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Famous Like Me > Actor > N > Robert D. Novak

Profile of Robert D. Novak on Famous Like Me

 
Name: Robert D. Novak  
   
Also Know As:
   
Date of Birth: 26th February 1931
   
Place of Birth: Joliet, Illinois, USA
   
Profession: Actor
 
 
From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia

Robert David Novak (born February 26, 1931) is an American journalist and political figure. Over his lengthy career, Bob Novak has become well-known both as a reporter and columnist (writing "Inside Report" since 1963) and as a television personality (appearing on many shows for CNN, most notably The Capital Gang, Crossfire, and Novak, Hunt, and Shields. His nickname is "The Prince of Darkness".

Early years

Novak was born in Joliet, Illinois. He attended the University of Illinois from 1948 to 1952, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree. Novak's journalism career began when he wrote for the Joliet Herald-News, The Daily Illini, and The Champaign-Urbana Courier while in college.

During the Korean War, Novak served in the U.S. Army, attaining the rank of lieutenant. After the war, he joined the Associated Press and became a political correspondent in Indianapolis. In 1957, Novak was transferred to Washington, D.C. where he reported on Congress; he left the AP to join the D.C. bureau of The Wall Street Journal in 1958, covering the Senate, and in 1961 becoming their chief congressional correspondent.

In 1966, he teamed up with Rowland Evans to create the "Evans-Novak Political Report" until Evans' lost his battle with cancer in 2001. Novak's column is syndicated by the Chicago Sun-Times. His columns often contain original reporting in addition to analysis and opinion.

Novak is one of many reporters mentioned in Tim Crouse's seminal non-fiction book about reporters covering the 1972 U.S. presidential campaign, Boys on the Bus.

Political and religious views

Novak, a registered Democrat despite his right-leaning views, held more centrist views in his early career; indeed, he supported the Democratic presidential candidacies of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, with whom Novak was friends.

Today, Novak tends toward low-tax small-government right-wing views, but is an avid supporter of a Palestinian state, a critic of Israel and has offered only tepid support for the War in Iraq. Born Jewish, Novak lost his faith in college and converted to Catholicism in 1998. It is alleged by some, including Andrew Sullivan , that he is a member of the secretive far-right Catholic group Opus Dei; the high-profile priest responsible for Novak's conversion, Father John McCloskey, is also a member of the organization.

Although Novak has a reputation for charm , some critics claim it is forced. Longtime colleague liberal Michael Kinsley has said of Novak: "Beneath the asshole is a very decent guy, and beneath the very decent guy is an asshole."

Novak is referred to by some Washington insiders as "The Prince of Darkness", a title he appears to have encouraged use of. He is also known as "No Facts".

Controversies and scandals

Novak has been frequently criticized as acting as a political operative of the Republican Party while posing as a journalist; his controversial public comments and actions both on and off the air have provoked critics from many groups. Novak also has been implicated in a number of political scandals and violations of journalistic ethics and standards, the most recent of which is the Plame affair.

  • 1972 George McGovern

After a published anonymous quote from a Democratic senator calling 1972 presidential candidate George McGovern as being for "acid, amnesty, and abortion" was contested as fabricated, critics began deriding Evans and Novak's work as "Errors and No Facts."

  • 1980 and 1992 Karl Rove, Novak connections

Twice Novak was reportedly involved in situations leading to Karl Rove being fired from political campaigns: first in 1980 from George H.W. Bush's vice-presidential campaign, and second in 1992, while working for Bush's reelection campaign. Both times Rove was fired from the staff for leaking campaign information to Novak. Rove and Novak both deny that Rove was the source.

  • 1996 and 2001 Robert Hanssen

Novak's loyalty to his sources was called into question after he revealed Robert Hanssen as the confidential source for some of his articles. Hanssen had served as the source for a column which attacked Janet Reno's role in an alleged cover-up of a campaign finance scandal in 1996.(New York Observer, August 6, 2001) Ironically, Novak indicated at the time that he felt justified in 'burning' his source because Hanssen was a traitor — he had been found guilty of selling state secrets, including the identities of covert operatives, to the Soviet Union. Novak also wondered whether he had been "set up" by Hanssen.

