From a Washington Post column by David Von Drehle headlined “Fred Hiatt led with wisdom, wit and a transfixing whisper”:
Among his many gifts, Fred Hiatt had a keen eye for young writers. Because they are young, his many discoveries must be forgiven for thinking that Fred was the greatest mumbler in Washington Post history.
But runner-up is an achievement. Fred was a master of the strategic mumble. The more important the information he had to impart, the fainter his voice became. With something really big, he would whisper two or three words, then flinch as if saying so much had been painful, then complete his thought after a pause without moving his lips or tongue, which is not as easy as I make it sound.
The effect was magical. What chocolate is to Hershey, Pa., words are to Washington, D.C. Yet Fred’s whispery mumble made his words individually precious, like the feathery footprint of a Pleistocene huntsman on a windswept piece of stone. “Lean in” has become a cliche, but in Fred’s company it was Position A. He literally had you half out of your chair, hanging not on his words, but on breaths that might be words.
They never disappointed. In breadth of knowledge, Fred was an encyclopedia. In laser insight, he was a philosopher. His wit was sharp and dry as James Bond’s martini. As to his judgment, I have no figure of speech. I’ve never met anyone with better judgment than Fred….
Many readers assume that the job of an editor is to dictate outcomes. Help one team. Hurt the other. The rise of cable television and online platforms that embrace this model has fortified the image.
As editor of The Post’s opinion journalism for 22 years, Fred was the opposite of the stopped-clock caucus. He questioned everything, starting with himself, and valued all candid voices. He understood that the roomiest space in journalism today is the frontier of fair play. Intelligent people grow tired of having their own ideas recirculated to them like airplane air, steadily depleted of oxygen. Fred had faith that a marketplace of ideas will fill with customers.
He died while building that marketplace. The cloister of a dozen monkish editorial staffers he inherited from his brilliant predecessor, Meg Greenfield, grew to more than 80 multimedia thinkers by the time of his death. He did not seek like minds — which was good because his was a unique mixture of firepower and humility. He sought honest minds….
Fred Hiatt was a man of high standards that he applied foremost to himself. He was a champion of the oppressed, a clarion of freedom. I will miss his winsome mumble, which somehow echoes in my mind. Even more, I will miss the bell-like clarity of his example.
David Von Drehle writes a twice-weekly column for The Post. He was previously an editor-at-large for Time Magazine, and is the author of four books, including “Rise to Greatness: Abraham Lincoln and America’s Most Perilous Year” and “Triangle: The Fire That Changed America.”
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