Tim Russert is Dead
Saturday, June 14, 2008 at 09:34AM 
Tim Russert is dead. The suffer-no-bullshit anchor of “Meet the Press” had a massive coronary on Friday at the too-soon age of 58.
This was a guy you liked for the same reason you liked Die Hard-era Bruce Willis. He was funny, he was aggressive, and he saw right through your front. The only way you got off Tim’s hook was to tell the truth, own up to your argument, and admit your shortcomings. I routinely felt sorry for his Sunday morning guests—they’d stumbled into a maze where the Minotaur was impossibly smart and every passage was a dead end.
Unfortunately, the otherwise brilliant Mr. Russert fell prey to the plague of the intellectual class, treating his body as an inconsequential vessel for his rock star brain. His work ethic was notorious--round-the-clock marathons of analysis and exposition, executed for the benefit of a spoiled television audience. His long hours in the office precluded regular exercise and proper diet, and his heart gave out.
You’re working harder and looking for things to cut out of the budget, taking big swinging hacks at the checkbook to free up devalued dollars. Lattes are gone, your Friday night dinner date has gone the way of the Caribbean monk seal, and your gym membership is next on the chopping block.
Eighty, a hundred, two hundred dollars a month, back in your pocket in one fell swoop, dedicated to more important things like filling the tank, clothing the kids, and keeping the mortgage out of default. Here’s the problem—Tim Russert is dead.
The tanking economy is irrelevant when you’re pushing daisies. Without properly functioning organs, your idea-rich brain has all the utility of a table lamp during a blackout. When your body crumbles, everything else takes a back seat. When the bills start mounting and your work consumes you, take a minute to remember this basic fact: without your health, you are nothing.
With the boogeyman budget staring back at you, it’s tempting to axe the gym and trade in grass-fed beef for twenty-five cent boxes of linguini. It’s tempting to let your health go to meet near-term material needs. Find another way to make it work. Dig deep, and make it through with your health intact. Economic woes will pass, but the road to bodily ruin is downhill, and the bottom comes quick.
I am truly saddened at Tim Russert’s death. He was the type of man that men should strive to be. He left too soon, and now we’ll never get to see him tear into the next Administration. If only his all-consuming desire to expose the truth had led him to the gym. Godspeed, Tim.
Reader Comments (11)
Awesome Jon!
great article jon. i posted a excerpt from his book on fatherhood yesterday on the crossfit board. a guy like that shouldn't be gone so soon.
Excellent writing. Your message about the importance of not ignoring your pyhysical health is right on. But frankly I worry that people in the fitness profession (as is my daughter) will be victims of personal budget cuts. This is not after all something
we must have like food, clothing, housing, gas. And it is possible to maintain a high level of physical fitness without the help of a trainer. It may take awhile because the demographic that pays for their fitness may have deeper pockets and a sensibility that this is the one area they will make sacrifices for, but the worse the economy gets, the more likely this could happen.
Jon,
Excellent article and right to the point! It is a shame we lost Mr. Russert in this manner. On all the stations last evening the cry was "how did this get overlooked. How could he pass so suddenly?".
Shamefully it was obvious in his outward appearance. He didn't look healthy. I hope this becomes a wake-up call for other Americans.
One of your best articles yet.
John, your statement that Tim Russert treated his body as an "inconsequential vessel" is false and borderline slanderous. Just because someone died of massive coronary failure does not mean they did not exercise, eat right, or take care of themselves. Furthermore, to make such a statement on a CrossFit site might imply that doing CrossFit will prevent a random heart attack. This is simply not correct, especially since CrossFit has had a very fit athlete die from a massive heart attack hours after a CrossFit workout.
In the Wall Street Journal health blog (Saturday, June 13), Tim Russert’s doctor Michael Newman said that Mr. Russert had been under treatment for asymptomatic coronary disease, but that it was under control with medication. He was carrying excess weight, Newman observed, but he got regular exercise and he performed well on an exercise stress test in April.
Please clarify the above on your blog, on behalf of Tim Russert and his family.
Craig,
Thanks for the research. I don't take issue with your point, other than the idea that I've implied that CrossFit is a cure for heart attacks. I did not.
Further, a single heart attack, affecting a CrossFitter or a news anchor, is not proof that heart attacks are random lightning strikes from the heavens. They result from either genetic predisposition, bodily neglect, or both. While a few may be random, the vast majority are the result of controllable lifestyle factors.
Evidently, Mr. Russert did exercise regularly, and his death was the result of a clot. Let's keep in mind that we don't know when he started exercising (after diagnosis is a poor time to start!), and all exercise is not created equally. Further, there is something inherently flawed with an exercise stress test that one can pass and then die soon after. Mr. Russert may not have treated his body as an "inconsequential vessel", but he certainly didn't treat it like a temple.
My aim is not to slander the man, nor dishonor his legacy. In fact, quite the opposite. If that's what you took away from this article, I suggest you read it again. I believe Tim Russert was a rare voice of reason, and damn good at his job.
Best,
Jon
Great article Jon. I am going to post it on my site, and link to it as well. It has applicability in the Armed Forces as well, in spirit. Thanks for having such a great flair for the written word.
Jon, thank you for posting my response and replying. You did the right thing. I understand the point you were trying to make in your original article. People should consider fitness as the foundation for a healthy life - and the last bill to stop paying (other than rent, food and utilities).
I appreciated your description of Tim Russert and his work. I regret that I did not make that observation, but my intention was to point out the incorrect conclusion that Mr. Russert was not vigilant about his health.
Furthermore, I wanted to dispell the myth that the "intellectual class" does not exercise. I'm not sure what you meant by the "intellectual class," but to this point, I think a little research would help you conlude that poor health and lack of exercise are not related to IQ (perhaps the opposite).
You are correct that a heart attack can occur for many reasons. Many heart attacks could likely be prevented by lifestyle changes, including exercise and diet. I also believe that the CrossFit methodology is superior to many other exercise method and likely does more to prevent heart attacks than other exercise methods.
CrossFit is growing fast! One of the primary reasons for CF's growth is its "open-source," all-inclusive philosophy. Lets support the growth of CrossFit and the reputation of the CrossFit brand by being accurate and non-judgemental.
Great article, thank you for posting it for us to read
Evidently, Tim Russert was doing what's called "secondary prevention." Already being treated for heart disease and diabetes, Russert's exercise habits and reported attempts to lose weight seem to have followed diagnosis - not preceded it.
Secondary prevention - the work done to prevent a worse outcome when a bad result has already occurred - is nothing like as useful as primary prevention. Nor as uniformly effective.
Which is a long way of saying ... Jon's article was right on. Exercise and diet are the only magic bullets we've got for heart disease, diabetes, and a raft of other chronic ailments. Starting at all, as Russert apparently did, is better than never starting. He may have added some years to his life by doing so. But starting sooner, gives statistically better results.