name	Brewster Kahle
alt	Brewster Kahle in 2009
residence	San Francisco, California
birth date	October 22, 1960
birth place	New York City, New York
alma mater	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (BS)
nationality	American
workplaces	Internet Archive Electronic Frontier Foundation
known for	Development of WAIS; Co-founder of Alexa Internet Founder of Internet Archive
occupation	Digital librarianComputer engineerInternet entrepreneur }}

Brewster Kahle ( ; born 1960) is a computer engineer, Internet entrepreneur, internet activist, advocate of universal access to knowledge, and digital librarian.

Biography

Kahle grew up in Scarsdale, New York, and went to Scarsdale High School. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1982 with a Bachelor of Science in computer science and engineering, where he was a member of the Chi Phi Fraternity. The emphasis of his studies was artificial intelligence; he studied under Marvin Minsky and W. Daniel Hillis.

After graduation, he joined Thinking Machines team, where he was the lead engineer on the company's main product, the Connections Machine, for six years (1983–1989). There, he and others developed the WAIS system, the Internet's first publishing and distributed search system and a precursor to the World Wide Web. In 1992, he co-founded, with Bruce Gilliat, WAIS, Inc. (sold to AOL in 1995 for $15 million), and, in 1996, Alexa Internet (sold to Amazon.com in 1999 for $250M of stock). At the same time as he started Alexa, he founded the Internet Archive, which he continues to direct. In 2001, he implemented the Wayback Machine, which allows public access to the World Wide Web archive that the Internet Archive has been gathering since 1996. Kahle was inspired to create the Wayback Machine after visiting the offices of Alta Vista, where he was struck by the enormity of the task being undertaken and achieved: to store and index everything that was on the Web. Kahle states: "I was standing there, looking at this machine that was the size of five or six Coke machines, and there was an 'aha moment' that said, 'You can do everything.'"

Kahle is a member of the Internet Hall of Fame, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and serves on the boards of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Public Knowledge, the European Archive, and the Television Archive. He is a member of the advisory board of the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program of the Library of Congress, and is a member of the National Science Foundation Advisory Committee for Cyberinfrastructure. In 2010 he was given an honorary doctorate in computer science from Simmons College, where he studied library science in the 1980s.

Kahle and his wife, Mary Austin, run the Kahle/Austin Foundation. The Foundation supports the Free Software Foundation for its GNU project, among other projects.

Digitization Advocacy

Kahle has been critical of Google's book digitization, especially of Google's exclusivity in restricting other search engines digital access to the books they archive. Kahle describes Google's 'snippet' feature as a means of tip-toeing around copyright issues, and further expresses his frustration in the lack of a decent loaning system for digital materials. He states the digital transition, thus far, has gone from local control to central control, non-profit to for-profit, diverse to homogeneous, and from "ruled by law" to "ruled by contract". Kahle states that even public-domain material published before 1923, and not bound by copyright law, is still bound by contracts and requires a permission-based system from Google to be distributed or copied. Kahle reasons that this trend has emerged for a number of reasons: distribution of information favoring centralization, the economic cost of digitizing books, the issue of staffing at libraries not having the technical knowledge to build these services, and the decision of the administrators to outsource information services.

Kahle states: "It's not that expensive. For the cost of 60 miles of highway, we can have a 10 million-book digital library available to a generation that is growing up reading on-screen. Our job is to put the best works of humankind within reach of that generation. Through a simple Web search, a student researching the life of John F. Kennedy should be able to find books from many libraries, and many booksellers — and not be limited to one private library whose titles are available for a fee, controlled by a corporation that can dictate what we are allowed to read."

Other benefits of digitization

Kahle explains that apart from the value of an historian's use of these digital archives; that they might also serve to help with some common infrastructure complaints about the Internet, such as adding reliability to "404 Document not found" errors, contextualizing information to make it more trust-worthy, and maintaining navigation to aid in finding related content. Kahle also explains the importance of packaging enough meta-data (information about the information) into the archive, since we don't know what future researchers will be interested in, and that it might be more problematic in finding data rather than preserving data.

