Jonathan Martin: Nelson embodied journalism's golden age
[Jonathan Martin is a senior political writer.]
Journalist Jack Nelson, who died Tuesday of pancreatic cancer at age 80, earned his fame as one of Washington’s best-connected and best-known reporters.
He also outlived the position that made him so influential.
Nelson spent 20 years — from 1975 to 1995— as a dominant player in the nation’s capital as the bureau chief of the Los Angeles Times.
But the years since have radically devalued the title of Washington bureau chief — and not only at the Times. There are still bureau chiefs, though far fewer in number, as many regional newspapers either shut down their offices here or sharply downsize their presence.
But veteran reporters Wednesday noted that there are no longer bureau chiefs of the sort represented by Nelson and a generation of colleagues who moved through Washington with an outsized presence.
Bureau chiefs for the newspapers and weekly magazines were ambassadors for their publications in Washington. They interviewed presidents and lunched with congressmen and White House aides. They were familiar names to anyone who followed Washington.
In those days, bureau chiefs often had dozens of reporters under their direct command, a powerful force to shape what millions of Americans learned about the capital and national politics.
“It was somebody who knew everybody and everything that moved,” recalled Newsweek reporter Howard Fineman, who came to the capital in 1978 for the Louisville Courier-Journal. “And who, with the backing of a big bureau, could really turn on a big story when necessary; somebody who was not only a good reporter and could get around town, but had some reporting horsepower — they could get a dozen people dialing phones in the era before Google.”
Read entire article at Politico
Journalist Jack Nelson, who died Tuesday of pancreatic cancer at age 80, earned his fame as one of Washington’s best-connected and best-known reporters.
He also outlived the position that made him so influential.
Nelson spent 20 years — from 1975 to 1995— as a dominant player in the nation’s capital as the bureau chief of the Los Angeles Times.
But the years since have radically devalued the title of Washington bureau chief — and not only at the Times. There are still bureau chiefs, though far fewer in number, as many regional newspapers either shut down their offices here or sharply downsize their presence.
But veteran reporters Wednesday noted that there are no longer bureau chiefs of the sort represented by Nelson and a generation of colleagues who moved through Washington with an outsized presence.
Bureau chiefs for the newspapers and weekly magazines were ambassadors for their publications in Washington. They interviewed presidents and lunched with congressmen and White House aides. They were familiar names to anyone who followed Washington.
In those days, bureau chiefs often had dozens of reporters under their direct command, a powerful force to shape what millions of Americans learned about the capital and national politics.
“It was somebody who knew everybody and everything that moved,” recalled Newsweek reporter Howard Fineman, who came to the capital in 1978 for the Louisville Courier-Journal. “And who, with the backing of a big bureau, could really turn on a big story when necessary; somebody who was not only a good reporter and could get around town, but had some reporting horsepower — they could get a dozen people dialing phones in the era before Google.”