"He was a reporter with a deep understanding of policy, and of the interaction between policy and politics," said Robert D. Reischauer,...["]He was one who wanted to peel back the layers of the onion from the smooth and superficial that the spinmeisters would like us to think is the real world, to the core that makes your eyes start to cry."
...
Mr. Rosenbaum shared the George Polk Award for national reporting for his coverage of the 1990 budget deal in which the first President George Bush abandoned his pledge not to raise taxes.

There you have it: he crossed Bush's daddy. The article also tells us that he covered Watergate and Iran-Contra hearings. I think it was a political assassination to help remind the media to toe the line. As whistles are being blown in greater harmony, the PTB get more desperate, and their acts more extreme in their attempts to control the damage.