Washington’s Top 50 Journalists

1) Tim Russert, NBC
2) Bob Woodward, Washington Post
3) Ted Koppel, ABC
4) David Broder, Washington Post
5) Maureen Dowd, New York Times
6) Brian Lamb, C-Span
7) Thomas Friedman, New York Times
8) Mark Knoller, CBS Radio
9) Jim Lehrer, PBS
10) Alan Murray, Wall Street Journal
11) Tom Shales, Washington Post
12) William Safire, New York Times
13) William Kristol, Weekly Standard
14) Jill Abramson, New York Times
15) Brit Hume, Fox
16) Michael Isikoff, Newsweek
17) Dan Balz, Washington Post
18) Ronald Brownstein, Los Angeles Times
19) Jeff Gerth, New York Times
 20) Robert Samuelson, Newsweek
21) Howard Fineman, Newsweek
22) Wolf Blitzer, CNN
23) Cokie Roberts, ABC
24) Doyle McManus, Los Angeles Times
25) Howard Kurtz, Washington Post
26) Jim Stewart, CBS
27) Neil A. Lewis, New York Times
28) Stuart Taylor Jr., National Journal
29) Ron Fournier, Associated Press
30) Robert Novak, CNN
31) Jane Mayer, New Yorker
32) Fred Hiatt, Washington Post
33) Brooks Jackson, CNN
34) Larry King, CNN
35) John M. Berry, Washington Post
36) George Will, syndicated columnist
37) Chris Matthews, San Francisco Chronicle
38) Katherine Boo, Washington Post
39) Tony Mauro, Legal Times
40) Jeff Birnbaum, Fortune
41) Jackie Judd, ABC
42) Al Kamen, Washington Post
43) Cragg Hines, Houston Chronicle
44) Owen Ullmann, USA Today
45) Jonetta Rose Barras, Washington City Paper
46) James Warren, Chicago Tribune
47) Paul West, Baltimore Sun
48) Carl Leubsdorf, Dallas Morning News
49) Mary McGrory, Washington Post
50) David Hume Kennerly, Newsweek


Meet Washington's 
top 50 journalists

Magazine's list of folks who most shape our views

By Gabriel Spitzer

     When Arthur Schlesinger Jr. first compiled his list ranking America’s greatest presidents, he had a distinct advantage: most of his subjects were dead.
    They couldn’t complain.
     Kim Isaac Eisler did not enjoy such luxuries when he picked Washington’s top 50 journalists in this month’s Washingtonian magazine. 
   In a city that can’t agree on regular or decaf, you can bet some of Eisler’s choices are causing a stink.
   "A few of the entries got people all worked up," says Eisler, national editor for the Washingtonian.
   "You know, all the people at The Washington Post were counting how many people were on the list from The New York Times. But you can’t have everybody on there from the Post, and you can’t have everybody on there from the Times."
   As it is, two of the top three spots on Eisler’s list are television people. Tim Russert, who Eisler believes is heir to Walter Cronkite’s legacy as the "most trusted man in America," sits atop the list at No.1.
  According to Eisler, Russert’s "Meet the Press" on NBC is the most influential hour of politics on TV.
  "The primacy of ‘Meet the Press’ is impressive. Someone will appear on the show, and then every news agency in town runs a lead story reporting what the guy said on ‘Meet the Press.’ Can’t they just call the guy themselves?"
    Watergate star reporter Bob Woodward of The Washington Post anchors the No. 2 spot. Eisler notes that Woodward is the rare instance of a reporter as famous as the people he covers. 
   "His influence needs no explanation," Eisler writes. "Newsrooms are full of people who became journalists to be like him."
   The fact that Russert and Ted Koppel occupy spots one and three on the list reflects the changing face of how politics is covered in Washington. When Eisler first came to Washington as a student in 1969, the list might have been constructed quite differently.
   "It seems to me a little like the great, powerful bureau chiefs from the Midwestern cities have sort of disappeared. That reflects the fact that a lot of the big city papers, even though they have Washington bureaus, are emphasizing local coverage rather than national politics.
   "Also, the rankings of the newsmagazines shows that Newsweek has really outdistanced the competition in terms of breaking stories. Time and U.S. News are just not that important anymore. When I was at Time in the 1970s, it would have been just the opposite."
   Eisler took some heat for including a few people that might not be considered journalists in the traditional sense.
    Columnist Maureen Dowd (No. 5 ), TV personality Larry King (No. 34) and critic Tom Shales (No. 11) are a few of the Top 50 who don’t quite fit the mold of the notebook-toting reporter. But that doesn’t bother Eisler too much: he declares from the start that the list is a combination of the best and most influential newsies.
   "Larry King was controversial even within the magazine. People don’t think of him as a journalist. What I tried to do was account for that by saying, maybe he’s a reporter, maybe not, but we are not prepared to check him off yet. His show is really important, and it breaks news," says Eisler.
   Eisler obviously didn’t shy away from controversy (he admits that it’s part of the fun) by sticking to straight newspaper folk. One of his more interesting picks is C-SPAN founder Brian Lamb, riding high at No. 6.
   "The trend of electronic media is shown by including someone like Brian Lamb. He’s a guy who’s formed an institution by sticking a camera in a place where it’s never been stuck before. And he shows more keenly than any other reporter how this city works. There’s some amazing stuff on C-SPAN, especially when people forget the cameras are running and you get these little conversations at the end of events."
   It’s fairly clear that Eisler takes most of the criticism in stride—after all, it sells magazines. But there is one brand of complaint that gives him fits.
   "We got a host of letters and emails and phone calls from people complaining that I hadn’t included anybody from Fox News, which meant I was a left-winger. That was kind of annoying; I hate that. Of course, Brit Hume is right there at No. 15."
   It was annoying not just because the letter-writers had clearly not actually read Eisler’s list, but also because Eisler makes a point of trying to dispel the myth that the media collectively lean one way or the other, liberal or conservative.
   Ruthless, unprincipled or lazy, perhaps. But not biased.
   "I went to great pains to explain that reporters aren’t biased. I knew nobody would believe me," he laments.
   "Forget all this liberal/conservative stuff; all we want is the story. People keep thinking it’s this ideological war."
   With the exception of a few digs at cable news, Eisler conspicuously avoids making any grand pronouncements about the state of political journalism. Absent are any moralizing statements like "There was a time when reporters cared about the truth in Washington," or some such.
   "That’s probably just a reflection of how I’m reluctant to preach. I’m not trying to be Mr. Philosopher King or anything."

-Gabriel Spitzer is a staff writer for Media Life.


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