Nicholas von Hoffman (October 16, 1929 – February 1, 2018) was an American
journalist
A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism.
Roles
Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...
and
author
In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...
. He first worked as a
community organizer
Community organizing is a process where people who live in proximity to each other or share some common problem come together into an organization that acts in their shared self-interest. Unlike those who promote more-consensual community buil ...
for
Saul Alinsky
Saul David Alinsky (January 30, 1909 – June 12, 1972) was an American community activist and political theorist. His work through the Chicago-based Industrial Areas Foundation helping poor communities organize to press demands upon landlord ...
in
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
for ten years from 1953 to 1963. Later, Von Hoffman wrote for ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'', and most notably, was a commentator on the
CBS ''Point-Counterpoint'' segment for ''
60 Minutes
''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who distinguished it from other news programs by using a unique style o ...
,'' from which
Don Hewitt fired him in 1974. von Hoffman was also a columnist for ''
The Huffington Post
''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers p ...
''.
Life and career
A native New Yorker of
German and
Russian descent, von Hoffman was born to Anna L. Bruenn, a
dentist
A dentist, also known as a dental doctor, dental physician, dental surgeon, is a health care professional who specializes in dentistry, the branch of medicine focused on the teeth, gums, and mouth. The dentist's supporting team aids in provi ...
, and
Carl von Hoffman, an explorer and adventurer. Von Hoffman never attended college. In the 1950s, he worked on the research staff of the Industrial Relations Center of the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
, and then for
Saul Alinsky
Saul David Alinsky (January 30, 1909 – June 12, 1972) was an American community activist and political theorist. His work through the Chicago-based Industrial Areas Foundation helping poor communities organize to press demands upon landlord ...
as a field representative of the
Industrial Areas Foundation
The Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) is a national community organizing network established in 1940 by Saul Alinsky, Roman Catholic Bishop Bernard James Sheil and businessman and founder of the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' Marshall Field III. The IA ...
in Chicago, where his best known role was as lead organizer for The Woodlawn Organization.
Ben Bradlee
Benjamin Crowninshield Bradlee (, 1921 – , 2014) was an American journalist who served as managing editor and later as executive editor of ''The Washington Post'', from 1965 to 1991. He became a public figure when the ''Post'' joined ''The ...
, former editor of ''The Washington Post'', hired von Hoffman from the ''
Chicago Daily News''. While at the ''Post'', he wrote a column for the paper's Style section. In her memoirs,
Katharine Graham, then the newspaper's
publisher
Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...
, wrote of him: "My life would have been a lot simpler had Nicholas von Hoffman not appeared in the paper." She added that "I firmly believed that he belonged at the Post".
Beginning in 1979 and continuing through the 1980s, von Hoffman recorded over two-hundred radio commentaries, audio op-eds in the sardonic style he used on ''
60 Minutes
''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who distinguished it from other news programs by using a unique style o ...
.'' These commentaries were broadcast on the nationally syndicated daily radio program, ''Byline'', which was sponsored by the
Cato Institute
The Cato Institute is an American libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1977 by Ed Crane, Murray Rothbard, and Charles Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Koch Industries.Koch ...
. Subjects of von Hoffman's audio op-eds included the 1984 Democratic primary candidates, the Reagan administration's foreign policy in Central America and the Middle East, and the cynical, self-serving misuse of language by politicians.
Von Hoffman wrote more than a dozen books, notably: ''Capitalist Fools: Tales of American Business, from Carnegie to Forbes to the Milken Gang'' (1992), ''Citizen Cohn'' (1988), a biography of
Roy Cohn, which was made into an
HBO movie, and ''Hoax: Why Americans Are Suckered by White House Lies'' (2004). Von Hoffman also wrote a libretto for
Deborah Drattell's ''
Nicholas and Alexandra'' for the
Los Angeles Opera
The Los Angeles Opera, originally called the Los Angeles Music Center Opera, is an American opera company in Los Angeles, California. It is the fourth-largest opera company in the United States. The company's home base is the Dorothy Chandler P ...
which was performed in the 2003–2004 season under the direction of
Plácido Domingo
José Plácido Domingo Embil (born 21 January 1941) is a Spanish opera singer, conductor, and arts administrator. He has recorded over a hundred complete operas and is well known for his versatility, regularly performing in Italian, French, ...
