What makes a newspaperman? What forces shape a person’s mind and heart and make them thrive and flourish in the competitive, often dangerous, and always challenging field of journalism?
For Harry Rosenfeld, who led the Washington Post to a Pulitzer Prize Gold Medal for Public Service, it was “holding to account the accountable, the more powerful the better.”
This illuminating and deeply felt story begins in Rosenfeld’s childhood in Hitler’s Berlin, when he found himself trembling at the sight of his synagogue burning on Kristallnacht and watched in terror as his father was arrested and taken away by the Gestapo. Lucky to escape with his family to America, Rosenfeld says his career goals began to take shape when he connected the events of his childhood to the public’s quest for information and came to the realization of why good journalism is essential to democracy.
It is this tenet that weaves throughout the book, showing us why Rosenfeld chose to step into history by first contributing to and then guiding the forces that make a newspaper what it is, and how his vision of what makes journalism good makes us understand the power wielded by those who control the press. Rosenfeld played a key role at the Herald Tribune, one of New York’s late, great newspapers, during its fight for survival, and later joined the Washington Post, where he was instrumental in managing coverage of the political scandal that became Watergate.
Bob Woodward calls this book, “A terrific memoir by one of the great newspapermen of the era,” and it is easy to agree. Rosenfeld’s strong personality comes through, and his observations bring us swiftly back into the times and events of which he writes. His commentary takes us on a journey through this country’s major news events; a nice array of photographs highlight Rosenfeld’s warmth and strong sense of humanity. By the end of the book we know both Rosenfeld and America far better, and understand them both well. Appendix, index.
Linda F. Burghardt is a New York-based journalist and author who has contributed commentary, breaking news, and features to major newspapers across the U.S., in addition to having three non-fiction books published. She writes frequently on Jewish topics and is now serving as Scholar-in-Residence at the Holocaust Memorial & Tolerance Center of Nassau County.
