Lucas Russert (born August 22, 1985), best known as Luke Russert, is an American broadcast news correspondent, who worked for
NBC News from 2008 to 2016.
His reporting was seen on ''
NBC Nightly News'', ''
TODAY'',
NBCNews.com
NBCNews.com, formerly known as msnbc.com, is a news website owned and operated by NBCUniversal as the online arm of NBC News. Along with original and wire reporting, it features content from NBC shows such as ''Today'', ''NBC Nightly News'', ''M ...
, and
MSNBC. He also was a guest anchor on various
MSNBC programs, including ''
Andrea Mitchell Reports
''Andrea Mitchell Reports'' is a news show on MSNBC broadcast weekdays at 12 PM ET/9 AM PT hosted by Andrea Mitchell. She originally was an anchor under the ''MSNBC Live'' umbrella before getting her own distinct show. She is the NBC News Chief F ...
'' and ''
Way Too Early
''Way Too Early with Jonathan Lemire'' is an American morning news show that airs weekday mornings on MSNBC. The network has had shows with the title ''Way Too Early'', both with and without the name of the host at the time, during two differen ...
''.
Early life and career start
Russert is the son of newsman
Tim Russert and his widow
Maureen Orth, a special correspondent for ''
Vanity Fair''.
Russert graduated from
St. Albans School in
Washington, D.C. in 2004.
He worked for
ESPN's ''
Pardon the Interruption'' while a student at
Boston College
Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifie ...
, where he double-majored in Communications and History and graduated in 2008. Russert also co-hosted the
sports talk program called ''60/20 Sports'' on
XM Satellite Radio with
James Carville while at Boston College.
NBC career
In August 2008, just after his graduation from Boston College and a month after the death of his father, NBC News hired Russert 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 an advantage, privilege, or position that is granted to relatives and friends in an occupation or field. These fields may include but are not limited to, business, politics, academia, entertainment, sports, fitness, religion, an ...
, 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 experience at the time of his hiring. He stated that he merely attempts to ignore it.
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 (, ; born June 11, 1930) is an American politician who was a U.S. representative for districts in New York from 1971 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the second-longest serving incumbent member of the H ...
(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 for NBC News.
In February 2012, Russert made his primetime debut on NBC's
''Dateline'' wit
"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 is 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; he has said he likes to think of it as a "younger man's ''Charlie Rose''".
Russert suddenly resigned from NBC in July 2016, saying he needed to evaluate his career opportunities.
Personal life
Russert is involved with charitable causes that were supported by his late 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'' that, as a sports junkie, he makes sure to watch ESPN's ''
SportsCenter
''SportsCenter'' (SC) is a daily sports news television show, television program that serves as the flagship program and brand of United States, American cable television, cable and satellite television television network, network ESPN. The show ...
'' and ''
College GameDay'' and NBC's ''
Sunday Night Football
Sunday Night Football may refer to:
* ''NBC Sunday Night Football'', the Sunday night broadcast of American NFL games by NBC since 2006
* ''ESPN Sunday Night Football'', the Sunday night broadcast of American NFL games from 1987 to 2005 by ESPN
* ...
''. 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 an Irish dry stout that originated in the brewery of Arthur Guinness at St. James's Gate, Dublin, Ireland, in 1759. It is one of the most successful alcohol brands worldwide, brewed in almost 50 countries, and available in ove ...
, 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 metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. ...
within the city of
Buffalo, New York, 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
American sports radio personalities
American television reporters and correspondents
Boston College alumni
NBC News people
St. Albans School (Washington, D.C.) alumni
1985 births
Living people
ESPN Radio
MSNBC people