. Between April 2007 and February 2008, starting with an article about soaking the rich to pay for
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...
's
Iraq War
The Iraq War (), also referred to as the Second Gulf War, was a prolonged conflict in Iraq lasting from 2003 to 2011. It began with 2003 invasion of Iraq, the invasion by a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition, which ...
, he was a columnist for the ''
New York Observer
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995
* "New" (Daya song), 2017
* "New" (No Doubt song), 1 ...
''.
Von Hoffman was fired by
Don Hewitt for referring to President
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until Resignation of Richard Nixon, his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...
, at the height of the Watergate scandal, as "the dead mouse on the kitchen floor of America, and the only question now is who's going to pick him up by his tail and throw him in the garbage." His collaborations, both literary and otherwise, with ''
Doonesbury
''Doonesbury'' is a comic strip by American cartoonist Garry Trudeau that chronicles the adventures and lives of an array of characters of various ages, professions, and backgrounds, from the President of the United States to the title character, ...
'' cartoonist
Garry Trudeau
Garretson Beekman Trudeau (born July 21, 1948) is an American cartoonist best known for creating the ''Doonesbury'' comic strip.
Trudeau won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 1975, making him the first comic strip artist to win a ...
are worth noting, in particular the 1976 book ''Tales From the Margaret Mead Taproom''. In this book, he recounted his adventures in
American Samoa
American Samoa is an Territories of the United States, unincorporated and unorganized territory of the United States located in the Polynesia region of the Pacific Ocean, South Pacific Ocean. Centered on , it is southeast of the island count ...
with Trudeau and actress
Elizabeth Ashley, as they and several others experienced life in the American territory, which Trudeau had lampooned in a series of ''Doonesbury'' strips involving
Uncle Duke's adventures as the territory's appointed governor. He also wrote for the ''
Architectural Digest
''Architectural Digest'' (stylized in all caps) is an American monthly magazine founded in 1920. Its principal subjects are interior design and landscaping, rather than pure external architecture. The magazine is published by Condé Nast
...
''.
Von Hoffman died on February 1, 2018, and was survived by three sons:
Alexander von Hoffman, a noted historian; Aristodemos, who works in intelligence; and Constantine, also a journalist.
Works
(partial list)
*''The Multiversity: A Personal Report on What Happens to Today's Students at American Universities''
*''We Are the People Our Parents Warned Us Against''
*''Mississippi Notebook''
*''Two, Three, Many More''
*''Organized Crimes''
*''Citizen Cohn'' (Doubleday, 1988)
*''Capitalist Fools: Tales of American Business, from Carnegie to Forbes to the Milken Gang''
*''Hoax: Why Americans Are Suckered by White House Lies''
*''Geneva'' (play)
*''Radical: A Portrait of Saul Alinsky'' (Nation Books, July 2010)
In popular culture
In 1988, fictional presidential candidate Jack Tanner named von Hoffman as his pick for
Chairman
The chair, also chairman, chairwoman, or chairperson, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the gro ...
of the
Federal Reserve Board in
Robert Altman
Robert Bernard Altman ( ; February 20, 1925 – November 20, 2006) was an American film director, screenwriter, and film producer, producer. He is considered an enduring figure from the New Hollywood era, known for directing subversive and sat ...
's
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...
series ''
Tanner '88''.
References
Further reading
*
External links
*
*
*
*
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C-SPAN ''Q&A'' interview with von Hoffman, September 12, 2010Incomplete Collection of Nicholas von Hoffman commentaries on CBS Radio Spectrum, 1972–1973
{{DEFAULTSORT:Von Hoffman, Nicholas
1929 births
2018 deaths
American male journalists
Journalists from New York City
American columnists
American people of German-Russian descent
American opera librettists
The New York Observer people
Chicago Daily News people
The Washington Post journalists
HuffPost writers and columnists
20th-century American journalists
20th-century American male writers
21st-century American journalists
21st-century American male writers