Tim Russert

I am absolutely shocked. I turned the TV on for the first time today about 30 minutes ago and quickly saw each news station, Fox NEWS, CNN, and of course MSNBC all of them reporting the death of Tim Russert. I was stunned.

You talk about the last person you'd ever think of dying. I don't talk much about news and for the most part I try to keep politics and the like to myself, but Tim Russert was one of those people that I always saw on TV, on NBC and MSNBC, and I realize just how much he had become a part of my weekly routine.

I never went out of my way to watch Meet The Press or any weekly news talk program for that matter. It was always something on in the background and I'd look up or stop on the channel if something interested me. But I got use to seeing Tim Russert on Meet The Press, I got use to seeing him report on the elections, seeing him a part of the news broadcasts and media we all take for granted.

You don't know what you've got til it's gone. And now that Tim Russert is gone I realize how the landscape of my weekly routine will change, and how the news as I receive it will be affected. It is nice to see each news organization reporting about how much they all love the man. It is obvious what kind of a talented, well loved, well respected individual this man is both in and out of the news game.

My heart goes out to his colleagues at NBC, all the other journalists and news folk who he's touched, the people that he worked with day after day in the war zone of politics and media, and most definitely to his wife, his children, and to his family.

In 2008, Time magazine named Russert one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Watch the news today, and that will be obvious.

NBC’s Tim Russert dead at 58