“Be persistent, but still be civil,” said Time Russert, 55, who is married to Vanity Fair magazine writer Maureen Orth (RPCV Colombia) “Allow guests to finish their thoughts and their sentences. There are other places on the television dial where you can find food fights.”
Russert to give view from D.C.
Nation's capital main topic as ‘Meet the Press' host speaks in Lowell tomorrow
By REBECCA PIRO, Sun Staff
LOWELL -- If you plan on raising your hand and asking a question at Middlesex Community College's annual Celebrity Forum tomorrow night, make sure you know your stuff.
Guest speaker Tim Russert, one of television's toughest interviewers and the moderator for NBC's Meet the Press, will be ready for you.
He told The Sun in a recent interview he reads six newspapers daily, in addition to taking in magazines and journals and holding frequent chats with experts on foreign and domestic policy.
He needs to be at the top of his game if he's going to catch world leaders with their pants down.
“I never know who the guests are going to be until Thursday or Friday, and then it's too late to cram,”
he joked. “I'm not much fun on Saturday nights.”
Russert's presentation, titled “A View from Washington,” is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m., inside Lowell Memorial Auditorium. Tickets are still available at the auditorium's box office. The event will be preceded by a cocktail party and dinner for event sponsors at MCC's Federal Building, which will be closed to the general public.
What makes Russert stand out from the slew of television journalists and political shows is his human side, which he has kept clean from the mudslinging and cat-fighting of Washington D.C. He uses it as a guide during each Sunday morning's edition of Meet the Press, mixing his interviews with tough questions, a touch of humor and humanity.
“Be persistent, but still be civil,” said Russert, 55, who is married to Vanity Fair magazine writer Maureen Orth and whose son, Luke, attends Boston College. “Allow guests to finish their thoughts and their sentences. There are other places on the television dial where you can find food fights.”
He has served as moderator of Meet the Press for 13 years -- the longest of any of the show's nine hosts -- and NBC's Web site calls Meet the Press the longest-running program on network television.
But before Russert found his way to politics and fame, he started out in Buffalo, N.Y. -- “a lot like Lowell,” he said -- living an unassuming childhood and middle-class existence. His father, who worked two jobs, was so inspiring a figure that Russert published a book last May about their relationship, Big Russ and Me, that became a New York Times No. 1 bestseller.
“I learned a lot from his example,” Russert said. “When I came to Washington, I felt very grounded. I had a strong sense of who I was. If you apply those lessons and those values to your work, it makes it kind of easy.”
As a young man, Russert graduated from law school and started his career doing campaign work with the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan. He traveled with the senator to Washington and returned to New York in 1982 to work as a top aide to then-Gov. Mario Cuomo. An introduction to NBC's president in 1984 spelled the beginning of his relationship with television viewers.
For the last 13 years, he has put such international dignitaries as British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Iraqi interim President Ghazi al-Yawar on the hot seat, pushing for answers until his subjects squirm.
His personal favorite interviews include a one-on-one with Vice President Dick Cheney at Camp David in what was the Bush administration's first comments following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.
Russert said he loves his job and plans to greet interviewees on the set of Meet the Press for years to come, grilling whoever sits across the desk from him Sunday mornings with the no-nonsense attitude viewers have come to expect.
“People work hard all week long doing their regular jobs,” he said. “So on Sunday, people can sit back and drink their coffee, and I'm there trying to get answers for them. I love what I do.”
Rebecca Piro's e-mail address is rpiro@lowellsun.com.
