“Meet the Press’’ host Tim Russert, shown an undated photo, will have his office at NBC News reassembled for use as a Newseum exhibit.
(Newseum)
Newseum re-creating Russert office in exhibit
“Meet the Press’’ host Tim Russert, shown an undated photo, will have his office at NBC News reassembled for use as a Newseum exhibit.
(Newseum)
WASHINGTON - Longtime “Meet the Press’’ moderator Tim Russert’s office, complete with Buffalo Bills pennants and a journalist’s clutter, will go on display next month at the Newseum.
The office will be reassembled to look as it did June 13, 2008, the day Russert died of a heart attack at age 58 while recording voiceovers for his next show at NBC’s Washington bureau. The exhibit at the journalism museum opens Nov. 20 and will remain through 2010.
“After Tim’s death, it became very clear to us that Tim really hit a nerve with a wider swath of people than you would ordinarily think for a journalist,’’ Charles Overby, the Newseum’s chief executive, said yesterday. He noted Edward R. Murrow is the only other journalist who gets such prominent treatment.
“That shows the plateau on which we think Tim sits,’’ he said.
Russert, who served on the Newseum’s board of directors, was bureau chief for NBC News in Washington and began hosting “Meet the Press’’ in 1991.
His office was “very homey, very much reflects his wide array of interests,’’ including politics, religion, family, music, and his beloved Buffalo Bills, said Newseum exhibits director Cathy Trost. About 300 books filled Russert’s bookshelves, next to Uncle Sam figures and autographed baseballs. Newspapers, magazines, and research binders cluttered his desk. A drawing done by his son, Luke, at age 7 was close by.
NBC is donating the office furniture, and Russert’s family many of his belongings.
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
