David S. Broder | |
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 Broder in 2008 | |
| Born | David Salzer Broder (1929-09-11)September 11, 1929 |
| Died | March 9, 2011(2011-03-09) (aged 81) |
| Education |
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| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1953–2011 |
| Spouse | Ann Creighton Collar |
| Children | 4 |
David Salzer Broder (September 11, 1929[1] – March 9, 2011) was an American journalist, writing forThe Washington Post for over 40 years.[2] He was also an author, television news showpundit, and university lecturer.
For more than half a century, Broder reported on every presidential campaign, beginning with the1956 United States presidential election betweenDwight D. Eisenhower andAdlai Stevenson II.[2] Known as the dean of theWashington, D.C. press corps, Broder made over 400 appearances onNBC'sMeet the Press. TheForbes Media Guide Five Hundred, 1994 stated: "Broder is the best of an almost extinct species, the daily news reporter who doubles as an op-ed page columnist....With his solid reporting and shrewd analysis, Broder remains one of the sager voices in Washington."[3]
David Salzer Broder was born to aJewish family[4][5] inChicago Heights, Illinois,[6] the son of Albert "Doc" Broder, a dentist,[2] and Nina Salzer Broder.[7]
He earned a bachelor's degree in liberal arts from theUniversity 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 inCrawfordsville, Indiana, in 1951. They had four sons—George, Joshua, Matthew, and Michael—and seven grandchildren.[2]
Broder began working as a journalist while pursuing his master's degree, serving as editor ofThe Chicago Maroon[8] and later at theHyde Park Herald.[9] He was drafted into theU.S. Army in 1951, where he wrote for the newspaperU.S. Forces Austria (USFA) Sentinel, until he was discharged from the Army in 1953.
In 1953 Broder reported forThe Pantagraph inBloomington, Illinois, covering Livingston and Woodford counties in the central part of the state. From there he moved to theCongressional Quarterly in Washington D.C., 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 atCQ, Broder also worked forThe New York Times as a freelance writer.
In 1960 Broder joinedThe Washington Star as a junior political writer covering thepresidential election that year between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. During his five years at theStar, he was promoted to a national political news reporter and was a weekly contributor to the paper's op-ed page.
Broder left theStar forThe New York Times in 1965, hired by well-knownTimes political reporter and columnistTom Wicker to serve in its Washington bureau.
After 18 months atThe New York Times, Broder moved toThe Washington Post, where he would remain for over 40 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 throughThe Washington Post Writers Group. More than 300 newspapers carried his columns 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.[10][11][12]
In May 2008, Broder accepted a buyout offer fromThe Washington Post Co., effective January 1, 2009,[13] but continued to write his twice-weeklyPost column as a contract employee. In a letter to the publications that ran his column, Broder said: "This change will allow me to focus entirely on the column while freeing up thePost to use its budget for other news-section salaries and expenses."[13]
In June 2008,Ken Silverstein, a columnist atHarper'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.[14]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.[15] 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."
Broder won thePulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1973 and was the recipient of numerous awards and academic honors before and after. In hisPulitzer Prize acceptance speech, Broder said:
Instead of promising "All the News That's Fit to Print," I would like to see us say—over and over until the point has been made—that the newspaper that drops on your doorstep is a partial, hasty, incomplete, inevitably somewhat flawed and inaccurate rendering of some of the things we have heard about in the past 24 hours—distorted, despite our best efforts to eliminate gross bias, by the very process of compression that makes it possible for you to lift it from the doorstep and read it in about an hour. If we labeled the product accurately, then we could immediately add: But it's the best we could do under the circumstances, and we will be back tomorrow with a corrected and updated version.[16]
For many years Broder appeared onWashington Week,Meet the Press, and other network television and radio[17] news programs. It was announced at the close of August 10, 2008, broadcast ofMeet 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 hosts. The next closest person to Broder wasBob Novak, who had appeared onMeet the Press fewer than 250 times.
Broder was a weekly guest on XM/Sirius Satellite Radio'sThe Bob Edwards Show starting in October 2004. On the premiere broadcast, Broder was joined by CBS News anchorWalter Cronkite as the program's first guest. Broder also contributed toThe Bob Edwards Show as a political commentator.[citation needed]
In 2001 Broder became a lecturer at theUniversity of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism while continuing to write full-time atThe 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 also lectured atDuke University (1987–88).[18]
He is author or co-author of eight books:
Broder died of complications from diabetes on March 9, 2011, at the age of 81.[2][19] Upon Broder's death,PresidentBarack Obama called him the "most respected and incisive political commentator of his generation".[20][21]
The New Yorker's political commentatorHendrik Hertzberg called Broder "relentlessly centrist."[22]Frank Rich ofThe New York Times described Broder as the nation's "bloviator in chief."[23]
While on vacation, Broder would write his column from his retreat onBeaver Island, Michigan. Writing forSlate,Timothy Noah found Broder's attempts to merge national affairs with summertime reflections "mind-bendingly dull." Writing in theWashington City Paper,Jack Shafer felt that Broder managed to merge "the cosmic and common in a stupefying slop of prose."[24]
The left-wing bloggerAtrios, a frequent critic of Broder's work, coined the term High Broderism:
We normally think of "High Broderism" as the worship of bipartisanship for its own sake, combined with a fake "pox on both their houses" attitude. But in reality, this is just the cover Broder uses for his real agenda, the defense of what he perceives to be "the establishment" at all costs.[25]
He earned substantial attention in two books chronicling the media's coverage of the 1972 presidential campaign betweenRichard Nixon andGeorge McGovern, includingTimothy Crouse'sThe Boys on the Bus[26] and Gonzo journalistHunter S. Thompson'sFear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72.[27]
Broder's work was also cited in two autobiographies by key figures in the history ofThe Washington Post:Personal History[28] byPost publisherKatharine Graham in 1997 andA Good Life: Newspapering and Other Adventures[29] byPost executive editorBen Bradlee in 1995. More recently, Broder was included in formerPost 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.[30] Broder is also mentioned in PresidentBill Clinton's biographyFirst in His Class[31] byDavid Maraniss.
Broder earned a place in works of fiction, meriting a mention by aWhite House senior staffer to fictional U.S. president Jed Bartlet (portrayed by actorMartin Sheen) on the NBC-TV seriesThe West Wing,[32] and in Steven Spielberg's 2017 filmThe Post. In the 2018 filmThe Front Runner, he is portrayed byJohn Bedford Lloyd.
Broder was born in Chicago Heights, Ill., in 1929. His father was the dentist to the area's Jewish community.
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