i knew daniel schorr as a commentator for npr, not knowing that he was already in his 70's when first heard him on public radio in the 80's. he was 93 when he died today, his advanced age never evident in his voice. i had no clue he was that old and assumed he'd be around as long as me. didn't i just hear him on npr this week?
what i've learned about him today: he's been a journalist and correspondent for almost 65 years now. he conducted the first ever tv interview with nikita khruschev in 1957. he was number 17 of 20 on richard nixon's "enemies list"; a fact he discovered while reading the list live on-air. in 1976, he made public a suppressed report on illegal cia and fbi 'findings' and to this day, he has not revealed his source. he's been a staunch advocate for first amendment rights his whole career.
less auspiciously, he was born august 31, 1916, so he and i not only share similar names, we share our birthday (i'm aug 31, 1964. if you have any interest in chinese astrology, you'd know that we were both born in 'dragon' years. i think all this means that we both have a knack for occasionally pissing off the wrong people b/c of our beliefs and/or behavior). the schorr's are ukranian-jew, he was born in the bronx. the schmorr's are prussian-jew, my dad born in the bronx.
sigh. i'm just really going to miss his voice.
No comments:
Post a Comment