The Washington Post
It was almost exactly eight years ago that NBC News published a story titled, “Russert’s son joins NBC News as correspondent.” At the time, Luke Russert was 22 years old and fresh out of Boston College — just the level of experience commensurate with the network title of “extremely low-level producer.” Snickers abounded among journalists who’d spent decades trying to score a correspondent job at a major broadcast network.
The hiring of Luke Russert came shortly after the unexpected death of his father, NBC News legend Tim Russert.
In a surprise announcement Wednesday that Russert posted to Twitter, he says that he perhaps barged into this industry a bit hastily. “It’s fair to say my broadcast career began in an unusual way after college graduation and the death of my father. As a result, I threw myself into the work and never took the time to reflect, to travel and to experience many things that would have given me a clearer sense of what my future should be. Now at 30, I look forward to taking some time away from political reporting and focusing my efforts on other endeavors that I’ve long wanted to pursue,” wrote Russert.
Such “other endeavors” had better be good, considering that this is a pretty interesting moment to do political reporting. A note from management called Russert the “go-to guy” on Capitol Hill and lauded him as one of the network’s “most reliable utility players,” in a line of work where “utility player” is a compliment.
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