RIP Tim Russert

NBC News’ Washington bureau chief and the moderator of “Meet the Press,” died this afternoon of a heart attack at the age of 58. That’s really sad.

But here’s the really pathetic personal part. I am home, off work, and off my broken leg right now, right? So what did I do as soon as I found out about his death? I texted and emailed everyone I could think of who would care: Ben, Laura, Al (but not Amy because I knew Al would tell her), Walter, Helen, Jamie, Nick P. & Nick D, Dory & Tom (because they’re off work) and Sue.

You think they can revoke my disability pay for this?

Someone once said of me that I would go door-to-door being the town crier, if I could. Instead… well, instead I do what I do. Which leads me to this: there are two kinds of people in my business. People who want to be “famous” and people who are ridiculously committed to the dissemination of truth. The latter would yell from the rooftops even if we weren’t paid to do it.

I envision myself years from now…as a somewhat addled 93 year old, hobbling down Market Street stopping people, handing them a decades old business card, barking headlines at them. “Water rations have been lowered to 10 gallons per person starting next Friday!” or “The governor is proposing that citizen ID cards be revoked for anyone owing an unpaid debt to The Community for more than 6 weeks. Violators will be held at Citibank’s Debtor Detention Center!”

I bet Tim Russert was the door-to-door type, RIP.

xo, Rebecca