GOP Secretary of Propaganda Safire to End NYT Column
The New York Times, November 15, 2004
http://nytimes.com/2004/11/15/business/media/15cnd-safi.html?ei=5094&en=8fac5e8b987010eb&hp=
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William Safire, whose political commentary column has appeared on the Op-Ed Page of The New York Times for more than 30 years, is stepping down, The Times said today.
The newspaper said in a statement that Mr. Safire would make his final appearance as an Op-Ed columnist on Jan. 24, 2005.
"The New York Times without Bill Safire is all but unimaginable," Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the publisher of The Times, said in the statement. "Bill's provocative and insightful commentary has held our readers captive since he first graced our Op-Ed Page in 1973. Reaching for his column became a critical and enjoyable part of the day for our readers across the country and around the world.
"Whether you agreed with him or not was never the point," Mr. Sulzberger said. "His writing is delightful, informed and engaging."
Mr. Safire, 74, will continue to write his Sunday column, "On Language," which has appeared in The New York Times Magazine since 1979 and has led to the publication of 15 books on the English language.
No successor to Mr. Safire as an Op-Ed columnist has been chosen yet.
"After more than three decades of opinionated reporting on the world's first and foremost political battle page, it's time to hang up my hatchet," Mr. Safire said in the statement. "The Times said at the start of this run that it wanted 'another point of view,' which was what it surely got, and its editors did not wince nor cry aloud. In my more scholarly persona, I couldn't resist continuing as Sunday language maven, so although Mr. Hyde will close up shop, Dr. Jekyll will carry on."
In 1978, Mr. Safire was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary. Before joining The Times in 1973 as a political columnist, Mr. Safire was a senior White House speechwriter for President Nixon. He had previously been a radio and television producer and a United States Army correspondent. He began his career in 1949 as a reporter for a profiles column in The New York Herald Tribune.
From 1955 to 1960, Mr. Safire was vice president of a public relations firm in New York City and then became president of his own firm. In 1968, he left to join the campaign of Richard Nixon.