Safire Was No 'Nattering Nabob of Negativism': Dowd

Ex-Nixon speechwriter, Pulitzer winner was forceful voice on right

(NEWSER) - Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist William Safire died today outside Washington, the paper reports. He was 79 and suffered from cancer. A onetime speechwriter for Richard Nixon, Safire, a self-described "libertarian conservative," used his background as a reporter and love for English usage to punch up his op-ed column, which he wrote from 1973 to 2005, and books of history and fiction. More»

(NEWSER) - Conservatives have delighted in making a piñata out of the New York Times, but they’re not going to like the post-Times world, writes Francis Wilkinson of The Week. “Like most powerful, entrenched institutions, the Times has a deep bias in favor of the way things are,” he argues, and that’s benefited conservatives. The online journalism system rising to replace it has no such sympathies. More»

Post columnist the only coherent voice in a fractured opposition

(NEWSER) - In 2006, Charles Krauthammer urged Barack Obama to run for president, guaranteeing he’d lose. That didn’t exactly work out, but Obama’s rise has been good for the Washington Post columnist, who has become the central anti-Obama voice, writes Ben Smith in Politico. His writing drips with a clarity and confidence the fractured right craves. “He’s the most important conservative columnist right now,” says David Brooks of the New York Times. More»

Huffington Post, AP, Philadelphia Inquirer , NYT all score prizes

(NEWSER) - The 2012 Pulitzer Prizes are out, and for the first time in 35 years a Pulitzer for fiction is not among them, reports the AP , which itself snagged an award for its series on NYPD spying. Without further ado, the list of winners:

• Public service: Philadelphia Inquirer
• Breaking news reporting: The Tuscaloosa (Ala.) News staff
• Investigative reporting: Matt Apuzzo, Adam Goldman, Eileen Sullivan and Chris Hawley of the AP, and Michael J. Berens and Ken Armstrong of the Seattle Times
• Explanatory reporting: David Kocieniewski of the New York Times

Gail Collins hits back at the Donald

(NEWSER) - Last week it was apparent that there's no love lost between Donald Trump and New York Times columnist Gail Collins , but this week it's all-out war. Seems the Donald responded to Collins' column, which tweaked him as a loopy birther, with a letter to the editor tweaking her in turn as a no-good hack for writing "nasty and derogatory articles about me." "Actually," Trump writes, "I have great respect for Ms. Collins in that she has survived so long with so little talent. Her storytelling ability and word usage (coming from me, who has written many bestsellers), is not at a very high level." Snap! More»