From the WSJ Opinion Archives
The Prince of Darkness
Bob Novak gets roasted in Washington.
Bob Novak, a syndicated columnist for 38 years and a fixture on CNN for two decades, looked just a tad uncomfortable receiving the National Press Club's award for lifetime achievement last week. Bob has seen enough Beltway awards dinners filled with flattery to be leery about being the subject of one. But then the roasting of the man Washington journalists have dubbed "The Prince of Darkness" began, and Bob began to enjoy himself. There's nothing like creating a role for yourself and then having your peers recognize you for being good at it.
In addition to poking fun at Bob's tough-guy image, the dinner speakers recognized the talents that have made Bob's "Inside Report" the best shoe-leather "reported" column in America. Bob may have passed his 70th birthday, but he outworks most journalists two generations younger than he is. I should know. Back in 1982 I became the first reporter Bob and his late partner, Rowland Evans, ever hired, and both of them always outdid me in both savvy and stamina.
The roasters--Jack Germond of the Baltimore Sun, Fred Barnes of The Weekly Standard and syndicated columnist Art Buchwald--poked gentle fun at Novakian foibles, especially his passion for following basketball teams on the road and then finding a convenient political story in whatever city he was in. They also effectively lampooned the writing style he and Rowly Evans perfected--an insider argot that constantly referred to "secret memos" and "little-noticed meetings" took on major policy and political significance. A hilarious send-up of a "lost" Bob Novak column prepared for the Press Club dinner appears this week in The Weekly Standard.
Art Buchwald joked that Mr. Novak really wasn't as important as he thought he was in Washington: "After all, tonight's Press Club banquet room is the only one in town without a metal detector." As he said that, I looked around and noted that while the room was filled with interesting people, no elected officials or cabinet officers were in evidence. Congress had already cleared out of town for the weekend and the war was no doubt occupying Bush officials, but the observation nonetheless held. Bob is a fine journalist, but not one to cozy up too close to politicians, the stray exception such as Jack Kemp not withstanding. Bob isn't a Republican, he's a tough reporter who does his own roasting of people on both sides of the aisle.
But he's also of an old school that recognizes how blessed he has been to have had a chance to have a career in which he can tell people what he thinks. When Bob stood up to give his response to the "roasters," he thanked his family and the people who took a chance on him during his career. He also took time to recognize the print and TV outlets that paid his bills. "I know who I work for, and it isn't the government."
Bob finished up by having some fun at the expense of the many sources for his column who were in the audience. He noted that he had learned one important thing in his 43 years in Washington: "There are two kinds of people in this town, sources . . . and targets, and you better make up your mind which you are." But in reality there is a third kind of person: readers and viewers. There remain more than enough of those, both in Washington and all over the country, who appreciate Bob Novak to keep him a valuable political tipster and provocative influence on American journalism for years to come.
