In Honor of Mary Lou Forbes

When Katherine Graham died, Mary Lou Forbes became the undisputed greatest American newspaperwoman. To me, the life-long working journalist and Op-Ed. editor at Washington’s "other" papers – the Washington Star and the Washington Times – was entitled to that distinction even while Kay Graham was alive and the owner/publisher of the rival Washington Post.

Admittedly, I am not entirely impartial in the matter, having worked on a weekly basis with Mary Lou for the past 21 years as one of the columnists for her Commentary pages at the Times. You simply cannot interact in that intimate way, over so long a period of time, without developing an abiding appreciation for the person that some would argue affects objectivity.

Still, by any measure, Mary Lou Forbes earned the respect as well as the affection of her colleagues and the gratitude of her readers in a way that only a truly great professional could. Others have recognized her "nose for news," her dedication to its accurate and evocative reporting and her ability to apply the editor’s scalpel with laser-like precision, to the extreme benefit of both the writers and their audience.

I too would like to pay tribute to those qualities, from which I benefited every single week for over two decades. As Mary Lou’s skilled subordinates throughout that period, Frank Perley and Ben Tyree, know well, I would frequently test her patience with a late submission and occasionally with a particularly provocative column. She unfailingly would find a way to overcome the transgression, usually enhancing the written product with a better headline, a cartoon or other piece of artwork that would call attention to its central point. Often, as with her edits, the effect was deftly to sharpen the piece further and in an entertaining way.

That was the side of Mary Lou that I recall with the greatest pleasure – her palpable and infectious delight in laying out her pages day after day, month after month and decade after decade. What kept her going indefatigably for roughly a half-century in the dog-eat-dog newspaper business was her quiet, unstated, but fully justified certitude that she was making a difference with each layout and the creativity that made it compelling reading.

I never saw Mary Lou Forbes seek credit for her work and heavens knows she rarely seemed to receive much – certainly not anything remotely commensurate with her service. In fact, that service should now, finally be candidly recognized: The Washington Times’ most signal contribution to its city and the nation beyond has been the cumulative effect of the informed commentary she and her counterparts on the paper’s editorial pages have shepherded through the years.

In a way, it is fitting that Mary Lou’s work came to an end when it did. Like all newspapers, the Washington Times has been buffeted by the financial downturn, declining advertising revenues and concerns about circulation and the future viability of journalism’s traditional business model. Unfortunately, those trends at the Times have translated into budget cuts that involved, among other things, a significant reduction in the pages Mary Lou and her team could bring to bear in the critical War of Ideas.

Things have been further complicated by management changes at the Times which have resulted in the Times hiring a number of editors – including several from the Washington Post – and reporters with a very different political orientation than the rock-ribbed conservatism that has been that paper’s hallmark, and its raison d’etre. A notable exception to this recent practice was the appointment a few months back of the experienced and principled conservative journalist Rich Miniter as editorial page editor.

It remains to be seen whether the passing of Mary Lou Forbes will mark not only the loss of America’s greatest newspaperwoman but a milestone in the demise of the conservative newspaper the nation’s capital so badly needs and has – in no small measure, thanks to Mary Lou – been improved by over the past 26 years. For those of us who have been privileged to contribute to that service, and to have benefited in the process from Ms. Forbes’ nurturing, mentoring, and occasional tough love, we can only pray that just one voice will be stilled by her death, not that of many others.

Originally published in Newsmax 

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. is President of the Center for Security Policy, a columnist for the Washington Times, and host of the new, nationally syndicated Secure Freedom Radio program.