Awful news: Neil Sheehan, who obtained the Pentagon Papers for the New York Times, died this morning at age 84. He was a tireless chronicler of the Vietnam War and earned the Pulitzer Prize for "A Bright Shining Lie":
Harrison Smith
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Harrison Smith
@harrisondsmith
I edit and write obits for @washpost, chronicling the lives of remarkable people. More active on 🦋. Get in touch at [email protected]
- Replying to @harrisondsmithThis, from Neil Sheehan, feels especially resonant: "If you’re afraid of going to jail you have no business being a newspaperman." After obtaining the Pentagon Papers, he pushed for publication even as NYT's publisher felt that “the entire operation smelled of 20 years to life”
- Thomas D'Alesandro III died Sunday at 90. He led Baltimore as mayor during the 1968 riots after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., left politics and decades later saw his sister, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, pick up the family mantle:
- Replying to @harrisondsmith"If to report now be called theft, and if to publish now be called treason, then so be it. Let God give us the courage to commit more of the same." Full quote from Sheehan, after winning a reporting prize for Pentagon Papers 👇
- "Happy people don’t often make good copy editors. Dave was the exception to that." My obit for David Larimer, a versatile and beloved Washington Post editor who oversaw breaking news coverage in sports and helped shape early reporting on covid-19:
- Why is DC police recruiting on the C train in New York? And why are they looking for “Gamers - Foodies - Techies - Influencers”?
- RIP Claudia Levy, a Washington Post reporter and union activist who battled for women's equality in the newsroom. She helped bring a sex-discrimination complaint against the paper in 1972, leading the Post to prioritize hiring women and minorities.
- Pour one out for Norma Miller, whose acrobatic flips, slides, leaps and twists made her one of the great Lindy Hoppers of the 1930s and '40s. She reinvented herself as comedian and singer and led dance workshops into her 90s. RIP, Queen:
- "Hearing people still have so many misconceptions - like deaf people can’t read or dance or cry or laugh. The movie shows that we have the same worries and feelings, abilities and aspirations." RIP Mark Medoff, author of "Children of a Lesser God": wapo.st/2Pshlkn
- "Only when the many shapes of personhood are recognized will justice and human rights be possible." RIP Mel Baggs, a disability rights activist who championed the humanity of all, including those who couldn't speak:
- Farewell to Judith Krantz, who "spun ornate, breathless tales with only-in-your-dreams endings. Her powerful heroines had showgirl names, fabulous wardrobes and beauty so astounding it defied the English language." From @nbkrug: wapo.st/2x8drF7
- The Post obit for Jim Sheeler, a master obituary writer who honored fallen troops — and the Marine Corps major who helped their families grieve — with his Pulitzer-winning article "Final Salute":
- RIP Mary Pratt, who threw a no-hitter, had a 20-win season and still knew the Rockford Peaches anthem by heart: "Oh, we’re all in bed by 10 o’clock, that is a dirty lie/We are the Rockford ballclub, our motto Do or Die." Yes, there is crying in baseball:
