- Howard Simons
Howard Simons (
June 3 ,1929 -June 13 ,1989 ) was the managing editor of theWashington Post at the time of theWatergate scandal , and later curator of theNieman Foundation for Journalism atHarvard University .According to his Washington Post obituary, Simons was a native of
Albany, New York , and received a BA fromUnion College inSchenectady in 1951 and a master's degree a year later from theColumbia University Graduate School of Journalism . After service in the Korean War, he became a science reporter in Washington for several news organizations, and joined The Post as a science writer in 1961. He became assistant managing editor in 1966 and managing editor in 1971.According to a site on the Howard Simons Fellowship, "Simons received the first phone call in The Post newsroom with word of the Watergate break-in and pressed relentlessly on the paper's coverage of the story. He started at The Post as a science reporter but soon became an editor, nurturing talented young reporters such as
Bob Woodward andCarl Bernstein ." Simons is credited with dubbing their well-placed source "Deep Throat," in reference to the film of the same name.:"When the time came, it was managing editor Howard Simons--not Ben Bradlee or other ranking editors--who made the crucial early decisions that led to the Washington Post's extraordinary coverage of the Watergate scandal, especially the decision to allow the metropolitan staff, which did not normally report on national politics, to pursue the story.:"
The Great Cover-Up " byBarry Sussman , page 66.After The Washington Post
Simons left "The Post" for a position as Curator at
The Nieman Foundation for Journalism atHarvard university in 1984.Simons authored "Jewish Times: Voices of the American Jewish Experience," (Houghton-Mifflin, 1988), and "Simons' List Book" (1977). He edited two books with
Joseph A. Califano, Jr. , "The Media and the Law" and "The Media and Business," and in 1986 wrote a spy novel withHaynes Johnson called "The Landing."A well-known quotation attributed to Simons:
:"People who are funny and smart and return phone calls get much better press than people who are just funny and smart."
He stepped down from the Nieman position on
May 25 ,1989 , on medical leave, and succumbed topancreatic cancer three weeks later, aged 60.A scholarship named after him assists minority students aspiring in journalism (see [http://www.journalism.umd.edu/financial/simons.html] ).
References
* Epstein, Noel. Howard Simons, Ex-Managing Editor of Post and Nieman Curator, Dies. [http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?r101:1:./temp/~r101QIPG7x:e15468: "Washington Post"] , June 14, 1989.
* Jones, Alex S. Howard Simons Dies at Age 60, an Ex-Editor at Washington Post. "New York Times", June 14, 1989.
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