page_title: Robert Novak
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Robert Novak / Career
caption_attribution_description: English: The photo contact sheet, identified as A4736 by the White House Photographic Office (WHPO), is housed at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, a branch of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). This file is a 200 dpi photo contact sheet having images from roll of film A4736 of the August 9, 1974 - January 20, 1977 Gerald R. Ford White House Photographic Office Series A0001-A9999 and B0001-B2886 photographs. The date on the photo contact sheet is the date the roll of film was processed, not necessarily the date the photographs were taken. See table below for additional details.
context_page_description: Robert David Sanders Novak was an American syndicated columnist, journalist, television personality, author, and conservative political commentator. After working for two newspapers before serving in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, he became a reporter for the Associated Press and then for The Wall Street Journal. He teamed up with Rowland Evans in 1963 to start Inside Report, which became the longest running syndicated political column in U.S. history and ran in hundreds of papers. They also started the Evans-Novak Political Report, a notable biweekly newsletter, in 1967.
  Novak and Evans played a significant role for CNN after the network's founding. He worked as a well-known television personality in programs such as Capital Gang, Crossfire, and Evans, Novak, Hunt, & Shields. He also wrote for numerous other publications such as Reader's Digest. On August 4, 2008, Novak announced that he had been diagnosed with a brain tumor, that his prognosis was "dire", and that he was retiring. He succumbed to the disease on August 18, 2009, after having returned home to spend his last days with his family.
context_section_description: After serving from 1952 to 1954, Novak rejoined his fledgling journalism career, joining the Associated Press (AP) as a political correspondent in Omaha, Nebraska. He was transferred to Lincoln, Nebraska, and then to Indianapolis, Indiana, covering the two state legislatures in his reporting. 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. He rose to the rank of chief congressional correspondent in 1961. He generally did his work without using a tape recordings or paper notes, relying just on his detailed memory. Novak's colleagues at The Wall Street Journal later said that he absorbed himself in his work so completely that he often forgot to shave, left his shoes untied, and even started accidentally placing burning cigarettes into his pockets.
  In 1963 Novak teamed up with Rowland Evans, a former Congressional correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune, to create the Inside Report, a newspaper column published four times a week. It was also known as Inside Washington. Evans did not know Novak at all except through his reputation when they started. They each had a contrasting public image, with Novak dressing sloppy and Evans' appearing like a diplomat with a refined manner. Their column mixed standard reporting with their own editorial opinions. It began with muted, mostly centrist views, but their words drifted rightward over time. Novak's experience covering the Six-Day War in the field influenced his beliefs towards Evans' pro-Palestinian sympathies.
  The column's factual accuracy has been called into question. Novak stated in his autobiography, "We were so ravenous for exclusive news that we were susceptible to manipulation by leaks, compromising our credibility." Chicago Sun-Times became the "home" paper for Inside Report from 1966 onward. Novak continued the column after Evans's departure on May 15, 1993. Evans died in 2001, and Inside Report ran in over 150 papers at that time through Creators Syndicate. Publication ended after Novak's cancer diagnosis in July 2008. Bloomberg L.P. has stated that the column was a must-read among political insiders, as did The Washingtonian. It was the longest running syndicated political column in U.S. history.
  In 1967 Evans and Novak set up a biweekly political newsletter called the Evans–Novak Political Report (ENPR). They took a more broad approach in this series compared to their column, focusing on forecast elections and predicting socio-political trends rather than on breaking stories. Regnery Publishing eventually bought ENPR from Novak, but it left editorial control and hiring decisions in Novak's hands. In 2006, Timothy P. Carney of Regnery became Novak's partner in the newsletter. On February 4, 2009, Novak announced he was ending ENPR's publication. This last issue described the implications of Barack Obama's election as President, which the authors labeled a political 'paradigm shift'. Conservative writers such as John Fund, who later worked for The Wall Street Journal, Tim Carney (author of "The Big Ripoff," "Obamanomics"), and David Freddoso, who later worked for National Review Online, started off as contributors to the ENPR.
  Novak appeared on CNN on its opening week in 1980. His status as a well-known print reporter brought a sense of credibility to the fledgling new network, and Novak soon created a weekly interview show that Evans co-hosted. Novak became a regular panel member of The McLaughlin Group in 1982, starring alongside McLaughlin as well as Novak's personal friends Al Hunt and Mark Shields. Novak sparred frequently with McLaughlin despite the fact that they both held similar political views. He established a public image as a combative debater on the program. Novak then became the executive producer of Capital Gang, which also featured him as a key member of the show. He also took over as host of Crossfire from Pat Buchanan.
  On August 4, 2005, Novak walked off the set during a live broadcast of the show Inside Politics, on
caption: Novak greeting President Gerald Ford in 1975
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