Physical media

"Knowledge lives in lots of different forms over time", Kahle has said. "First it was in people's memories, then it was in manuscripts, then printed books, then microfilm, CD-ROMS, now on the digital internet. Each one of these generations is very important." Voicing a strong reaction to the idea of books simply being thrown away, and inspired by the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, Kahle envisions collecting one copy of every book ever published. "We're not going to get there, but that's our goal", he said. "We want to see books live forever." Pointing out that even digital books have a physical home on a hard drive somewhere, he sees saving the physical artefacts of information storage as a way to hedge against the uncertainty of the future. (Alongside the books, Kahle plans to store the Internet Archive's old servers, which were replaced late last year.) He began by having conventional shipping containers modified as climate-controlled storage units. Each container can hold about 40,000 volumes, the size of a branch library. So far, Kahle has gathered about 500,000 books. He thinks the warehouse itself is large enough to hold about a million titles, with each one given a barcode that identifies the cardboard box, pallet and shipping container in which it resides. A given book may be retrieved in about an hour, and are not to be loaned out but used to verify contents recorded in another medium. Book preservation experts say he'll have to contend with vermin and about a century's worth of books printed on wood pulp paper that decays over time because of its own acidity. Peter Hanff, acting director of the Bancroft Library, the special collections and rare books archive at the University of California, Berkeley, says that just keeping the books on the west coast of the US will save them from the climate fluctuations that are the norm in other parts of the country.

Awards and appointments

Bachelor of Science - Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1982

National Academy of Engineering, 2010

American Academy of Arts and Sciences, member 2005

Library of Congress NDIIP advisory board

NSF Cyber Infrastructure advisory board

2004 Paul Evan Peters Award from the Coalition of Networked Information (CNI).

2008 Robert B. Downs Intellectual Freedom Award from the University of Illinois

2007 Knowledge Trust Honors award recipient

Public Knowledge, IP3 award recipient

2009 "50 Visionaries Changing Your World", Utne Reader 2010 Honorary Doctor of Laws, University of Alberta, 2010 Zoia Horn Intellectual Freedom Award

2012 Software and Information Industry of America Peter Jackson Award SIIA Peter Jackson Award

2012 Inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame.

Publications

;Articles

Responsible Party: Brewster Kahle: A Library of the Web on the Web New York Times, September 8, 2002

O'Reilly Network: How the Wayback Machine Works - 21 January 2002

O'Reilly Network: Brewster Kahle on the Internet Archive and People's Technology - Interview by Lisa Rein. 22 January 2004

ACM Queue: A Conversation with Brewster Kahle - June 2004

Slate - The Archivist: Brewster Kahle made a copy of the Internet. Now, he wants your files. - 7 April 2005

San Francisco Chronicle - A Man's vision: World Library Online - 22 November 2005

Brewster's Keynote at Wikimania 2006

B. Kahle and his relationship to Google (Cnet Article: ''Grant Funds Open-Source Challenge to Google Library'') - 21. Dec 2006

Mention in San Francisco Chronicle

The Economist "The internet's librarian" - 5 March 2009

"A Book Grab by Google" by Brewster Kahle (Washington Post Op-Ed 19.May.2009)

Lend Ho! Brewster Kahle Is a Thorn in Google's Side Forbes November 16, 2009

Brewster Kahle named one of the "50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World (Utne Reader November–December 2009)

Internet Archive founder turns to new information storage device – the book, ''The Guardian'', 1 August 2011

;Audio/Video

Science Friday, 1993: The Future of the Internet Brewster Kahle, then President of WAIS, participates in the discussion.

Library of Congress, Public Access to Digital Materials (RealVideo and slides) - 20 November 2002

CSPAN - Digital Futures - Universal Access to All Knowledge - Video program of Brewster Kahle. 13 December 2004

NerdTV Interview (video, audio, and transcript available) - 18 August 2005

IT Conversations - Universal Access to All Knowledge - Audio program featuring Brewster Kahle. 16 December 2004

IT Conversations - Tech Nation interview with Dr. Moira Gunn - 7 February 2006

PBS NerdTV - Episode #4 An Interview with Brewster Kahle with Robert X. Cringley - 27 September 2005

Los Angeles Times - with Patt Morrison - 28 January 2012

References

External links

Personal Blog

Biography at The Internet Archive

*Talks and Writings of Brewster Kahle at the Internet Archive

, alternate link

Category:1960 births Category:Living people Category:American Internet personalities Category:Businesspeople in information technology Category:Intellectual property activism Category:Internet Hall of Fame inductees Category:American computer businesspeople Category:American philanthropists Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Category:People from Scarsdale, New York

ca:Brewster Kahle de:Brewster Kahle fr:Brewster Kahle it:Brewster Kahle nl:Brewster Kahle ja:ブリュースター・ケール sv:Brewster Kahle

Rick Prelinger (born 1953, Washington D.C., U.S.) is an archivist, writer and filmmaker, and founder of the Prelinger Archives, a collection of 60,000 advertising, educational, industrial, and amateur films acquired by the Library of Congress in 2002 after 20 years' operation.

