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Like father, like son

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Britany Lincicum
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« on: November 06, 2011, 12:46:52 am »

Like father, like son


"I know that I am responsible not only to my job, but also to my last name," says Luke Russert, who is following in his father's footsteps as a reporter for NBC.

Updated: October 28, 2011, 2:45 PM

WASHINGTON -- The young reporter with the familiar Irish eyes wouldn't let Rep. Anthony Weiner get away with it. "The picture that went over Twitter to Genette Cordova -- is that you?," he asked, politely.

"Well, let's keep in mind what happened here," the Queens congressman replied, all feigned sincerity. "I was pranked, I was hacked, I was punked, whatever it was, someone sent out a picture. I'm an easy name to make fun of and I think that's what happened."

Indeed, somebody had used the congressman's Twitter account to share a picture of some guy's, well, "snug" boxer briefs.

"But that's not a picture of you?" the reporter asked?

"You know, I can't say with certitude. My system was hacked, pictures can be manipulated, pictures can be dropped in and inserted...."

He can't say with certitude!

The reporter's voice grew more intense, more like a voice you heard a million times on Sunday mornings and election nights: "But, congressman, would you remember if you were to take a photograph of yourself like that...."

"You will not flat-out deny that that photograph is not you?"

"Where's our end game, then?"

The young reporter for NBC didn't need to ask those questions -- he had already gotten the goods.

The words "I can't say with certitude" were on their way to becoming a national punch line. Weiner admitted the obvious and resigned from Congress 15 days later.

Now, if you Google "Weiner" and "can't say with certitude," you'll get about 1.05 million results.

And while the young reporter doesn't look at things this way, you could see this as a vindication for him. After all, if you Google "Luke Russert" and "nepotism," you'll get only 7,740 hits.

To hear Luke Russert's friends and colleagues tell it, that watershed Weiner interview was public proof of something they had watched happen over the course of nearly three years.

At 26, Russert, the son of legendary NBC newsman and Buffalo native Tim Russert, has become a fine reporter in his own right.

It wasn't quick, and it wasn't easy.

Hired by NBC in 2008, only months after his college graduation and not long after his father collapsed and died of a heart attack, Russert endured a scathing Internet hazing.

But in the wake of his father's death, and through the public flogging and an off-air apprenticeship, Russert did something totally unlike his dad:

He stayed calm.

***

Tim Russert was famously hyper, glad-handing just about everybody he met and re-examining everything he did, constantly seeking positive reinforcement.

And friends describe Luke's mother, Maureen Orth, a Vanity Fair writer, as an intensely hard-working journalist with an easy laugh who can charm the truth out of just about anybody.

Yet from the start, Luke was like his dad's quiet junior partner.

"Tim and him were just like best buds when Luke was growing up," said Betsy Fischer, the longtime "Meet the Press" executive producer who figures she's known Luke since he was about 6. "Tim just loved hanging out with him, going to sporting events. They were just like little buddies."

Perhaps it was inevitable, then, that this one last parallel would appear.

***

Still, following his father's footsteps was not the first thing on Luke Russert's mind in June 2008, when he was freshly graduated from Boston College.

He planned to keep hosting a satellite radio sports show, but beyond that, he acknowledged, "I didn't really have a concrete plan," he acknowledged.

But fate had a plan for him. When Russert said goodbye to his father on a family vacation in Italy -- the workaholic "Meet the Press" host had to return home for the Sunday show -- it was for the last time. His father died that Friday, June 13.

A grieving Luke Russert suddenly became the family spokesman. And he did so with a shocking eloquence.

Remaining composed throughout a long interview on NBC's "Today Show" only three days after his father died, a chubby-cheeked Luke Russert said of his father: "I really, honestly believe that he saw himself as the questioner for the American people. He obviously did his job for himself, for his network, for his family, but at his core I believe he had a higher calling, a responsibility to educate the American public about the candidates who seek the highest office in the land.

http://www.buffalonews.com/spotlight/article611275.ece
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Volitzer
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« Reply #1 on: November 07, 2011, 04:06:05 pm »

Let's hope he doesn't rely onthe CFR for all his information.  Otherwise he'll be in for a very short career.
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