Pet Forum

It's true. The wildly popular host of Meet The Press, Tim Russert, died today from a heart attack. Tim Russert was only 58 years old. Russert has been the host of the NBC talk show Meet The Press since 1991.

Russert grew up in South Buffalo, New York and was molded by the sort of Catholic education that his parents and the Church could give a talented son of the working class. He moved from Canisius High School in Buffalo, New York to John Carroll University, and later Cleveland State University where he completed his law degree. He moved up in New York Democratic politics, working for both Mary Cuomo and Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan. He began his career at NBC’s Washington bureau in 1984. During NBC’s 2000 election coverage, he famously took out his marker-board to calculate the possible electoral vote totals. By the time of his death, Meet the Press was itself a kind of Sunday service for the political class and the chaterati that follow them.

I just read that the Tim Russert funeral is going to be closed to the public. NBC has it's flags at half mast. This is normally done for statesmen. Every major news company in Washington D.C. will be closed on the day of Tim Russert's funeral too.