Rick has partnered with the Internet Archive to make 1,970 films from Prelinger Archives available online for free viewing, downloading and reuse. With the Voyager Company, a pioneer new media publisher, he produced fourteen laserdiscs and CD-ROMs with material from his archives, including ''Ephemeral Films,'' the ''Our Secret Century'' series and ''Call It Home: The House That Private Enterprise Built,'' a laserdisc on the history of suburbia and suburban planning (co-produced with architect Keller Easterling).

He worked at The Comedy Channel from its startup in 1989 until it was merged into the comedy network HA!, and then worked at Home Box Office until 1995. Rick has taught in the MFA Design program at New York's School of Visual Arts and lectures widely on American cultural and social history and on issues of cultural and intellectual property access. He sat (2001–2004) on the National Film Preservation Board as representative of the Association of Moving Image Archivists, was Board President of the San Francisco Cinematheque (2002–2007), and is currently Board President of the Internet Archive.

His feature-length film ''Panorama Ephemera,'' depicting the conflicted landscapes of 20th-century America, opened in summer 2004. He is co-founder of the Prelinger Library (with spouse Megan Shaw Prelinger), an appropriation-friendly reference library located in San Francisco. In recent years he has produced archival compilation films on the history of San Francisco (''Lost Landscapes of San Francisco'', 6 annual films, 2006-2011, and ''Lost Landscapes of Detroit'', 2 films, 2010-11.) He was awarded a Creative Capital grant in 2012 for his forthcoming film ''No More Road Trips?.''

He wrote ''The Field Guide to Sponsored Films'' (2007) which "describes 452 historically or culturally significant motion pictures commissioned by businesses, charities, advocacy groups, and state or local government units between 1897 and 1980." It is available as a book and as a free PDF from the National Film Preservation Foundation. He recently (2005–2007) worked at the Internet Archive on a large-scale texts digitization project and recently helped organize the Open Content Alliance.

See also

Sponsored film

External links

Interview with Ràdio Web MACBA (2011)

Lecture on his film collection and the future of archiving at MACBA (2011)

Interview/podcast on the future of archives and issues relating to access to archives and culture (2011)

Interview with Spots Unknown

Prelinger.com

blackoystercatcher, Rick Prelinger's blog

Prelinger Library

Prelinger Collection

*Prelinger Library

''Panorama Ephemera''

''Panorama Ephemera'' published in the Vectors Journal of Culture and Technology in a Dynamic Vernacular, Volume 2 Issue 1 (Ephemera).

''The Field Guide to Sponsored Films''

Prelinger's "Reimagining the Archive" presentation at UCLA, November 2010

''Lost Landscapes of San Francisco'', Years 3-6 at fora.tv

''Lost Landscapes of Detroit,'' 2010 at Internet Archive

Category:1953 births Category:Living people Category:American writers Category:American archivists Category:American film directors

et:Rick Prelinger nl:Rick Prelinger

name	Tim Russert
birthname	Timothy John Russert
birth date	May 07, 1950
birth place	Buffalo, New York, U.S.
death date	June 13, 2008
death place	Washington, D.C., U.S.
education	B.A. in Political Science, 1972John Carroll University,J.D., 1976 Cleveland-Marshall College of Law Canisius High School 68'
occupation	Journalist
years active	1983-2008
party	Democrat
spouse	Maureen Orth(m. 1983–2008, his death)
children	Luke Russert
religion	Roman Catholic
credits	''Meet the Press'' moderator(1991–2008), ''NBC Nightly News'' correspondent,NBC News Washington Bureau Chief, host of ''Tim Russert''
url	http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4459759/ }}

Timothy John "Tim" Russert (May 7, 1950 – June 13, 2008) was an American television journalist and lawyer who appeared for more than 16 years as the longest-serving moderator of NBC's ''Meet the Press''. He was a senior vice president at NBC News, Washington bureau chief and also hosted the eponymous CNBC/MSNBC weekend interview program ''Tim Russert''. He was a frequent correspondent and guest on NBC's ''The Today Show'' and ''Hardball''. Russert covered several presidential elections, and he presented the NBC News/''Wall Street Journal'' survey on the ''NBC Nightly News'' during the 2008 U.S. presidential election. ''Time'' magazine included Russert in its list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2008. Russert was posthumously revealed as a 30-year source for syndicated columnist Robert Novak.

