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NBC's 'Meet The Press' Host Tim Russert Dead At 58 (CBS, 6/13/08)

The New York Times is reporting that NBC Senior Vice President and Washington Bureau Chief Tim Russert has died from an apparent heart attack. They are citing family reports. He was 58-years-old.

...that we can afford to lose one who did.

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Tim Russert, host of NBC's 'Meet the Press,' dies (Katharine Q. Seelye, June 13, 2008, NY Times)

Tom Brokaw, the former anchor of NBC Nightly News, came on the air at 3:39 p.m. and reported that Mr. Russert had collapsed and died early this afternoon while at work. He had just returned from Italy with his family.

"Our beloved colleague," a grave Mr. Brokaw called him, one of the premier journalists of our time. He said this was one of the most important years in his life, with his deep engagement in the network's political coverage, and that he "worked to the point of exhaustion." Mr. Brokaw said Mr. Russert was a true child of Buffalo and always stayed in touch with his blue collar roots and "the ethos of that community."

He said Mr. Russert had just moved his father, who is in his late 80s, from one facility to another in Buffalo. He said he loved his family, his Catholic faith, his country, politics, the Buffalo Bills, the New York Yankees and the Washington Nationals.

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 13, 2008 2:44 PM