Robert Novak Has Brain Tumor
Robert Novak died on August 18, 2009. Read my thoughts on his death here.
I have had a series of posts lately about Robert Novak, one of my favorite reporters/columnists. The news this morning is not good. To be respected by a liberal such as myself means this conservative reporter must be doing something right.
For me, Robert Novak is the quintessential reporter of the past 40 plus years. It was a tremendous pleasure to meet him, and walk alongside him down the hall at the UW-Memorial Union in Madison several years ago while talking about how he writes his columns. He seemed pleased to be ask, and the topic was the type I find interesting. He was walking slow as he was still dealing with the side effects of hip replacement surgery. I found him to be sincere, earnest, and not as some like to define him.
Our hopes and prayers are with him and his family at this time.
Robert Novak, the journalist who has made a fair amount of news himself this month, is suffering from a brain tumor, he revealed today.
On Sunday, July 27, I was diagnosed with a brain tumor,” he said in a statement. “I have been admitted to Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, where doctors will soon begin appropriate treatment.
“I will be suspending my journalistic work for an indefinite but, God willing, not too lengthy period.”
The news was first reported by the Chicago Sun-Times, which syndicates Novak’s column. Initially begun as a joint effort with the late Rowland Evans that began 45 years ago, the column is longest running such commentary in America.
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Robert Novak just retired. Read this link:
http://www.suntimes.com/news/novak/1089872,novak080408.article
hoping that a tumor teaches someone a lesson seems pretty heartless.
did you hope that Russert learned a lesson as he lay dying as well, since he was equally involved?
the guy was CONSERVATIVE COLUMNIST, not a reporter.
He didn’t see his job as writing stories that agree with you politically anymore than Arianna Huffington sees her job as posting stories that create sympathy for the poor oil companies who earn less per dollar of revenue than semiconductor manufacturers.
I’m sure there are better ways for any of us to “learn lessons”
And might I add…wouldn’t his rolodex be wonderful just to read……..
I am very sorry to read of the problems that Novak is having with his health. No one wishes for poor health for him, rabid Republican as he is, but one can hope that this tumor will serve him as a lesson.
What could that lesson be? He already realized this month that he has at times served as lap dog for the Republican party, and as such, is sometimes duped into thinking that that little ball of red meat tossed into the air to catch is just a ball of meat, and not a disguise for some terrible pill!
Perhaps in the last of his fifty years as a journalist, he will finally write an article or two about what needs to be said for the rest of us, not just for the conservatives who are anything but compassionate. Perhaps in the last of his fifty years, Novak will advocate that the rest of us deserve the same medical care one can only assume he is about to receive. Perhaps he will find it in his heart to speak out for all those who get hit by a car and left to die on the side of the road, rather than receiving the medical they may need!
He was a digger, regardless of what you think about that incident or any others. I certainly don’t excuse that episode, but honestly, his involvement was pretty minor in the big picture. I mean, was he any worse than Tim Russert or the folks at Time magazine.
And I do hope that medical treatment will make his life a bit easier.
If that is all you know about Robert Novak…then you do not know Robert Novak. Check out the nearly 50 other years of his career. When I speak of Novak I do so about an era in journalism when the ‘boys on the bus’ were supreme. And the printed pages of newspapers carried much meaning. When solid reporting was the key.
So you approve of him outing a CIA agent for political purposes? This country is in sad shape.