Profile of Tim Russert on Famous Like Me

Tim Russert (born May 7, 1950) is an American journalist who has hosted NBC's Meet the Press since 1991. He also hosts Tim Russert, a weekly interview program on CNBC. Russert is also a frequent guest on The Today Show.

Born in Buffalo, New York, Russert is a graduate of John Carroll University and of Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. He is admitted to the bar in New York and the District of Columbia. Still an avid fan of the American Football team, the Buffalo Bills, Russert closes every Sunday broadcast during football season with "Go Bills!"

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. Russert's father, a World War II veteran (who died in 2005) 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.

Ongoing CIA leak scandal

Lewis "Scooter" Libby, chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney, told special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald that Russert was the first to tell him of the identity of Central Intelligence Agency agent Valerie Plame. Russert testified previously that he did not tell Libby of Plame's identity. This conflict in testimony has been speculated to be the basis for further investigation into wrongdoing in the act of exposing Plame's identity to the public.

External link

• NBC biography
• Russert interviews George W. Bush (February 8, 2004)
• Russert interviews John F. Kerry (April 18, 2004)

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