A few years back, I took a college course about the media. My teacher, a pugnacious fifty something, was formerly in charge of polling for a high-level news agency. In typical she-curmudgeon fashion, she’d go back-and-forth lambasting all the network anchors she’d personally met. One day, she was asked about Tim Russert. She just smiled and said, “Now, that’s a journalist.”

As host of Meet The Press, Tim Russert rubbed elbows with the political elite, ultimately becoming one of the most recognizable journalists in the world. He collapsed at work earlier today, eventually succumbing to what many have been calling a heart attack. According to Entertainment Weekly, the fifty-eight year old was a Buffalo, New York native, and longest serving host in the history of Meet The Press.

We here at Cinema Blend send out our deepest condolences to the surviving members of the Russert clan, as well as all those fans affected by this shocking passing.