about Tim Russert since his shocking death. I want to focus on just three remarks.
Chris Matthews said, "He was the hardest worker you can be."
Sally Quinn, the Washington
Tim Russert and the ultimate sacrifice
Dick Polman, Inquirer National Political Columnist
Much has been said and written about Tim Russert since his shocking death. I want to focus on just three remarks.
Chris Matthews said, "He was the hardest worker you can be."
Sally Quinn, the Washington doyenne, said, "He worked harder than anybody I've ever known in my life."
Barbara Walters said, "We have to think, do we work too hard?...What does this say about our own lives?"
Tim Russert, despite his hard-won status as the best political broadcaster in the business, never seemed larger than life. He was more like an exuberant kid let loose in the world's biggest candy store. His joie de vivre on the job - coupled with his diligence, like a parochial school kid who had mastered his homework - made him appealingly human. His wielding of that whiteboard on election night 2000 ("Florida, Florida, Florida"), and again in 2004, was a decidedly human touch, especially when you see all the high-tech bells and whistles on the broadcasts this year, particularly CNN.
And, sadly, his manner of leaving this life - literally working his heart out for his vocation - was all too human.
Until this kind of tragedy occurs - a 58-year-old man taking medication for asymptomatic coronary disease, tending to his far-flung family, and working virtually 24/7 on an historic presidential election - it is easy to overlook this fundamental truth: Those of us who write or broadcast politics for a living are only human.
Our work is, quite often, physically exhausting. One does no favor to the body by working until 2 a.m. on an endless string of primary nights, then getting up at 6 and trying to fire up the brain for another long day and evening. I've been there all too many times, dating back to 1992. I have nodded off in many of America's finest airports. But Russert had us all beaten; one co-worker remarked the other night that, over the course of the protracted Obama-Clinton contest, he repeatedly drove himself to exhaustion...all while shuttling to Buffalo, where he had to re-situate his elderly father; and to Boston for his son's college graduation, and then to Rome for the post-grad celebration, and then back again for Meet the Press, his stints on Morning Joe and evening cable and The Today Show, and his story-planning duties as Washington bureau chief.
I'm not suggesting that such outsize human exertions should therefore protect us all from criticism. That's how the game is played, and we willingly choose this game. Russert, indeed, took a lot of heat. He was rebuked for being too hard on politicians, and rebuked for being too soft. He was maligned in some circles as a mouthpiece for "the liberal media," and assailed by others as an establishment lackey (or, as liberal blogger Glen Greenwald put it not long ago, "a government propagandist").
Whatever. Russert understood that such diverse reactions were inevitable; mostly, he was too busy having fun with his hard work, and working hard at his fun. I met him only twice, but I saw it all on his face. Prior to a debate in New Hampshire five years ago, in the makeshift press workroom, we struck up a quick conversation about the issue of the moment. He asked what I thought. I don't remember my answer - it was nothing profound - but his expression has stayed with me ever since: Unmitigated glee. Glee at the prospect of what the evening might bring. Glee like a kid at the entrance to a ballpark, preparing to pass through the turnstile.
Just hours before his death on Friday, fresh off a plane from Rome, Russert was characteristically enthused about the show he was planning for today: Joe Biden versus Lindsey Graham ("It could be a vice-presidential audition"). He was looking ahead to the '08 finals, and the challenge of how the press should handle the inevitable lies and smears:
"What we hope to do in this campaign is recognize there are big differences on big issues between John McCain and Barack Obama – the war in Iraq, Iran, Social Security, taxes. You don’t need to get into this other stuff. If it does surface, then I think the mainstream media has an obligation not to just instinctively put it out there without vetting it. Or, if it is something that is manufactured as a virus, report on that – who did it and why."
If he had not worked this hard, he would not have been the guy we knew. He even left us some good advice going forward.
He was, only in hindsight, excessive in his pursuits, and indeed there is a hideously human dimension to this tragedy: a father has lost a son, and a son has lost a father, all in the wake of Father's Day. It's surely no consolation to his family if we note that Russert dedicated himself to the pursuit of a noble cause: journalism, the free flow of information, the First Amendment, the need (more than ever) to hold politicians accountable for their words and actions. That, in fact, is more than a noble cause. It is patriotism.
Comment removed.
