A Letter to a Legend

Dear Tim,

You may not remember me but we met several years ago on President Bush’s second Inauguration Day. I was working at the Today Show as a correspondent. I remember that day like it was yesterday. We stood in the Washington Bureau green room as some of the best and brightest pundits and politicians prepared to talk about the second term and what it might mean for this country. I distinctly remember introducing myself and doing my very best to look smart and worthy to be in your presence. You scared the living daylights out of me!

I grew up in New York City in a middle class Irish Catholic family where my dad drove a taxi cab at night while attending law school and my mom put peanut butter and jelly on the table while working full time. My grandfathers were original maintenance workers in a post World War II development known as Stuyvesant Town. Our family, each and every one of us, (you know the Irish--we reproduce) descended from Ireland with very little in our pockets.

The first time I saw you was on Meet the Press.  My mom and dad’s favorite show! In college and shortly thereafter I dated a guy from Buffalo for almost four years. I can’t tell you how many trips I made up to Buffalo. Unfortunately, I dated him when you made it to multiple super bowl’s but came up short. Those kickers! I’m sorry, don’t get mad at me, but I am a Giants fan. Oops! What I recognized about you that so many recognized and admired, was your dedication to your family and your hometown. You did what my father has always told me to do and warned me about as I entered this television business, to never to forget who you are and where you came from. After all, you, like me, know that we wouldn’t be here if it were not for the sacrifices our parents and their parents made.

I know we are off by a generation or two, and that I am closer in ago to your son Luke than I am to you, but you have influenced my career in ways that I cannot properly explain. I was a political junkie as a kid. My dad ironically worked on the Ed Meyer campaign in Yonkers. He was his campaign manager. To this day, my dad gives you full credit for revealing the real truth about Congressman Bruce Caputo in his bid to beat incumbent Sen.  Daniel Patrick Moynihan in his re-election bid. My dad reminds himself all the time that had he just asked Caputo for his military serial number like you suggested the reporter do; Ed Meyer may have won the campaign. If only my dad did the kind of homework that you did!

Tim, thank you for being you and for teaching me that anything is possible. I, like you, didn’t grow up in television and took a chance with no television experience. When I look at the television and media world, you are the person I aspire to be. After all, you do have the best job in journalism. To anchor a show and run a bureau is a dream job. When I first met Roger Ailes here at Fox and he asked me what I wanted to do, I said I missed thinking strategically, long-term, outside the box and about the future--I told him I wanted to get back to running a business without giving up my TV job. You were my example. Roger looked at me and said, “Alexis, I can see you being a player coach.” I thought player coach, Tim Russert, it’s a deal!

We may never meet again and yet you will always hold a special place in my heart. You have taught me how to prepare before interviews, and how to listen and worry less about formulating the next question and more about finding that moment when news gets broken. You taught me how to balance family and work and how to treat people with integrity and dignity even when you disagree with them. You taught me that it is OK to love something so much and yell about it from the highest peaks, unfortunately the Bills didn’t give you that super bowl victory--but they did take you to the dance three times in the 90s and most of all you have taught me to live every moment as though it were your last.

I will miss you.

Your friend and biggest fan,

Alexis