David Salzer Broder was an American
journalist, writing for
The Washington Post for over forty years.
[1] He also was an
author, television news show
pundit, and university
lecturer died from complications from diabetes he was , 81..
For more than half a century, Broder reported on every presidential campaign, beginning with the
1956 Eisenhower–Stevenson race.
[1] Known as the "dean" of the Washington press corps, Broder made over 400 appearances on
NBC's
Meet the Press.
Upon Broder's death in March 2011,
President Barack Obama called him the "most respected and incisive political commentator of his generation."
[2][3]
(September 11, 1929 – March 9, 2011)
Early life and education
David Salzer Broder was born in
Chicago Heights, Illinois,
[4] the son of Albert "Doc" Broder, a dentist,
[1] and Nina Salzer Broder.
[5]
He earned a bachelors degree in liberal arts from the
University of Chicago in 1947 and continued his studies there, receiving a master's degree in political science in 1951. While at Chicago, he met fellow student Ann Creighton Collar, and they were married in
Crawfordsville, Indiana in 1951. They had four sons and seven grandchildren.
[1]
Journalism career
Early years
He began working as a journalist while pursuing his masters degree, serving as editor of
The Chicago Maroon[6] and later at the
Hyde Park Herald.
[7] He was drafted into the
US Army in 1951, where he wrote for the newspaper
U.S. Forces Austria (USFA) Sentinel, until he was discharged from the Army in 1953.
In 1953, Broder reported for the
Pantagraph newspaper in
Bloomington, IL, covering Livingston and Woodford counties in the central part of the state. From there he moved to the
Congressional Quarterly in Washington DC, in 1955, where he apprenticed under senior reporter Helen Monberg and got his first taste of covering Congressional politics. During his four-and-a-half years at
CQ, Broder also worked at
The New York Times as a freelance writer.
In 1960, Broder joined the
Washington Star as a junior political writer covering the
presidential election that year between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. During his five years at the
Star, he was promoted to national political news reporter and was a weekly contributor to the paper’s op-ed page.
Broder left the
Star for
The New York Times in 1965, hired by well-known
Times political reporter and columnist
Tom Wicker to serve in its Washington bureau.
Washington Post columnist
After 18 months at
The Times, Broder moved to
The Washington Post, where he would remain for over forty years, beginning as a reporter and weekly op-ed contributor. Later, he was given a second weekly column. Broder’s columns were distributed initially through The Washington Post Wire Service and then later syndicated through
The Washington Post Writers Group. His columns were carried by more than 300 newspapers for many years.
The longtime columnist was informally known as the "Dean" of the Washington press corps and the "unofficial chairman of the board" by national political writers.
[8][9][10]
In May 2008, Broder accepted a buyout offer from
The Washington Post Co., effective January 1, 2009,
[11] but continued to write his twice-weekly
Post column as a contract employee. In a letter to the publications that run his column, Broder said: "This change will allow me to focus entirely on the column, while freeing up the
Post to use its budget for other news-section salaries and expenses."
[11]
In June 2008,
Ken Silverstein, a columnist at
Harper's magazine alleged that Broder had accepted free accommodations and thousands of dollars in speaking fees from various business and healthcare groups, in one instance penning an opinion column supporting positions favored by one of the groups.
[12] Deborah Howell,
The Washington Post's ombudsman at the time, wrote that Broder's acceptance of speaking fees appeared to be a violation of the paper's policy on outside speeches, as was the fact that some of the groups that paid Broder also lobby Congress.
[13] Howell pointed out that Broder said "he had cleared his speeches with Milton Coleman, deputy managing editor, or Tom Wilkinson, an assistant managing editor, but neither remembered him mentioning them."
Pulitzer Prize
Broder won the
Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1973 and was the recipient of numerous awards and academic honors before and after.
Meet the Press and other broadcast media
For many years Broder appeared on
Washington Week,
Meet the Press, and other network television news programs. It was announced at the close of the August 10, 2008 broadcast of
Meet the Press that Broder was celebrating his 400th appearance on that program, on which he first appeared July 7, 1963. He appeared far more often than any other person, other than the program's panelists. The next closest person to Broder was
Bob Novak, who had appeared on
Meet the Press fewer than 250 times.
