Erwin Knoll

Erwin Knoll (1931 – November 2, 1994) was an American journalist who was editor of The Progressive from 1973 to 1994.

Early life

Knoll was born in Austria, into a Jewish family,[1] and as a child fled from the Nazis.[2] He later came to New York City as a refugee. As a student journalist, Knoll would get into highly controversial debates with conservatives.[3] He became a U.S. citizen in 1946.[4]

Career

Knoll began his journalistic career working with The Washington Post, and from 1963-1968 as the White House Correspondent for the Newhouse National News Service.[2]

Knoll's work landed him on Richard Nixon's master list of political opponents.[4]

Knoll joined The Progressive as Washington editor in 1968.[5] He became editor of the magazine five years later, moving to Madison, Wisconsin,[5][6] where the magazine was based.[4] He remained editor for 21 years, until his death in 1994.[5] Knoll described the magazine as the "ecumenical journal of the American left."[4]

Knoll was well-known as "a celebrated and outspoken defender of free speech and a staunch opponent of militarism."[4] In 1979, soon after Knoll took over The Progressive, the magazine became the first publication to be ordered not to print an article by a federal court due to national security. The article was titled "The H-Bomb Secret, How We Got It -- Why We're Telling It."[5] Judge Robert W. Warren of the U.S. District Court in Milwaukee enjoined publication, but the U.S. Department of Justice dropped the action after a local newspaper, the Madison Press Connection, "printed a letter that the Government said also contained secret information about the bomb."[5]

Speaking to the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association in Chicago in January 1982, Attorney General William French Smith referred to the epigram "Everything you read in the newspapers is absolutely true except for the rare story of which you happen to have firsthand knowledge" as "Knoll's Law of Media Accuracy."[7]

Knoll was against the Strategic Defense Initiative, arguing in 1983 that the Reagan Administration's assertion that SDI could be the "key to a decent, humane and peaceful future" was "to tell the biggest lie."[8]

In the 1980s, Knoll also regularly appeared on the TV program The MacNeil Lehrer Newshour.[2]

Knoll caused some controversy by opposing the First Gulf War.[2]

Death

Knoll died at the age of 63 on November 2, 1994 in his sleep, following at heart attack, at his home in Madison, Wisconsin.[5]

References
  1. Thomas Cushman & Stjepan Mestrovic, This Time We Knew: Western Responses to Genocide in Bosnia, NYU Press (1996), p. 301
  2. "Erwin Knoll: A True Progressive". John B. Judis.In These Times, November 28th, 1994 (p. 8-9)
  3. Lueders, Bill. "Thirty-five for 35: Erwin Knoll - Isthmus | The Daily Page". The Daily Page. Retrieved 23 April 2013.
  4. Erwin Knoll; Longtime Editor of The Progressive Magazine, Los Angeles Times (November 7, 1994).
  5. Barron, James (November 3, 1994). "Erwin Knoll, 63, Crusading Editor of the Progressive". The New York Times.
  6. Erwin Knoll Dies at 63, The Washington Post (November 3, 1994).
  7. "Required Reading Smith on Lawyers". The New York Times. February 27, 1982.
  8. Linenthal, Edward Tabor (1989). Symbolic Defense: the cultural significance of the Strategic Defense Initiative. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. p. 78. ISBN 0-252-01619-X.
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