I understand the sentiment...but change the headline. Ultimate Sacrifice? Please. Many people work themselves to exhaustion and bad health. Just because Russert was in the media does not make him more important that others; just more widely known. Stop trying to convince us of the "Nobility" of the media with Russet's death.— rudytbone
He was like a "friend" I will miss him on Sunday Mornings... I spent it "with" him for 16 yrs...— JOG- rudytbone is right.....enough already. now they are to the point of cheapening this great man's contribution. I thought the man was terrific. But even Russert would be the first to salute the average guy. ENOUGH. The media in it's self importance is making an embarrassment of the man's death.— q2again
- This post got you a coveted Atrios link.— ivb
- He was a journalist who made millions. His death is horrible and sad and a true loss. But "ultimate sacrifice"? A "patriot sacrificing himself"? That's simply not what happened. He died an unexpected and tragic death. Come on now.— sreichgott
- sreichgott, nobody's death is "unexpected", untimely, sudden, shocking, maybe, but since we all die, no death is really "unexpected." RIP, Tim, I am proud that YOU were so proud of your faith and your family! You were just a regular guy who never lost that "regular" touch.— StacyMevoli
- Comment removed.
- I will be tactful at this sad moment and not recite chapter and verse all of the ways Russert, in as obsequious a manner as possible, dutifully communicated the narratives fed to him by his corporate handlers to reinforce the messages that Democrats are hopelessly divided and ultimately incompetent, the Republicans are all knowing and eternally correct, and liberal bloggers are indecent, foul-mouthed louts who are perpetually wrong. Instead, I will only wonder why it took the untimely passing of someone in your inner circle to suddenly feel a shred of sympathy for a child no longer without a parent or a father who has lost a son. There are abundant examples to be found in the casualty list of Dubya's Iraq war, and none of these people ever earned a $5 million salary or owned a $7 million home on Nantucket Island.— Wayne
- i was a big fan of tim russert, but come on people. what about the 4000+ 18 to 22 year old kids that have died for this pointless war in Iraq! each and every one of those deaths is millions of times more tragic and saddening.— Ryan
- Wayne, yeah, i'm glad you stayed tactful and didn't recite all that.— phatti
- The "ultimate sacrifice?" God, how embarrassingly fulsome and melodramatic - not to mention completely inappropriate. Others have said as well as can I how little Tim Russert ever did to foster "the free flow of information, the First Amendment, the need (more than ever) to hold politicians accountable for their words and actions." He was a high-paid celebrity interviewer whose subjects were politicians. The notion that "Meet the Press" or any of the stage-managed political programs on TV actually inform the public or illuminate important issues is a conceit held almost solely by journalists who like to pat themselves and each other on the back far too heartily for being able to rub shoulders with the powerful. If Russert and other journalists had done their jobs 5 or 6 years ago, perhaps the country would be in much better shape than it is now. The people who have made the ultimate sacrifice are the thousands of young man and women who have died in Iraq because Russert and his cronies were far too close to the subjects they covered to give a damn about trying to discover the truth. I grieve for his family and rejoice in no one's death, but please spare us such maudlin tripe as this. The media has become an embarrassment to this country and, sad to say, Mr. Russert was highly complicit in that turn of events.— jjcomet
- You are right, wayne, everyone of those who have died for bush's war is important. Howvere, we do not know them for the most part. We know Tim Russert. He was the one asking the questions as to why bush got us into the mess that killed so many. He was theone who could make the neo-cons look foolish on their answers to those questions. He was the one who asked the questions we wanted answered. Did he make Dems look divided and incompetent? No, he only reported on what they were actually doing to each other, embarassing or not. Liberal and conservative bloggers are foul-mouthed and invariably wrong.Most print any rumor or hearsay as fact and curse any who have the opposite view. Russert, though not always on target, gave everyone the chance to their say and then nailed them with either a word or an incredulous look. We don't see the dead of Iraq, bush won't let them be shown.We do see the death of someone like Tim Russert and maybe he will have to stand in for all the others.— mike l
- I also thought Tim Russert was a great American, & the fact that he worked so hard at communicating the truth does make him a patriot. However, looking at the amount of coverage his death has generated (all day & night on MSNBC for example), seems to match what we saw when Reagan died. Honestly, its been a bit too much. I'd have to think that he touched so many people in the MSM, that they are just using this opportunity to deal with their own feelings. Sadly, watching Meet The Press today was like watching a group of people on one big psychiatrist's couch purging their feelings for their own benefit, not ours.— yobill626
- Russert was probably a great person, so people say, and a hard worker, no doubt. And his death is sad, especially for his family and colleagues. But he was part of a fading empire: the MSM that thinks covering the issues is putting on a representative of one side and a representative of the other and asking them questions that they don't answer. God bless him.— Djoko Pritza
Cited by the Columbia Journalism Review as one of the nation's top political reporters, and lauded by the ABC News political website as "one of the finest political journalists of his generation," Dick Polman is a national political columnist at the Philadelphia Inquirer. He is on the full-time faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, as "writer in residence." Dick has been a frequent guest on C-Span, MSNBC, CNN, NPR and the BBC. He covered the 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004 presidential campaigns.
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