From the White House:
Like so many here in Washington and across the country, Michelle and I were deeply saddened to hear about the passing of a true giant of journalism, David Broder. David filed his first story from our nation’s capital before starting as a junior political writer on the 1960 presidential election. In the decades that followed, he built a well-deserved reputation as the most respected and incisive political commentator of his generation – winning a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of Watergate and earning the affectionate title of Dean of the Washington press corps. Through all his success, David remained an eminently kind and gracious person, and someone we will dearly miss. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends in this difficult time.
In other journalism news, the White House comes out in support of NPR, facing republican opposition after
a boneheaded NPR fundraiser called the tea party racist. Is the tea party racist? There are two strains to the tea party, the bigots or the so-called "values" strain and the fiscally-minded strain. Sometimes they overlap. Which strain is the largest? Who knows. This comes at a time when NPR is fighting to keep its public support, which is crucial for NPR stations in lower income markets.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said Wednesday that both Democratic and Republican presidents have supported such funding in the past and that there remains a need to support public broadcasting. AP