Early life

Russert was born in Buffalo, New York to Irish American Catholic parents Elizabeth (Betty), a homemaker, and Timothy Joseph "Big Russ" Russert (November 29, 1923 – September 24, 2009), a sanitation worker. Elizabeth and Joseph were married for 30 years before separating in 1976. He was the second of four children; his sisters are Betty Ann (B.A.), Kathleen (Kathy) and Patricia (Trish). He received a Jesuit education from Canisius High School in Buffalo.

He received his B.A. in 1972 from John Carroll University and a Juris Doctor with honors from the Cleveland State University, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in 1976. Russert commented on ''Meet the Press'' that he went to Woodstock, "in a Buffalo Bills jersey with a case of beer." While in law school, an official from his alma mater, John Carroll University, called Russert to ask if he could book some concerts for the school as he had done while a student. He agreed, but said he would need to be paid because he was running out of money to pay for law school. One concert that Russert booked was headlined by a then-unknown singer, Bruce Springsteen, who charged $2,500 for the concert appearance. Russert told this story to Jay Leno when he was a guest on ''The Tonight Show'' on NBC on June 6, 2006. John Carroll University has since named its Department of Communications and Theatre Arts in Russert's honor.

Professional career

Political

Prior to becoming host of ''Meet the Press'', Russert worked as a special counsel, and later as chief of staff, to U.S. Senator Daniel Moynihan, a Democrat from New York. In 1983, he became the counsel to New York Governor Mario Cuomo, also a Democrat.

NBC News: Washington bureau chief and host of ''Meet the Press''

He was hired by NBC News' Washington bureau the following year and became bureau chief by 1989. Russert assumed the job of host of the Sunday morning program ''Meet the Press'' in 1991, and would become the longest serving host of the program. Its name was changed to ''Meet the Press with Tim Russert'', and, at his suggestion, went to an hour-long format in 1992. The show also shifted to a greater focus on in-depth interviews with high profile guests, where Russert was known especially for his extensive preparatory research. One approach he developed was to find old quotes or video clips that were inconsistent with guests' more recent statements, present them on-air to his guests and then ask them to clarify their positions. With Russert as host the show became increasingly popular, receiving more than four million viewers per week, and it was recognized as one of the most important sources of political news. ''Time'' magazine named Russert one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2008, and Russert often moderated political campaign debates.

Political coverage and debates

During NBC's coverage of the 2000 presidential election, Russert calculated possible Electoral College outcomes using a whiteboard (now in the Smithsonian Institution) on the air and memorably summed up the outcome as dependent upon "Florida, Florida, Florida." TV Guide described the scene as "one of the 100 greatest moments in TV history." Russert again accurately predicted the final battleground of the presidential elections of 2004: "Ohio, Ohio, Ohio." On the MSNBC show ''Tucker'', Russert predicted the battleground states of the 2008 presidential election would be New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona and Nevada, saying, "If Democrats can win three of those four, they can lose Ohio and Florida, and win the presidency."

Red states and blue states

According to ''The Washington Post'', the phrases red states and blue states were coined by Tim Russert, although in that same article Russert states that he wasn't the first to use the terminology. This term refers to those states of the United States of America whose residents predominantly vote for the Republican Party (red) or Democratic Party (blue) presidential candidates, respectively. John Chancellor, Russert's NBC colleague, is credited with using red and blue to represent the states on a US map for the 1976 presidential election, but at that time Republican states were blue, and Democratic states were red. Mainstream political discussion following the 2000 presidential election used red state/blue state more frequently.

