Tim Russert represented a gold standard of nonpartisan journalism. Though his personal views were likely left of center (he worked for Democrats, including Mario Cuomo and Daniel Patrick Moynihan), he was scrupulously fair, grilling Democrats and Republicans alike on Meet the Press until his untimely death in 2008. While reading his son Luke Russert’s new memoir, Look for Me There: Grieving My Father, Finding Myself, I felt nostalgic for an era when partisanship didn’t invade every crevice of public life. Indeed, I’m old enough to remember a time when you could read a book about travel or sports or art and not have to endure the author’s politics along the way.
Tim Russert went to my high school in Buffalo. Luke grew up in New York and D.C. but is a Bills fan, like his father (and me). I wrote a book about wanderlust and call myself a pathological traveler. I was eager to read about Luke’s three-year journey around the world and predisposed to like the book, but it was mostly disappointing.
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