Daniel Schorr, Veteran Journalist, Is Dead at 93
Daniel Schorr, the veteran journalist who took on giants and started his career with JTA, has died.
Schorr, 93, died Friday in Washington, according to a statement from NPR, where he still worked as a commentator.
Schorr started working as a journalist at the Jewish Telegraphic Agency from 1934 to 1941. He first worked for its daily newspaper, the Jewish Daily Bulletin, as a reporter and then after its demise for JTA as a cable rewrite man, writing news stories based on cables from around the world.
After JTA, he worked for a while for a Dutch news agency, served in the army, and then returned to the Dutch agency, always pressing for a New York Times job.
After finally being turned down in 1953 – because, he said, the paper feared having too many Jewish bylines – he landed a job with CBS and opened its Moscow bureau, where he worked until Soviet authorities told him not to return from a vacation, in 1957.
His aggressive coverage of government earned him enemies. He even made President Nixon’s famed “enemies list” for his coverage of the Watergate wiretapping and burglary scandal, which earned him three Emmys.
He parted with CBS in 1976 over its refusal to air his scoop about a congressional report on CIA malfeasance.
He worked for CNN for from its inception in 1979 until he fell out with management in 1985 over his refusal to accommodate former politicians as commentators equal to journalists. Since then he worked for NPR.
According to the New York Times, he is survived by his wife, Lisbeth, a daughter, Lisa, and a son, Jonathan.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!
