The Pendulum
NEWS
Page 3 / Wednesday, June 25, 2008
/Meet the Press ^ host, broadcast
journalist Russert dies at 58
Drew Smitb
Reporter
Shock and sorrow hit the world of
politics and journalism when Tom
Brokaw broke into NBC programming
on June 13 to announce the death
of Tim Russert. The longtime
moderator of “Meet the Press” and NBC
Washington bureau chief collapsed
and died of a heart attack while at
work.
“This is a loss for the entire nation,”
NBC News president Steve Capus said
. in a statement. “Everyone at NBC News
Ms in shock and absolutely devastated."
Russert went out on top. His Sunday
morning program held a commanding
lead in the ratings. He was still asking
the tough questions and providing
some of the most watched election
night analysis. He was widely known
for being a good-natured person and a
great dad.
He started his career working on
political campaigns. He then made the
transition into television at NBC News.
"We don’t have a big tradition in
this country of people being in politics
then in .journalism, or going from
journalism back into politics,” Tom
Brokaw said on a special memorial
edition of “Meet the Press”. “But Tim
t really dropped that firewall because he
i^did it with such integrity.”
RD Sahl, a veteran TV journalist
and current principal anchor at New
England Cable News, shared his
thoughts on why Russert connected
with viewers so well.
Russert
“He was
smart and
viewers knew
it. He asked
the questions a
good reporter
should ask, but
he also asked
the questions
viewers had,”
Sahl said.
“That said,
there are
plenty of smart
people in journalism, but Russert had
something more. His magic was that he
connected with viewers at the gut and
heart level. It was the combination that
made his work so good, and that made
him a guest in millions of households
each Sunday.”
Boston political reporter Alison
King had the opportunity to work
directly with Russert as a co
moderator during a presidential
primary debate in September of 2007.
“1 was very excited to work with
Tim Russert on that debate since
he had, for years, been an all time
favorite political reporter of mine,”
King said. “1 was also pretty surprised
to find out that despite his obvious
celebrity status, there was no star aura
surrounding him, which is pretty rare
at that level.”
King remembers pitching an
idea for a question about whom the
candidates wanted to win the World
Series, the Red Sox or the Yankees.
“In front of a New England
audience, 1 thought it would get a good
laugh and lighten the mood,” she said.
Russert’s producer told her Tim
already had a similar baseball question
he planned to ask. King backed off and
told Tim to ask his.
“Hours before the debate, Tim came
up to me and said, T want you to do
that baseball question, Alison, we’ll
save it for the end,’” King recalled. “He
knew it would get a laugh and that the
clip would get re-played over and over
on the cable news shows, and it did. I
felt like it was his way of sharing some
of the spotlight from that evening with
me, a classy move on his part.”
Like so many others. King was
stunned to hear of his sudden death.
“I’ll really miss watching him on
Sunday mornings," she said. “As my
not-very-political younger brother said
to me, ‘He was the one political guy on
TV I could trust.’”
Russert received 48 honorary
degrees over the course of his career
and was the recipient of several
awards including the Edward R.
Murrow Award for Overall Excellence
in Television Journalism. Time
magazine named him one of its 100
most influential people for 2008.
NBC announced former “Nightly
News” anchor Tom Brokaw will sit in
the moderator chair at “Meet the Press”
until the November election. Then they
will find a new host, which will likely
be a difficult task. The person who
will make that decision is Steve Capus.
According to him, “Tim was truly
irreplaceable."
Elon MBA billboard hits RDU
2007 BusinessWeek ranking - part-time mba
TOP-RANKED IN NC
n IN THE
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i
cOSTMBA
FULL-TIME EXPERIENCE
IN A PART-TIME SETTING
PHOTO COURTESY ELON MBA
On June 4, an Elon MBA sign went up in Raleigh-Durham International Airport where it will remain on display for a year. It is the first
time Elon has marketed the program in the airport. Its placement targets residents of the triangle and the triad, where most of Eton’s
MBA students reside, and students and prospective students who travel through RDU.
OCTAGON from Page 1
but offer the same selections. The
bouleneck area of the room where
drinks were offered will open into the
old Freshens/new Pan Geos.
More cash registers and more
grab-and-go options will be added to
'^Octagon. The air-screen where parfaits
and sandwiches are held will be larger
and have more shelving.
