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Not surprisingly, NBC closed its newscast with anchor Brian Williams summarizing the weekend of mourning for DC bureau chief Tim Russert: "We have been overwhelmed, by the way, with the outpouring of sympathy." All three newscasts used Russert's sudden, unpredicted, fatal heart attack as a hook to offer a primer on heart disease. It is an illness that kills 451,000 Americans annually, according to ABC's A Closer Look; 300,000 according to CBS. NBC's Robert Bazell and CBS' in-house physician Jon LaPook and ABC's John McKenzie (embargoed link) all made the point that a cardiac arrest such as the one that killed Russert--an artery rupture from a piece of plaque that is too small to detect in a stress test--cannot be predicted but can be prevented. Prevention tips that all three mentioned consisted of keeping cholesterol low, avoiding cigarettes, exercising regularly and maintaining a normal weight. Bazell and LaPook threw in being non-diabetic, having normal blood pressure and making regular visits to one's physician. Bazell, alone, recommended living a stressfree life, even as he reported that Russert's lifestyle, while busy, even frenetic, was not stressful because it was not negative.
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