Дэвид Бродер: Жизнь и карьера американского журналиста

American journalist (1929–2011)

David Salzer Broder (September 11, 1929March 9, 2011) was an American journalist, writing for The Washington Post for over 40 years. He was also an author, television news show pundit, and university lecturer. For more than half a century, Broder reported on every presidential campaign, beginning with the 1956 United States presidential election between Dwight D. Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson II.

After 18 months at The New York Times, Broder moved to The 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 through The 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. In May 2008, Broder accepted a buyout offer from The Washington Post Co., effective January 1, 2009, but continued to write his twice weekly Post 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 the Post to use its budget for other news section salaries and expenses." 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. 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 the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1973 and was the recipient of numerous awards and academic honors before and after. In his Pulitzer Prize acceptance speech, Broder said:

For many years Broder appeared on Washington Week, Meet the Press, and other network television and radio news programs. It was announced at the close of 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 hosts. 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 guest. Broder also contributed to The Bob Edwards Show as a political commentator.

Broder died of complications from diabetes on March 9, 2011, at the age of 81. Upon Broder's death, President Barack Obama called him the "most respected and incisive political commentator of his generation".

The New Yorker's political commentator Hendrik Hertzberg called Broder "relentlessly centrist." Frank Rich of The New York Times described Broder as the nation's "bloviator in chief." While on vacation, Broder would write his column from his retreat on Beaver Island, Michigan. Writing for Slate, Timothy Noah found Broder's attempts to merge national affairs with summertime reflections "mind bendingly dull." Writing in the Washington City Paper, Jack Shafer felt that Broder managed to merge "the cosmic and common in a stupefying slop of prose."

He earned substantial attention 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 and Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72. Broder's work was also cited in two autobiographies by key figures in the history of The Washington Post: Personal History by Post publisher Katharine Graham in 1997 and A Good Life: Newspapering and Other Adventures 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. Broder is also mentioned in President Bill Clinton's biography First in His Class by David Maraniss. Broder earned a place in works 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, and in Steven Spielberg's 2017 film The Post. In the 2018 film The Front Runner, he is portrayed by John Bedford Lloyd.