WASHINGTON (JTA) — Daniel Schorr, the veteran journalist who took on giants and started his career with JTA, has died.
Schorr died Friday in Washington, according to a statement from NPR, where he still worked as a commentator. He was 93.
Schorr started as a journalist working at the Jewish Telegraphic Agency from 1934 to 1941. He began at its daily newspaper, the Jewish Daily Bulletin, as a reporter and then after its demise worked 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 U.S. Army, and then returned to the Dutch agency, always pressing for a New York Times job.
After finally being turned down in 1953 — he said the paper feared having too many Jewish bylines — Schorr landed a job with CBS and opened its Moscow bureau, where he worked until Soviet authorities told him in 1957 not to return from a vacation.
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.
Schorr parted with CBS in 1976 over its refusal to air his scoop about a congressional report on CIA malfeasance.
He worked for CNN 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.