CIA leak scandal

In the Plame affair, Scooter Libby, convicted chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney, told special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald that Russert told him of the identity of Central Intelligence Agency officer Valerie Plame (Mrs. Joseph C. Wilson). Russert testified previously, and again in ''United States v. I. Lewis Libby,'' that he would neither testify whether he spoke with Libby nor would he describe the conversation. Russert did say, however, that Plame's identity as a CIA operative was not leaked to him. Russert testified again in the trial on February 7, 2007. According to the ''Washington Post'', Russert testified that "when ''any'' senior government official calls him, they are presumptively off the record," saying: "when I talk to senior government officials on the phone, it's my own policy our conversations are confidential. If I want to use anything from that conversation, then I will ask permission."

At the trial, the prosecution asserted that a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent had called Russert regarding Russert's phone call with Libby, and that Russert had told the agent that the subject of Plame had not come up during his conversation with Libby. Russert was posthumously revealed as a thirty-year source of columnist Robert Novak, whose original article revealed Plame's affiliation with the CIA. In a Slate.com article, Jack Shafer argued that "the Novak-Russert relationship poses a couple of questions. [...] Russert's long service as an anonymous source to Novak...requires further explanation." In a posthumous commentary, the L.A. Times wrote that, "Like former New York Times reporter Judith Miller, Russert was one of the high-level Washington journalists who came out of the Libby trial looking worse than shabby." The article's author, Tim Rutten, argued that although Russert and NBC had claimed that these conversations were protected by journalistic privilege, "it emerged under examination [that] Russert already had sung like a choirboy to the FBI concerning his conversation with Libby—and had so voluntarily from the first moment the Feds contacted him. All the litigation was for the sake of image and because the journalistic conventions required it."

Iraq War

In the lead up to the Iraq War, ''Meet the Press'' featured interviews with top government officials including Vice President Dick Cheney. CBS ''Evening News'' correspondent Anthony Mason praised Russert's interview techniques: "In 2003, as the United States prepared to go to war in Iraq, Russert pressed Vice President Dick Cheney about White House assumptions." However, Salon.com reported a statement from Cheney press aide Cathie Martin regarding advice she says she offered when the Bush administration had to respond to charges that it manipulated pre-Iraq War intelligence: "I suggested we put the vice president on ''Meet the Press'', which was a tactic we often used. It's our best format." David Folkenflik quoted Russert in his May 19, 2004, ''Baltimore Sun'' article:

Folkenflik went on to write:

In the 2007 PBS documentary, ''Buying the War'', Russert commented:

2008 presidential debate

At the February debate, Russert was criticized for what some perceived as disproportionately tough questioning of Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton. Among the questions, Russert had asked Clinton, but not Obama, to provide the name of the new Russian President (Dmitry Medvedev). This was later parodied on ''Saturday Night Live''. In October 2007, liberal commentators accused Russert of harassing Clinton over the issue of supporting drivers' licenses for illegal immigrants.

Enthusiasm for sports

Russert grew up as a New York Yankees fan, switching his allegiance to the Nationals when they were established in Washington, D.C. Russert held season tickets to both the Washington Nationals and the Washington Wizards and was elected to the board of directors of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York in 2003.

A lifelong fan of the Buffalo Bills football team, Russert often closed Sunday broadcasts during the football season with a statement of encouragement for the franchise. The team released a statement on the day of his death, saying that listening to Russert's "Go Bills" exhortation was part of their Sunday morning game preparation. He once prayed publicly on the show with his father when the Bills were going for the Super Bowl for the fourth consecutive time before Super Bowl XXVIII. On July 23, 2008, U.S. Route 20 leading to the Bills' Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, New York was renamed the "Timothy J. Russert Highway".

Russert was also a Buffalo Sabres fan and appeared on an episode of ''Meet the Press'' next to the Stanley Cup during a Sabres playoff run. While his son was attending Boston College, he often ended ''Meet the Press'' with a mention of the success of various Boston College sports teams.

Author

Russert penned a best-selling autobiography, ''Big Russ and Me'' in 2004, which chronicled his life growing up in the predominantly Irish American working-class neighborhood of South Buffalo and his education at Canisius High School. Russert's father Timothy Joseph Russert, "Big Russ," was a World War II veteran who held down two jobs after the war, emphasized the importance of maintaining strong family values, the reverence of faith, and never taking a short cut to reach a goal. Russert claimed to have received over 60,000 letters from people in response to the book, detailing their own experiences with their fathers. He released ''Wisdom of Our Fathers: Lessons and Letters from Daughters and Sons'' in 2005, a collection of some of these letters. This book also became a best-seller.

