Tactical Execution

I grew up in Canada and moved to the United States in 1998.  And like so many others, I have found tremendous opportunities (and great weather) in this country.  Although I wasn’t aware of it until I was 27 years old, I am an American citizen (it’s a long story but is a result of my father growing up in Philadelphia) and am very grateful to be able to live down here in California.

But with the good comes the bad.  Ever since I moved here, I have been shocked by the narrow focus of American news programs.  In Canada, you commonly hear the European perspective, the Asian perspective and the American perspective.  It makes sense.  Although Canada is the second largest country on the planet based on geographical area, it has a very small population (about 33 million people in 2008) and is affected by the actions of major power centers around the world.

The European power center is comprised of many different countries (the EU has 27 member countries) and the Asian power center also has a few major players including China, Japan and Korea.  But America is a single country – one huge country – which continues to boast the single largest economy in the world.  As a result of that reality, there’s very little need for American news to talk about things happening outside of its boarders.  Indeed, the average viewer just doesn’t care.

Since moving to the United States, I have chosen to get much of my news from the BBC, PBS’s NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and Reuters – not exactly the usual American favorites.  But I have also found a small handful of journalists and news programs that I really like – right here in the United States.  Among them is Meet the Press with Tim Russert.  I won’t pretend to be a regular viewer (I don’t watch very much TV in general) but I have always enjoyed Tim’s comprehensive approach and candid evaluation of the American political reality.

Yesterday, while writing my last blog post, a CNN Breaking News email popped up on my screen, informing me that Tim Russert had died of an apparent heart attack while recording voiceovers at the NBC studios.  At just 58 years old, he was the NBC Washington Bureau Chief and the 17-year moderator of “Meet the Press”.  His death has devastated colleagues.  Brian Williams, managing editor and anchor of “NBC Nightly News” described it as a “staggering, overpowering and sudden loss.”

I am no expert on journalism or Tim Russert per se but I can tell you that I will miss him and his coverage of American politics.  Tim Russert was a serious but believable figure in American news and I frequently reserved my own judgements until I had listened to his.  And there’s no question that the historic 2008 election contest will lose a valuable contributor.  Election night between Barack Obama and John McCain will certainly be different without Tim Russert following developments throughout the evening hours.

My thoughts are with the Russert family.  I read they had just returned from a vacation in Italy where they celebrated a son’s graduation from Boston College.  This must be an incredibly difficult time for them and I hope they can eventually get past their loss and take pride in the contributions Tim made to people all over the world.  Thank you, Tim Russert, for helping me understand American politics.