Luke Orth Russert (born August 22, 1985) is an American author and broadcast news correspondent who worked for
NBC News
NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Media Group, a division of NBCUniversal, which is itself a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's various operations r ...
from 2008 to 2016.
His reporting has been shown on ''
NBC Nightly News
''NBC Nightly News'' (titled as ''NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas'' for its weeknight broadcasts ) is the flagship daily evening News broadcasting#Television, television news program for NBC News, the news division of the NBC television network ...
'', ''
TODAY
Today (archaically to-day) may refer to:
* The current day and calendar date
** Today is between and , subject to the local time zone
* Now, the time that is perceived directly, present
* The current, present era
Arts, entertainment and m ...
'',
NBCNews.com, and
MSNBC
MSNBC is an American cable news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Launched on July 15, 1996, and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, the channel primarily broadcasts r ...
. He has been a guest anchor on various
MSNBC
MSNBC is an American cable news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Launched on July 15, 1996, and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, the channel primarily broadcasts r ...
programs, including ''
Morning Joe
''Morning Joe'' is an American morning news talk show, which airs weekdays from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time Zone, Eastern Time on the cable news channel MSNBC. It features former United States House of Representatives, US Repr ...
'' and ''
Way Too Early with Jonathan Lemire''.
In May 2023, after seven years away from media, Russert's travel memoir ''Look for Me There'', about his three-and-a-half-year journey through six continents and more than 60 countries, was published by HarperHorizon, an imprint of
HarperCollins
HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the "Big Five (publishers), Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group USA, Hachette, Macmi ...
Publishers. The book became a ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' best-seller.
Early life and career start
Russert is the son of newsman
Tim Russert
Timothy John Russert (May 7, 1950 – June 13, 2008) was an American television journalist and lawyer who appeared for more than 16 years as the longest-serving moderator of NBC's '' Meet the Press''. He was a senior vice president at NBC News a ...
and
Maureen Orth
Maureen Orth (born 1943) is an American journalist, author, and a Special Correspondent for '' Vanity Fair'' magazine. She is the founder of Marina Orth Foundation, which has established a model education program in Colombia emphasizing technolog ...
, a special correspondent for ''
Vanity Fair''.
Russert graduated from
St. Albans School in Washington, D.C. in 2004.
He worked for
ESPN
ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...
's ''
Pardon the Interruption
''Pardon the Interruption'' (abbreviated ''PTI'') is an American sports talk television program, television show that airs weekdays primarily on ESPN but can air on various TV channels in the event of live sports or breaking news. It is hosted by ...
'' while a student at
Boston College
Boston College (BC) is a private university, private Catholic Jesuits, Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1863 by the Society of Jesus, a Catholic Religious order (Catholic), religious order, t ...
, where he double-majored in Communications and History and graduated in 2008. Russert also co-hosted the
sports talk
Sports radio (or sports talk radio) is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sport, sporting events. A widespread programming genre that has a narrow audience appeal, sports radio is characterized by an often-low comed ...
program called ''60/20 Sports'' on
XM Satellite Radio
XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. (XM) was one of the three satellite radio ( SDARS) and online radio services in the United States and Canada, operated by Sirius XM Holdings. It provided pay-for-service radio, analogous to subscription cable ...
with
James Carville while at Boston College.
NBC career
In August 2008, two months after the death of his father, and with two years of experience of hosting a national radio show on SiriusXM, Russert was hired by NBC News as a correspondent covering youth issues as part of its coverage of the
2008 presidential election. He was assigned to cover both the
Democratic and
Republican conventions. His election day report, which explored the impact of Barack Obama's win on young people, contributed to NBC's News & Documentary Emmy award for its 2008 Election Night coverage.
He has openly acknowledged that critics in the media, including some colleagues, have leveled accusations of unqualified
nepotism
Nepotism is the act of granting an In-group favoritism, advantage, privilege, or position to Kinship, relatives in an occupation or field. These fields can include business, politics, academia, entertainment, sports, religion or health care. In ...
, because of both his father's position at NBC and his mother's position as a ''Vanity Fair'' correspondent, given that he had virtually no professional on air television experience at the time of his hiring.
