A great light in journalism has gone out.

Last week Daniel Schorr died at a Washington hospital at 93. He had had a long and illustrious career, starting covering post-war stories in 1946 and ending doing news analysis pieces for National Public Radio until just a few weeks ago.

Mr. Schorr is, paradoxically, one of the last of a dying breed of self-effacing journalists who had the ability to keep himself out of the story and just tell it–what ever it might be. I say paradoxically partly because he fell into the inevitable trap of passing judgement on his stories as his career progressed. Even though he did it with more subtlety, grace and taste than any journalist I have ever known.

During the Fifties, Mr. Schorr went to work for Edward R. Murrow as one of the “Murrow boys”, and I can’t help but think that that experience may have shaped the trajectory of his career. Mr. Murrow was also a very adept impartial journalist but eventually used his position to get into it with Senator McCarthy because, as a member of the fifth estate, he felt so strongly about what he felt was the senator’s attack on the very foundation of democracy. Mr. Murrow eventually lost his job at CBS over the kerfuffle.

During the early 1970’s, Mr. Schorr’s reporting spurred senate investigations of CIA behavior during the Vietnam war and helped lead to the Nixon resignation. Then in 1979, Schorr was hired as the first anchor of CNN. He continued in that position until 1985 when he reportedly had a falling out with network owner Ted Turner. No one knows the details of that falling out but my theory is that it was because CNN was already on its way to to becoming the infotainment channel it is today and Mr. Schorr didn’t appreciate it.
Mr. Schorr then joined NPR using his clout to create his own title as “news analyst”, saying that he would explain the news instead of just reporting it. It was a brilliant move for someone who had so much knowledge. He learned to walk the fine line between reporting and op-ed. And he became a master.

As a person who eschews television, I get my news from NPR. I listen to it all afternoon in the background, but when it was time for Mr. Schorr’s piece, I would always stop whatever I was doing and pay attention. His mastery of history and ability to use just his tone of voice to convey his opinion through that lens as he told the story, and his writer’s talent of getting his point across in the last sentence always fascinated me. I doubt we will ever see his equal.

Good night and good luck Daniel.