Commentary That Packs A Punch

"In journalism, there has always been a tension between getting it first and getting it right." – Ellen Goodman

A Massachusetts native, journalist, speaker and commentator Goodman was born on this date in 1941, and her reporting and commentary always "got it right."   

Wanting to be a historian, she earned her first degree in that field but then quickly gravitated to writing after taking a “temporary” job in 1963 as a researcher at Newsweek magazine. With reporting credits for the Detroit Free Press and the Boston Globe, where she first tried out her award-winning social commentary column, she was a keen observer of the human condition, speaking out on social issues and presenting thoughts and ideas read by millions around the globe.

                                The first woman to be published on a major newspaper's Op-Ed Page and the first to have a regular column, she joined the Washington Post Writers Group in 1976 where she won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.   Author of 8 books, she also has earned the American Society of News Editors’ Distinguished Writing Award, the Hubert H. Humphrey Civil Rights Award, the National Women’s Political Caucus President's Award, and the Ernie Pyle Award for Lifetime Achievement from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists.

 “I think,” she said, “that having a job in journalism, despite all of the changes, is still a fantastic way to be – to make a living observing your society and having a chance to use your voice.”

                                               

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