Cameo television appearance

Russert made a cameo appearance in 1995 on the critically acclaimed police drama, ''Homicide: Life on the Street''. He played the cousin of fictional Baltimore homicide detective Megan Russert. He was mentioned by name again on the show in 1996, when it was said that he had introduced his "cousin" to a French diplomat, with whom she then went abroad. ''Homicide'' executive producer Tom Fontana attended the same Buffalo high school as Russert.

Awards

During his career, Russert received 48 honorary doctorates and won several awards for excellence in journalism, including the Edward R. Murrow Award from the Radio-Television News Directors Association, the John Peter Zenger Freedom of the Press Award, the American Legion Journalism Award, the Veterans of Foreign Wars News Media Award, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society Journalism Award, the Allen H. Neuharth Award for Excellence in Journalism, the David Brinkley Award for Excellence in Communication and the Catholic Academy for Communication's Gabriel Award. Russert also received an Emmy Award in 2005 for his coverage of the funeral of former President Ronald Reagan.

Personal life

Russert met Maureen Orth at the 1976 Democratic National Convention; they married in 1983 at the Basilica de San Miguel in Madrid, Spain. Orth has been a special correspondent for ''Vanity Fair'' since 1993.

Their son, Luke, graduated from Boston College in 2008. He hosts the XM Radio show ''60/20 Sports'' with James Carville, and was an intern with ESPN's ''Pardon the Interruption'' and NBC's ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien''. On July 31, 2008, NBC News announced that Luke Russert would serve as an NBC News correspondent covering the youth perspective on the 2008 United States presidential election.

The Russert family lived in northwest Washington, D.C. and also spent time at a vacation home on Nantucket Island, where Tim served on the board of several non-profit organizations.

Russert, a devout Catholic, said many times he had made a promise to God to never miss Sunday Mass if his son were born healthy. In his writing and in his news reporting, Russert spoke openly and fondly of his Catholic school education and of the role of the Catholic Church in his life. He was an outspoken supporter of Catholic education on all levels. Russert said that his father, a sanitation worker who never finished high school, "worked two jobs all his life so his four kids could go to Catholic school, and those schools changed my life." He also spoke warmly of the Catholic nuns who taught him. "Sister Mary Lucille founded a school newspaper and appointed me editor and changed my life," he said. Teachers in Catholic schools "taught me to read and write, but also how to tell right from wrong."

Russert also contributed his time to numerous Catholic charities. He was particularly devoted and concerned for the welfare of street kids in the United States and children whose lives were lost to street violence. He told church workers attending the 2005 Catholic Social Ministry Gathering that "if there's an issue that Democrats, Republicans, conservatives and liberals can agree on, it's our kids."

Russert's favorite beer was Rolling Rock, and, at his funeral, fellow anchor Tom Brokaw brought and raised a Rolling Rock in Russert's memory.

Shortly before his death, he had an audience with Pope Benedict XVI during his trip to Italy. He was also scheduled to give the Catholic Common Ground Initiative's Philip J. Murnion Lecture on June 27, 2008 at The Catholic University of America. He was replaced by NBC Anchor Brian Williams. Russert's Catholic life and what it might teach the Church was the topic of William's lecture. Russert was the commencement speaker at Saint Joseph's University in summer of 2005.

Death

Shortly after 1:30 pm on June 13, 2008, Russert collapsed at the offices of WRC-TV, which houses the Washington, D.C. bureau of NBC News where he was chief. He was recording voiceovers for the Sunday edition of ''Meet the Press.'' According to Brian Williams, during his speech at the Kennedy Center on June 13, Russert's last words were, "What's happening?" spoken as a greeting to NBC Washington bureau editing supervisor Candace Harrington. He then collapsed. A co-worker began CPR on him. The District of Columbia Fire and Rescue service received a call from NBC at 1:40 pm, and dispatched an EMS unit which arrived at 1:44 pm. Paramedics attempted to defibrillate Russert's heart three times, but he did not respond. Russert was then transported to Sibley Memorial Hospital, arriving at 2:23 pm, where he was pronounced dead. He was 58 years old.