  • 2003-current Plame Affair

In 2003, he disclosed the identity of CIA covert agent Valerie Plame in his newspaper column. Novak reported the information was provided to him by "senior administration officials." The leak and allegations of a possible cover-up are currently being investigated. During 2005, there have been questions in the press regarding the apparent absence of focus on Novak by the special prosecutor Fitzgerald and the grand jury, specifically questions suggesting he may have already testified about his sources despite insisting publicly that he would not do so. Alternatively, it has been speculated, Fitzgerald is ultimately planning to target Novak for possibly colluding with his White House sources to tell the same story regarding the leak, which if true would constitute obstruction of justice.

  • Main articles at: Plame affair, Plame scandal timeline
  • 2004-current Killian documents

Critics complain that Novak has been inconsistent as he insists it would violate journalistic ethics to reveal the source of the Plame leak, but later called on CBS to reveal the source of the memos that were part of the larger news story dealing with the president's alleged evasion of National Guard service. Other journalists have insisted, however, that the CBS sources lost their right to confidentiality when the memos were later widely believed to be forgories.

  • March, 2004 race baiting of Richard Clarke

In March 2004, Novak insinuated on CNN's Crossfire that Richard Clarke had revealed government mistakes in his book dealing with the war against terrorism because he resented Condoleezza Rice's position as a black woman on the cabinet.

  • August, 2004 Swift Boat Veterans publisher also Novak's

In August 2004, after other journalists had reported on it, Novak admitted that his son, Alex Novak, is the Director of Marketing for the Swift Boat Veterans' publisher, Regnery Publishing. At the time he said that he didn't "think it relevant." Two months later Salon.com reported that Regnery's owner is also the publisher of Novak's own US$297 (annual rate) newsletter and that Novak is on the board of a foundation whose chief holdings are the stock of Regnery's parent company.

  • May, 2005, Senate filibuster debate

In May 2005, Novak raised a stir when he used a Holocaust analogy to attack the negotiations between several Democratic and Republican Senators to reach a compromise in an ongoing debate over the filibustering of judicial nominations. The compromise would reportedly involve several Democrats agreeing to support the confirmation of some, but not all, of the nominees that they had previously filibustered, in return for several Republicans agreeing to vote against a proposed rules change that would remove the filibuster entirely (the "nuclear option"). Novak said agreeing to confirm some of the judges but not others was "...like going to a concentration camp and picking out which people go to the death chamber", a comparison the Anti-Defamation League termed "abhorrent" in demanding an apology.

2005 Inside Politics incident

On August 4, 2005, Novak walked off the set during a live broadcast of the CNN show Inside Politics, on which he appeared along with Democratic strategist and analyst James Carville (whom Novak had debated with for years on Crossfire), and moderator Ed Henry.

During a discussion of Republican representative Katherine Harris's just-announced 2006 campaign for the U.S. Senate and her claim that newspapers tried to tarnish her image by manipulating photos of her, Novak claimed he had experienced the same thing leading to a skeptical response from Carville.

Novak responded by saying "don't be too sure she's going to lose...all the establishment's against her and I've seen these Republican – anti-establishment candidates who do pretty well." Novak mentioned Ronald Reagan and Tom Coburn before seeing Carville preparing to talk. Novak cut into his comments and said "Just let me finish what I'm going to say, James. Please, I know you hate to hear me, but you have..." Carville cut in and said that Novak "got to show these right-wingers that he's got backbone, you know. It's why The Wall Street Journal editorial page is watching you. Show 'em you're tough."

Novak responded "Well, I think that's bullshit. And I hate that." Novak then removed his microphone and walked off the set. Novak later denied that the CIA leak case was the reason for his walkout.

However, Novak had avoided comment on the Plame affair in previous interviews by claiming that his lawyers had advised him not to speak. Reporters interviewing Novak were warned that any attempt to raise his role in the Plame affair would cause the interview to be immediately terminated . On August 1st however, Novak wrote a column on the affair in his Chicago Sun-Times column (“Ex-CIA official’s remark is wrong”). The fact that Novak had addressed the affair in print meant that CNN could not allow his previous "legal advice" excuse to stand without comment.

In response to the incident, CNN suspended Novak calling the outburst "inexcusable and unacceptable," and apologized to its viewers.

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Robert D. Novak