In the comfort of his home in Washington, Howard Fineman, a prominent political writer with a career spanning nearly four decades, passed away on Tuesday due to pancreatic cancer.
When he was diagnosed, Fineman was led to believe he had only two months to live. He lived for two years.
Fineman discussed his death sentence with courage and professionalism. He enjoyed looking back on his career, which began when he worked as a reporter for the Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal.
His thirty-year stint reporting about American politics for Newsweek allowed him to rise to national prominence. He left the publication to work for the Huffington Post. He was also a regular on-air commentator for networks like MSNBC.
Born in Pittsburgh in 1948, Fineman signed on as a writer for The Courier-Journal in 1973. There, he covered a wide range of topics, including state politics and the coal business in Kentucky. His reporting even once got him in legal trouble.
Fineman and reporter Jerry Hicks of the Louisville Times were discovered in a room at the Continental Inn that was next to another room used for a secret Louisville Fraternal Order of Police conference. They were taken into custody and charged with disorderly conduct in May of 1974 when it was discovered they were eavesdropping on the police.
A legal pad, tape recorder, and tape cartridge were seized.
As a member of the journalistic age that arose during the Watergate affair, Mr. Fineman contributed a refined professionalism to his work.
Along with coworkers Gloria Borger, Michael Isikoff, and Evan Thomas, he made Newsweek stand out during what is sometimes regarded as the magazine’s golden period of journalism.
Mr. Fineman was a pioneer of technology, constantly searching for instruments to facilitate his reporting. He was one of the first journalists in Washington, D.C., to utilize a laptop, the TRS-80 Model 100, to keep in touch with his Newsweek editors.
In the early 1980s, he also saw the promise of cable news and began appearing often on shows like CNN, Fox, and MSNBC.
He will be missed.