In accordance with American journalistic tradition, the public announcement of Russert's death was withheld by both the wire services and his network's competitors, until Russert's family had been notified. Retired ''NBC Nightly News'' anchor Tom Brokaw then delivered, live on NBC, CNBC and MSNBC, the news of his death. ''NBC Nightly News'' anchor Brian Williams was on assignment in Afghanistan and could not anchor the special report. Russert had just returned from a family vacation in Rome, Italy, where he had celebrated his son's graduation from Boston College. While his wife and son remained in Rome, Russert had returned to prepare for his Sunday television show.

Russert's longtime friend and physician, Dr. Michael Newman, said that his asymptomatic coronary artery disease had been controlled with medication and exercise, and that he had performed well on a stress test in late April. An autopsy performed on the day of his death determined that his history of coronary artery disease led to a myocardial infarction (heart attack) and ventricular fibrillation with the immediate cause being an occlusive coronary thrombosis in the left anterior descending artery resulting from a ruptured cholesterol plaque, called a "widow maker".

Russert is buried at Rock Creek Cemetery, next to the historic Soldiers' Home, in Washington's Petworth neighborhood. The Newseum in Washington, D.C., has a re-creation of Russert's office.

Reaction

On the evening of his death, the entire, nearly commercial-free half hour of ''NBC Nightly News'' was dedicated to Russert's memory. Bill and Hillary Clinton released a joint statement saying Russert "had a love of public service and a dedication to journalism that rightfully earned him the respect and admiration of not only his colleagues but also those of us who had the privilege to go toe to toe with him." Many of his colleagues in both newspaper and television reporting also offered tribute to Russert in this and other programs. Other major news agencies, including CBS, ABC, CNN, Fox News, and the BBC spent large segments of their programming on June 13 reporting about Russert's life and career. Bruce Springsteen, a friend of Russert's, gave an on-stage tribute to Russert while performing in Cardiff, Wales, on June 14 and again at Russert's televised Kennedy Center memorial service, calling him "an important irreplaceable voice in American journalism" and offering condolences to his family. On the June 13, 2008, episode of ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'', O'Brien simply walked onto the stage at the start of the show. Instead of his usual upbeat antics and monologue, O'Brien announced that he had just received news about the sudden death of his good friend, fellow NBC employee and frequent ''Late Night'' guest Tim Russert. O'Brien proceeded to show two clips of his favorite Russert ''Late Night'' moments.

Some journalists criticized the amount of media coverage that Russert's death received. Jack Shafer of ''Slate'' called NBC's coverage a "never-ending video wake." ''Washington Post'' writer Paul Farhi also expressed disapproval, noting that a print journalist would likely not have received similar attention. ''Chicago Tribune'' columnist Julia Keller questioned the volume of coverage as well as the labeling of Russert's death as "a national tragedy."

Career timeline

;Political career

1977–1982 — chief of staff to Daniel Patrick Moynihan

1983–1984 — counselor to Mario Cuomo

;Broadcast career

1984–1988 — senior vice president of NBC News' Washington operations

1995—Homicide: Life on the Street (cameo appearance as self, but as fictitious cousin of Captain Megan Russert)

1988–2008 — Washington bureau chief of NBC News

1991–2008 — moderator of ''Meet the Press''

1992–2006 — co-anchor of NBC News' election night coverage

;Debates moderated 1991 — Ex-Gov. Edwin Edwards and State Rep. David Duke, candidates for Governor of Louisiana 1994 — Gov. Lawton Chiles and Jeb Bush, candidates for Governor of Florida 1998 — Sen. Bob Graham vs. State Sen. Charlie Crist, candidates for U.S. Senate from Florida January 2000 — in New Hampshire involving Republican candidates for President January 2000 — in New Hampshire involving Democratic candidates for President 2000 — Bill McCollum vs. Bill Nelson, candidates for U.S. Senate from Florida September 2000 — in Buffalo Rep. Rick Lazio and First Lady Hillary Clinton, candidates for U.S. Senate from New York October 2000 — involving candidates for U.S. Senate from Florida 2002 — Bill McBride and Gov. Jeb Bush, candidates for Governor of Florida 2002 — Shannon O'Brien vs. Mitt Romney, candidates for Governor of Massachusetts 2004 — Betty Castor and HUD Secretary Mel Martinez, candidates for U.S. Senate from Florida October 2005 — Jerry Kilgore and Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine, candidates for governor of Virginia November 2006 — in Orlando Sen. Bill Nelson and Rep. Katherine Harris, candidates for U.S. Senate from Florida September 2007 — in New Hampshire involving Democratic candidates for U.S. President

