Tim Russert (born May 7, 1950) is an American journalist who has hosted NBC's Meet the Press since 1991. He hosts Tim Russert, a weekly interview program on CNBC, and appears as a frequent guest on The Today Show. Born in Buffalo, New York to Irish American Catholic parents, Russert is a graduate of John Carroll University and Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. He is admitted to the bar in New York and the District of Columbia. Before joining NBC News, Russert served as counselor in New York Governor Mario Cuomo's office in Albany in 1983 to 1984 and was chief of staff to Democratic Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan from 1977 to 1982. An avid fan of the American Football team, the Buffalo Bills, Russert usually closes Sunday broadcasts during the football season with some type of pro-Bills comment. Recently, he has also ended his show by mentioning the successes of Boston College football and basketball.
During NBC's coverage of the 2000 US Presidential Election he calculated possible electoral college outcomes on a marker board on the air. He often moderates political debates.
Russert penned a bestselling biography, Big Russ and Me, which chronicled his life growing up in a predominently Irish working-class neighborhood in South Buffalo as well as his education at Canisius High School. Russert's father, a World War II veteran held down two jobs after the war, conveyed to his young son, through the methods of the "carrot and the stick," the importance of maintaining strong family values, the reverence of faith, and of never taking a short cut to reach a goal.
Russert appeared briefly in a scene on the television drama Homicide as himself. On that show, one of the fictional characters, Megan Russert, was his cousin. Russert also appeared on the game show Jeopardy!
Tim Russert is married to Maureen Orth, who has been a special correspondent for Vanity Fair since 1993.
The moderator of television's longest-running program began his career in news delivering armfuls of newspapers in Buffalo, N.Y. Decades have passed, but Tim Russert of NBC's Meet the Press said Tuesday during a press conference at Mount Union College that he can't imagine doing his job without print news.
The future of newspapers has been in the news in light of last week's announced sale of the Knight Ridder chain to a California competitor. The future ownership of 12 of Knight Ridder's newspapers, including the Akron Beacon Journal, remains uncertain after McClatchy Co. announced that it will not keep those properties. ``I am very reliant on newspapers. I read them all, six or seven a day, said the former paperboy. Although he could scour the Internet for news, Russert said, ``I still like to hold a newspaper; it's part of my upbringing.
Russert at 55, who is also a political analyst for NBC Nightly News and the Today show, said that to Akron Beacon Journal reporter Sandra M. Klepach and others while delivering Tuesday's Schooler Lecture at Mount Union College's Timken Building.