Adding more patio furniture
outside Octagon is also a possibility.
With 99.9 percent certainty, Jeff
Gazda, resident district manager
of ARAMARK, said Octagon will
reopen on Aug. 20, in time for the fall
semester.
Gazda said the overcrowding of
OctM«njhM¥*m fa^ m
and®^^(2-*A€U.05^Xu.iX.*.
was placed on a list of probable dining
service changes to be made in near
future. This summer, it was Octagon’s
turn to get noticed.
ARAMARK’s move to the
Colonnades and catering’s move to
Harden helped alleviate some of
Moseley's overcrowding in the dining
arena, but it wasn’t enough to please
Octagon customers.
“We all have the feeling that there
are some customers that don’t get
served because it’s too busy,” Gazda
said.
Vickie Somers, director of auxiliary
services, said they believe they've come
up with a successful plan to change the
traffic pattern.
“I think this is going to be a very
jositiye change for the students,”
t positive change tor tr
iHV» **i ■Mmir/(l/AVi%’ V/V
Any dining service decisions that
are made are a direct result of student
feedback, Gazda and Somers said.
They always speak with SGA leaders
and members, and other student
representatives.
Making decisions on when to
change what is based on growth and
changing demographics. Gazda said
they like giving students something
new each year. This idea is important
to continue because when new
students come to Elon, the things that
are new to returning students will not
appear so to freshmen.
As of now, the fate of The Zone is
“to be decided.” But Harden will stay
as it is - students have shown that they
liked the revamping that went on this
year, particularly with the bakery, grill
and expanded salad bar.
Supreme Coiut’s
opinions
expand rights
of criminal
defendants
Alyse Knorr
Reporter
WASHINGTON - The Supreme
Court on Monday issued two
opinions protecting the rights of
defendants in criminal court cases.
The court ruled 7-2 in Greenlaw
V. United States that a U.S. court of
appeals may not order an increase
in a defendant's sentence on its
own initiative.
The plaintiff, Michael Greenlaw,
of Minneapolis, appealed to the
8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to
shorten a 10-year prison sentence
for a drug and firearms conviction.
The court responded by correcting
an error in his original sentence
and lengthening his jail time by 15
years.
Under a longstanding precedent.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
wrote in the majority opinion, an
appellate court may not change a
judgment to benefit the side that
did not appeal.
Ginsburg emphasized the court's
reactive role as an impartial arbiter,
stating, “Appellate courts may not
reach out to correct a sentencing
error when the Government has
not invited such error correction by
appealing or cross-appealing.”
“In a criminal prosecution,
moreover,” Ginsburg added, “the
defendant would appeal at his peril,
w'ith nothing to alert him that, on
his own appeal, his sentence would
be increased until the appeals
court 50 decreed. In this very
case, Greenlaw might have made
different strategic decisions had he
known soon after filing his notice
of appeal that he risked a IS-year
increase in an already lengthy
sentence."
Justices Samuel A. Alito and
John Paul Stevens dissented,
holding that the decision to
correct errors and impose harsher
punishments should be left to the
discretion of the court.
“We have long held that a
sentencing court confronted with
new circumstances may impose a
stiffer sentence on remand than
the defendant received prior to a
successful appeal,” Alito wrote.
In Rothgery v. Gillespie County,
Texas, the court ruled 8-1 that a
defendant’s Sixth Amendment
right to legal counsel applies at the
defendant’s first appearance before
a judicial officer, when he is told of
the charges against him, regardless
of whether a prosecutor is aware of
the arrest or involved in the case.
“We have recognized that certain
pretrial events may so prejudice
the outcome of the defendant’s
prosecution that, as a practical
matter, the defendant must be
presented at those events in
order to enjoy genuinely effective
assistance at trial,” Alito wrote in a
concurring opinion.
Walter Rothgery was arrested
on information that turned out to
be false. He argued that had he had
a lawyer earlier in the process he
could have avoided being indicted
and spending three weeks in jail
before the charges were dismissed.
Justice Clarence Thomas wrote
a dissenting opinion, arguing for
a stricter definition of "criminal
prosecution” as specified in the
Sixth Amendment. Under that
definition, defendants would not
have a right to a lawyer until they
face formal charges, such as an
Indictment.
The court set Wednesday as an
additional day to issue opinions.
It has seven cases left to decide In
this term.