November 2007 — (co-moderator) of debate in Philadelphia involving Democratic candidates for U.S. president

January 2008 — in Boca Raton, Florida involving Republican candidates for President January 2008 — in Las Vegas, Nevada involving Democratic candidates for President

March 2008 — (co-moderator) at Cleveland State between Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama, Democratic candidates for U.S. President

References

Further reading

Russert, Tim. Interview with President George W. Bush. Transcript. ''NBC News' Meet the Press''. MSNBC February 8, 2004. Accessed February 10, 2007.

Russert, Tim. Interview with Sen. John Kerry, D-MA, presidential candidate. Transcript. ''NBC News' Meet the Press''. MSNBC April 18, 2004. Accessed February 10, 2007.

External links

Tim Russert – MSNBC biography

''Booknotes'' interview with Russert on ''Meet the Press: 50 Years of History in the Making'', December 7, 1997.

Remembering Tim Russert

Tim Russert at Find-A-Grave

A Tribute to Tim Russert '72 – John Carroll University video tribute

Tim Russert Archive of American Television Interview

Category:1950 births Category:2008 deaths Category:American television news anchors Category:American political journalists Category:American Roman Catholics Category:American broadcast news analysts Category:Cardiovascular disease deaths in Washington, D.C. Category:Cleveland-Marshall College of Law alumni Category:Deaths from myocardial infarction Category:Emmy Award winners Category:American people of Irish descent Category:American writers of Irish descent Category:John Carroll University alumni Category:Journalists from Upstate New York Category:NBC News Category:New York Democrats Category:New York lawyers Category:People from Buffalo, New York Category:People of the Plame affair Category:Washington, D.C. Democrats Category:Washington, D.C. lawyers Category:Writers from New York Category:Burials at Rock Creek Cemetery

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Bob Schiller (b. November 8, 1918) is an American screenwriter, most notably for the television series ''I Love Lucy'' (1955-1957) and ''All in the Family'' (1977-1979). For the latter series, he received an Emmy Award in 1978 as one of the writers of the episode "Cousin Liz".

Schiller, born in San Francisco, California, began writing for television in 1950. His credits include the 1955 CBS sitcom ''Professional Father'', starring Stephen Dunne as a child psychologist and Barbara Billingsley as his wife. That same year, he wrote for two competing series, NBC's ''The Jimmy Durante Show'' and CBS's ''It's Always Jan'', starring Janis Paige as a widowed single mother in New York City. During 1954-1955, Schiller was one of the writers for the CBS sitcom ''That's My Boy'', starring Eddie Mayehoff and Gil Stratton.

Schiller's producing credits include the CBS sitcoms ''The Good Guys'' and ''All's Fair''.

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External links

Category:1918 births Category:Living people Category:Emmy Award winners

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Philip Roman (born December 21, 1930 in Fresno, California), is an animator. He is the founder of animation studios Film Roman and Phil Roman Entertainment. Roman is of Mexican American descent.

Early in his career, Roman was an animator for Chuck Jones's independent studios, Sib Tower 12 Productions and later Chuck Jones Productions. He was a lead animator for 1966's ''How The Grinch Stole Christmas'', and also provided an audio commentary along with June Foray on the DVD release of the film.

The animation studio he founded, Film Roman, is best known for producing the animation for ''The Simpsons'' and ''King of the Hill'' for 20th Century Fox and MTV, as well as the ''Garfield'' and ''Peanuts'' animated TV specials.

Roman directed the 1992 feature-length cartoon ''Tom and Jerry: The Movie''. He was the director of a few ''Peanuts'' specials, as well as director or co-director of twelve of the thirteen prime-time ''Garfield'' TV specials from 1982 to 1991, and was Producer of the final Garfied Special, ''Garfield Gets a Life''.

Phil Roman sold Film Roman in 1999 and formed Phil Roman Entertainment. The company produced the animated special ''Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer''.

References

External links

Archive of American Television interview

Official website of Phil Roman Entertainment

Category:1930 births Category:Living people Category:People from Fresno, California Category:American animators Category:American people of Mexican descent

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