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Just a few weeks ago, Tim Russert, NBC News’ Washington Bureau Chief and moderator of Meet the Press, had a heart attack while preparing for his Fathers Day Sunday show. For the last few years, I have spent my Sunday mornings watching Tim do his thing. And while I never thought about him or the show after 11:00 am, I was stunned by this death. For days, I watched MSNBC honor Tim, his family, and the amazing work he has done over the years.
Weeks after his passing, I remain uneasy about it, but I am starting to figure out why I was so affected since reading Washington Post Columnist & Associated Editor Eugene Robinson’s Op-Ed, in The Outsiders Insider, where he wrote:
But why such a huge reaction? I think it’s not just because of who Russert was, but also because of the role he carved out for himself as a kind of ombudsman — the mediator not only of a television show but of a weekly dialogue between the public and the political establishment.
Tim Russert was an Ombudsman of sorts who was charged with representing the interests of the public, not advocating for a specific point-of-view, but rather helping to ensure that politicians were held accountable to whatever view they had. Tim was political, but not in the traditional sense of the word. Like an Ombudsman, Tim was an insider and an outsider, navigating politics in a way that so few can.
Jason Simon
