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Robert D. Novak died Tuesday morning at the age of 78. He is known as a pundit and political commentator, but he was, first and foremost, a journalist.
Novak got his start in journalism at the Joliet Herald-News in the late 1940s, while he was a student. After serving as lieutenant for the U.S. Army during the Korean War in the 1950s, Novak covered politics for the Associated Press in Nebraska and later Indiana. In 1957, the AP moved him to Washington D.C. to report on Congress. The following year, Novak joined The Wall Street Journal as senior correspondent and political reporter. He became a congressional correspondent in 1961.
His big break came two years later, when Rowland Evans, then a congressional correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune, contacted him to partner up to write “Inside Report.”
“Evans’ strength was being an insider,” writes Townhall columnist and former employee, Tim Carney. “He was a society man friendly with the Kennedys and from the same circles as those in power. Novak was something different. He had sleuthed the halls of the Capitol during his years with the Associated Press and the Wall Street Journal, prying lawmakers and staff for intelligence and keeping his ears peeled. It wasn’t too different 40 years later when I worked for him.”
Their column, which was centered on hard-reportage, made several scoops over the years and was considered a must-read for people both inside and outside of Washington. At its peak, it was syndicated to some 300 newspapers. The notoriety enabled Novak to emerge as one of the first political on-air personalities: he was on CNN on its first weekend and continued to comment regularly on various shows on the channel for 25 years. Following a falling out with CNN, Novak joined FOX News in 2006.
CONSERVATIVE?
John J. Lindsay, a Newsweek reporter dubbed Novak “the prince of darkness,” referring to his conservative views. Indeed, many consider him a conservative columnist.
“Novak has had a huge influence on my career,” conservative pundit Michelle Malkin wrote on her blog shortly after Novak was diagnosed with a brain tumor last year. “During a college conservative journalists’ confab, he urged us to seek metro newspaper jobs, pay our dues, and try to stay out of Washington for as long as possible. I took the advice to heart and left D.C. after a year as an intern at NBC to take my first newspaper job at the L.A. Daily News and then the Seattle Times. 'Pundits' and 'strategists' come and go, but Novak’s longevity is a tribute to–and result of–his newspaperman sensibilities and investigative chops.”
While many on the right, regard Novak as a champion of conservative ideas, others strongly disagree, citing his opposition to the Iraq War, his belief that the September 11 attacks came about as a result of the U.S.'s closeness with Israel, and his 'soft views' on immigration policy, among other things.
But the heart of his views are never made more clear as they are in a phrase Novak enjoyed telling students when he gave talks: “Always love your country, but never trust your government.”
“Bob was known for his very tough and hard-line views, but he was also a great reporter who liked a good story even more than his ideology,” Al Hunt tells the New York Times. Hunt worked for The Wall Street Journal for 39 years before joining Bloomberg as Washington executive editor in 2005.
“He was the ‘reverse’ Washington,” Hunt says. “If you were riding high, Novak loved to kick you. And if you were down, he’d be there for you.”
THE PLAME AFFAIR
No summary of Novak's career would be complete without mention of his biggest scoop—and what has been described as one the messiest points of his career: the Valerie Plame affair.
In 2003, following a tip, Novak published the name of CIA officer Valerie Plame, saying she was “an agency operative on weapons of mass destruction,” (Novak later regretted the use of the word “operative,” noting that a source at Langley had specified Plame was, in fact, an “analyst”).
In a piece at Townhall, Novak defended his choice to name Plame in his column, saying:
This story began July 6 when [Plame's husband, former Ambassador] Wilson went public and identified himself as the retired diplomat who had reported negatively to the CIA in 2002 on alleged Iraq efforts to buy uranium yellowcake from Niger. I was curious why a high-ranking official in President Bill Clinton's National Security Council (NSC) was given this assignment. Wilson had become a vocal opponent of President Bush's
