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.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

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.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’re near the end of our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we have a very ambitious goal of $127,000 by April 21.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Make a Passover Gift Today!

$90 $180

$360

Other amount