From May 2009 to July 2016, he worked for NBC News on Capitol Hill as a Congressional correspondent covering the House of Representatives. He made headlines in 2010 when he received a public apology from Rep.
Charlie Rangel
Charles Bernard Rangel ( ; June 11, 1930 – May 26, 2025) was an American politician who served as United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative for districts in New York City for 46 years. A member of the Democratic Party (Unite ...
(D-NY), who was at the time serving as House Ways and Means Committee Chairman. Congressman Rangel had criticized Russert's aggressive questioning over an ethics report that showed Rangel's fiscal indiscretions and illegal donation solicitations, but then reversed his stance and apologized to Russert instead.
In 2011, he also reported on
Hurricane Irene
Hurricane Irene was a large and destructive tropical cyclone which affected much of the Caribbean and East Coast of the United States during late August 2011. The ninth tropical cyclone naming, named storm, first hurricane, and first major ...
for NBC News.
In February 2012, Russert made his primetime debut on NBC's
''Dateline'' with "Conviction", which examined whether the 1998 murder conviction of Jon-Adrian Velazquez was justified or whether Velazquez was wrongly sentenced to life imprisonment for a murder he didn't commit. The episode was nominated for a News & Documentary Emmy award for Best Report in a News Magazine.
Russert has claimed that the American media can be biased against people of religious faith, going so far as to suggest that it treats them with a certain degree of snark, labeling them as "puritanical" and "not understanding of others or of different viewpoints", which in his view is lazy and contributes to "
eedingthe snickering masses."
Russert hosted ''The Briefing'', a web-only show on msnbc.com.
Russert suddenly resigned from NBC in July 2016, saying he needed to evaluate his career opportunities.
Personal life
Russert was involved with charitable causes that were supported by his father. On April 20, 2010, he took the role of
emcee of the
Boys & Girls Club of Greater Washington's annual Congressional dinner, which was renamed after his father.
He has told ''
Politico
''Politico'' (stylized in all caps), known originally as ''The Politico'', is an American political digital newspaper company founded by American banker and media executive Robert Allbritton in 2007. It covers politics and policy in the Unit ...
'' that, as a sports junkie, he makes sure to watch ESPN's ''
SportsCenter
''SportsCenter'' (SC) is an American television sports news broadcasting show broadcast by ESPN. Originally anchored by Chris Berman, George Grande, Greg Gumbel, Lee Leonard, Bob Ley, Sal Marchiano and Lou Palmer, it premiered on Septem ...
'' and ''
College GameDay'' and NBC's ''
Sunday Night Football''. He also told ''Politico'' that his favorite watering holes in D.C. are Ireland's Four Fields in
Woodley Park because its bartenders "pour a great
Guinness
Guinness () is a stout that originated in the brewery of Arthur Guinness at Guinness Brewery, St. James's Gate, Dublin, Ireland, in the 18th century. It is now owned by the British-based Multinational corporation, multinational alcoholic bever ...
, and on any given night you can catch some first-rate live music." He also likes Billy
Martin's Tavern in
Georgetown because "you never know who you will be seated next to at the bar. It could be a cop coming off his shift, a college student or even a congressman."
He contributed an essay titled "What I Learned From My Dad" to
''Parade'' for its June 19, 2011 issue.
Russert is a member of the Buffalo Fan Alliance Board, an organization committed to keeping the
Buffalo Bills
The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East div ...
within the city of
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...
, the hometown of his father. In 2013, he said "I honestly think being a Bills fan is something that’s passed down into your blood. My grandfather was a die hard Bills fans and he passed it on to my dad. I was given a Buffalo Bills jersey when I was probably two years old, so there was really never any doubt that I’d be a Bills fan."
In 2014, he penned an introduction, dedicated to his father, for the tenth anniversary of his father's bestselling book ''Big Russ and Me''.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Russert, Luke
1985 births
Living people
American sports radio personalities
American television reporters and correspondents
ESPN Radio
Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences alumni
MSNBC people
NBC News people
St. Albans School (Washington, D.C.) alumni