If it's Sunday, it's "Meet the Press." Not today. It won't be the same without Tim Russert, who moderated the NBC political program for the last 17 years.
For years, I had a Sunday ritual that ended when my parents died. They lived in Florida, so at least every Sunday I'd call them to check in. For weeks after they died, I had to stop myself from instinctively calling them.
Russert became a Sunday ritual, too. I imagine I'll instinctively turn on Channel 2 today and many Sundays expecting to see him interrogating some politician. I don't expect I'll be alone.
After hearing all the worthy tributes that journalists and political leaders gave Friday after the sudden death of Buffalo's favorite son, I paused to try and put what his passing at the age of 58 means to his hometown.
In a way, it will be as devastating a loss to Western New York's image as it would be if his beloved Buffalo Bills ever left town. As tribute after tribute referenced Russert's love of his hometown, it was a reminder that he helped the area's image immeasurably. Now, sadly, his help will be gone after the eulogies stop.
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"No city has ever been prouder of a native son and no son has ever been prouder of his native city," said MSNBC's Keith Olbermann.
Russert's good friend, Tom Brokaw, ended a special report poignantly Friday in the way he obviously felt would have best pleased Russert.
"Go Bills," Brokaw said.
As the TV columnist in his hometown, I probably interviewed Russert a few dozen times over the years. The last time I spoke to him, we ended up being just two baby boomers discussing the similarities that the youthful and historic presidential candidacy of Democrat Barack Obama had with the 1960 candidacy of John F. Kennedy. That led to a story that Russert often told about the day he asked his father, "Big Russ," why there was a Kennedy campaign sign on their South Buffalo lawn.
"Because he's one of us," "Big Russ" replied.
At age 10, Russert accepted that explanation.
"It took [a while] to realize," Russert told me, "[JFK] wasn't one of us. He was rich."
After his death, Russert got the Kennedy treatment on TV.
Partly because he was such a giant in broadcasting, partly because he was so young by the standards of the TV news game and partly because he was "one of us," Russert's death dominated the evening news programs and cable talk shows Friday. Legend after legend -- Brokaw, Ted Koppel and Barbara Walters among them -- praised Russet's work ethic, his fairness and his love of family. Some wondered how the 2008 election year could continue without him. I suspect his death also made many baby boomers reflect about their lives.
Rather than look for another journalist to join the Irish wake, I called a mutual friend, writer-producer Tom Fontana. Fontana attended Canisius High School with Russert, named a character on his series, "Homicide," after him and had him on as a guest star.
Fontana was devastated by the news, but happily remembered the day that Russert came from Washington to the show's Baltimore set to film his "Homicide" role because the experience spoke to the newsman's character.
"It wasn't like he was 'I'm Tim Russert,' " recalled Fontana. "He was like a kid on a movie set -- his enthusiasm for things and that real wanting to understand how things work."
He was the same Tim Russert that Fontana knew growing up.
"He was so big . . . in size and personality," Fontana said of Russert in high school. "Everyone knew who he was. He was completely without any ego or pretenses. He was just one of the guys. He has always been just one of the guys."
As host of "Meet the Press," Russert became known as the disheveled-looking Everyman who revitalized the Sunday morning talk show format, asked tough questions and had a soft spot in his heart for anything Buffalo.
He told me in 1997 he felt he only lost his objectivity once, during a program in which he interrogated David Duke, the neo-Nazi who was running for governor of Louisiana. He told his father that he lost his cool and became too prosecutorial, pressing Duke on the state's economy. His dad put his son's concerns in perspective.
"My father said, 'Well, if you are going to make a mistake, make a mistake with a Nazi,' " Russert remembered.
Friday, that "mistake" was praised by numerous journalists, who felt Russert got Duke to reveal how unqualified he was to become governor.
Russert didn't make many mistakes at NBC. He gave Katie Couric her first job, made stars of scores of pundits and insiders and dominated Sunday mornings like the Buffalo Bills dominated Sunday afternoons in the early 1990s.
My favorite moments with Russert were the occasional times we chatted like friends rather than interviewer and subject. In one of those conversations, Russert told me about the misgivings that a prominent black politician was having supporting Sen. Hillary Clinton instead of Sen. Barack Obama because the politician felt Obama "was the real deal."
I'm going to miss those brief chats as much or more than I'll miss Russert on Sundays. He was the real deal.
e-mail: apergament@buffnews.com
