David S. Broder, a correspondent and commentator for The Washington Post who covered 11 presidential campaigns and hundreds of other elections, authoring books and winning top journalism prizes along the way, died March 9 of complications from diabetes. He was 81.
Broder is being remembered for setting the "the gold standard" for political reporting in the United States for decades and as the "dean of political writers." He was influential as a commentator, was revered by his colleagues, and earned politicians' grudging respect for his thoroughness, fairness and doggedness.
Longtime commentator Jack Germond said that "For those of us who spent our careers competing with David Broder, the hardest thing to abide was die inevitable comparison. If someone said Jack Germond ... is a pretty good political reporter, the default response would be 'but he's no David Broder.' "
In a statement from the White House, President Barack Obama called Broder a "true giant of journalism" and said he "built a well-deserved reputation as die most respected and incisive political commentator of his generation."
Former Washington Post executive editor Benjamin Bradlee said Broder "knew politics from the back room."
Broder gained that knowledge the oldfashioned way - with relendess travel and interviews with the professionals of small- and large-scale politics in state capitals and cities across the nation. That degree of "shoe leather" reporting often put him ahead of national figures in understanding political trends.
His longtime employer, The Washington Post, presented a detailed package of stories, audio recordings, photographs and elegies of Broder, and described him as follows: "Balding, sporting horn-rimmed glasses and measured in his speaking style, Mr. Broder was once likened to an MIT professor in appearance. He was a frequent and instantly recognizable panelist on TV news-discussion shows, a penetrating questioner who often put politicians on the spot and a clear-eyed analyst who could cut to the heart of an issue."
The New York Times, where Broder served a short stint in the 1950s, said he "was often called the dean of the Washington press corps and just as often described as a reporter's reporter, a shoeleather guy who always got on one more airplane, knocked on one more door, made one more phone call. He would travel more than 100,000 miles a year to write more than a quarter-million words. In short, he composed first drafts of history for an awful lot of history"
Some of Broder 's best scoops included identifying Spiro Agnew as Richard Nixon's vice presidential running mate and reporting that U.S. Sen. Edmund Muskie of Maine cried during a public appearance before the 1972 New Hampshire Democratic primary. However, Broder's streng�i was not as an investigative reporter, but radier as a collector and disseminator of insights and information gathered through hours of legwork.
Washington Post political writer Dan BaIz wrote that long before the Internet, Broder built a network of stringers who provided him with updates of local political news.
"He knew the details of everything but never lost sight of die big picture," BaIz wrote. "In an era in which political reporting has become more and more focused on minutiae, he kept his focus where it belonged - on the events and forces diat move ordinary Americans and shape history"
Broder balanced reporting and commentary; he was criticized by partisans on the right and the left for being too "centrist." New York Times columnist Frank Rich called Broder "Washington's bloviator-in-chiefT to which Broder responded, "He's on my case. But that goes with the territory."
Broder was born in Chicago Heights, 111., in 1921. His father was the dentist to the area's Jewish community. He received a master's degree from University of Chicago and wrote for an Army newspaper during a two-year stint in the military. After a short internship at the Pantagraph in Bloomington, Ind., Broder moved to Washington, where he worked for the Congressional Quarterly and others, including The New York Times, before finding his home at The Washington Post.
Over the years Broder became a TV talk show staple, as well, and is die alltime leader in appearances on Meet the Press with more than 400. He won a Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1973, during the height of the Watergate scandal, many awards and at least 16 honorary degrees.
Broder is survived by his wife, Ann Collar of Arlington; four sons, George of San Francisco, Joshua of Brooklyn, N. Y, Matthew of Hamden, Conn., and Michael of Arlington; and seven grandchildren.
[Author Affiliation]
by Alan D. Abbey
JTA News and Features
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