Broder was a weekly guest on XM/Sirius Satellite Radio's
The Bob Edwards Show starting in October 2004. On the premiere broadcast, Broder was joined by CBS News anchor
Walter Cronkite as the program’s first guests. Broder also contributed to
The Bob Edwards Show as a political commentator.
Lecturer and author
In 2001, Broder became a lecturer at the
University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism while continuing to write full-time at
The Washington Post. He generally lectured one class a year on politics and the press, the class meeting at the newspaper. Merrill College Dean Thomas Kunkel described Broder as the nation's "most respected political journalist" when he announced Broder's hire. Broder has also lectured at
Duke University (1987–1988).
[15]
He is author or co-author of eight books:
Death
Broder died of complications from diabetes on March 9, 2011 at the age of 81.
[1][16]
Reception by peers
Broder was called "relentlessly centrist" by
The New Yorker's political commentator
Hendrik Hertzberg.
[17] Frank Rich of
The New York Times often described Broder as the nation's "bloviator-in-chief".
[18]
He earned a mention in two books chronicling the media’s coverage of the 1972 presidential campaign between
Richard Nixon and
George McGovern, including
Timothy Crouse’s
The Boys on the Bus[19] and Gonzo journalist
Hunter S. Thompson’s
Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail ’72.
[20]
Broder’s work was also cited in two autobiographies by key figures in the history of
The Washington Post:
Personal History[21] by
Post publisher
Katherine Graham in 1997 and
A Good Life: Newspapering and Other Adventures[22] by
Post executive editor
Ben Bradlee in 1995. More recently, Broder was included in former
Post columnist Dave Kindred’s 2010 book on the paper's struggles in the changing media landscape:
Morning Miracle: A Great Newspaper Fights for Its Life.
[23] Broder is also mentioned in
Bill Clinton’s biography
First In His Class[24] by
David Maraniss.
Broder earned a place in a work of fiction, meriting a mention by a
White House senior staffer to fictional U.S. President Jed Bartlet (portrayed by actor
Martin Sheen) on the NBC-TV series
The West Wing.
[25]
Awards and recognition
- Pulitzer Prize for Commentary, 1973
- 4th Estate Award from the National Press Club,[26] 1988
- White Burkett Miller Presidential Award in 1989
- Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award[27](Colby College), 1990
- National Press Foundation's Distinguished Contributions to Journalism Award, 1992
- Illinois State Society Distinguished Illinoisans Award,[28] 1997
- National Society of Newspaper Columnists Lifetime Achievement Award, 1997[29]
- William Allen White Foundation's Award for Distinguished Achievement in Journalism,[30] 1997
- Honorary Doctor of Political Science, DePauw University, May 18, 2003
- Washingtonian Magazine’s 50 Best Journalists,[31] 2005
- University of Chicago Alumni Medal, [32] June 2005
- Jefferson-Lincoln Award, Panetta Institute for Public Policy,[33] 2007
- Washingtonian Magazine’s 50 Best Journalists[34] 2009
Honorary degrees
- Honorary Doctor of Laws, Cleveland State University, 1981[35]
- Doctor of Literature, Wittenberg University, 1982[36]
- Doctor of Humane Letters, Yale University, 1984[37]
- Doctor of Humane Letters, Kalamazoo College, 1988[38]
- Honorary Degree, Rider University, 1989[39]
- Honorary Doctor of Laws, Lawrence University, 1989[40]
- Honorary Degree, University of Michigan, 1994[41]
- Doctor of Humane Letters, College of William & Mary, 1995[42]
- Doctor of Journalism, University of Miami, 1999[43]
- Doctor of Humane Letters, Muhlenberg College, 2000[44]
- Doctor of Political Science, DePauw University, 2003[45]
- Honorary Degree, Clark University, 2005[46]
- Doctor of Humane Letters, Bryant University, 2006[47]
- Honorary Doctor of Laws, Ball State University, 2006[48]
- Doctor of Humanities, Santa Clara University, 2007[49]
- Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, Bradley University, May 17, 2008.[50]
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David Viñas was an Argentine dramatist, critic, and novelist died from pneumonic infection he was , 83..
Viñas' work centers on Argentine history, and generally does not partake of the magical realism favored by his contemporaries. He is deeply concerned with Argentina's legacy of authoritarianism and the problems posed by the nature and historical dominance of the Argentine military. Two of his children disappeared during the 1976-83 military regime, and he spent that era in exile, returning to Argentina in 1984.
