Cargando...In Memoriam: Robert D. Novak (1931–2009)
Reproducimos la nota publicada por www.firstprinciplesjournal.com dedicada a glosar la importante figura del periodista conservador Robert D. Novak, más conocido como el príncipe de las tinieblas, fallecido el pasado mes de agosto.
Robert D. Novak, the influential political reporter, columnist, and commentator, passed away last week at the age of seventy-eight. In more than half a century covering politics, Mr. Novak earned a reputation for breaking news with his dogged reporting. He also became one of the strongest conservative voices in the mainstream media.
His 2007 autobiography, The Prince of Darkness: Fifty Years Reporting in Washington, is one of the great Washington memoirs. I should note that I am not a disinterested observer: I worked closely with Mr. Novak on the book when I was senior editor at Crown Forum, a division of Random House. But the closing line of Michael Barone’s review of the book in the Weekly Standard should suffice to indicate Mr. Novak’s achievement: “Anyone interested in politics, journalism, and the course of public events over the last 50 years who does not buy and read The Prince of Darkness is denying himself one of the pleasures that life on this earth very seldom offers.”
It was a pleasure, and indeed an honor, to work with Mr. Novak on The Prince of Darkness. The book is refreshing-even rather stunning-for its candor. It also offers a fascinating look at worlds long since vanished: at D.C. when it was still a rather sleepy southern town; at journalism when it was built on shoe leather and the ability to cultivate and keep sources (and, Mr. Novak makes clear, the ability to hold one’s liquor); and at high-level politics before our leaders shielded themselves behind layers upon layers of aides (the stories of Novak’s interactions with LBJ alone are worth the price of the book).
Mr. Novak’s funeral was held on Friday at St. Patrick’s Church in downtown Washington, D.C.-the same church where, eleven years earlier, at the age of sixty-seven, he was baptized as a Christian and confirmed as a Catholic. Requiescat in pace.
The following profile of Mr. Novak, written by Sean Salai, was originally published in American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia (ISI Books, 2006). Just as he promised, Mr. Novak continued to write on politics until almost the very end of his life, breaking news all the while.
-Jed Donahue, Vice President of Publications, ISI
Robert Novak worked his way from covering college basketball as a student at the University of Illinois to become one of the most respected and feared names in twentieth-century, and early twenty-first century, political journalism. A staunch conservative, this so-called “Prince of Darkness” spent fifty years building an unequaled reputation for digging deeper than the mainstream press and has distinguished himself from his peers by a reporting style that has always valued honesty over party loyalties. Novak began writing “Inside Report” with longtime partner Rowland Evans for the Chicago Sun-Times in 1963. The column became a national hit-the longest-running syndicated column ever. Novak’s partnership with Evans also extended to the writing of several books, including Lyndon B. Johnson: The Exercise of Power (1977), Nixon in the White House: The Frustration of Power (1972), and The Reagan Revolution (1981). In addition to writing about domestic affairs, Novak has reported on events around the world, traveling widely and interviewing many world leaders, including Deng Xiaoping in 1978.
An old-school journalist who started out as a paper boy in the days of the printing press, Novak became a household name in the age of the television pundit when he began hosting CNN’s Crossfire and Capital Gang in the 1990s. He recently drew attention in 2003 for disclosing the identity of Valerie Plame as a Central Intelligence Agency operative in what became known as the Plame Affair.
Despite having been raised Jewish and having attended the Catholic Church for nearly two decades, Mr. Novak surprised his readers when he made a sudden decision to convert to Catholicism in the late 1990s. “A college student at one of my lectures told me to do it,” he later confided. “She said I was getting too old to procrastinate. I took that as my sign from God.”
Still considered one of the best sources of political news inside the Beltway, Novak was asked at a recent visit to Wabash College how long he planned to continue writing. “As long as I’m able,” he replied. “It is still as exciting for me as the day I started, and I would not give it up for anything.”
