Howard Fineman, a giant of the Washington media creation, died of ovarian tumor Tuesday, his family said in a statement. He was 75.
Fineman spent three years at Newsweek, traveling the region as the publication’s general political correspondent. He conducted interviews with both presidents and political aspiring candidates, and he gave a critical look behind the scenes of Capitol Hill as a regular cable television analyst, dissecting the daily grind of politicians with a sharp wit and the perspective of a news historian that covered decades.
Fineman began his career in the late 1960s at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York, as a kid writer and, eventually, editor- in- captain of The Colgate Maroon scholar newspaper.
Fineman, seen on the left at age 20, began his career as a kid writer at Colgate University. His time there may leave a lasting effect. Bettmann via Getty Images
Colgate may leave a lasting effect. Finisseman oversaw the development of a firm of promising future graduates who continue to work for HuffPost and other well-known media outlets.
” If I am any manual — and now I am supposed to be — this wonderful school will be a constant star, a solid torchlight, as important as family, faith or profession”, he recounted during Colgate’s 2011 commencement address. ” Pals I made these be my friends. Through the years, I have had many excellent instructors. The charm of Hamilton and its welcoming residents, the school ‘ beauty, and the Chenango Valley’s beauty forever remind me of what is best about our nation and its history.
Howard Fineman, a talented journalist and former HuffPoster, has died. Sandy Dahlen/HuffPost
Fineman was born in 1948 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he was raised in the “very huge and extremely great” Jewish society of Squirrel Hill, he recalled in an interview. He described taking a Volkswagon vehicle to observe his Hebrew roots in 1970, shortly after graduating, and traveling to Ukraine, which was then a part of the Soviet Union.  ,
He was picked up by the KGB and later transported back to Odessa immediately into his journey.
He remarked on theColgate radio” 13″ in 2023,” I understood why my parents had gotten out, had left that part of the world.” ” Because they could n’t be free to be who they were. … I realized how fortunate I was to have my home here and now I am again home.
After graduating and completing a mentor system at Columbia, Fineman moved to Kentucky to operate at The Courier- Journal in Louisville. He addressed environmental concerns in his writings before focusing on fuel and remove mine. He attended day classes and earned his laws degree at the University of Louisville before moving to the writer’s Washington, D. C., ministry in 1977.
Three years later, he moved to Newsweek, where he stayed for three generations.
When Fineman was the magazine’s general political journalist during a time when the publications slugged it out on the newspaper, she recalled the brutal contest between Newsweek and Time magazine.
On the Colgate radio, he remarked,” It was a tremendous amount of fun, and some of my best friends are actually from Time journal.” Beginning in 1983, I had the privilege of covering federal politics throughout the state.
For seven decades, Fineman held positions with HuffPost. Matt Dahlen/HuffPost
In 1984, Fineman married his wife, Amy Lee Nathan, in Washington, D. C., while she was a laws student studying for the table and Fineman was covering his second presidential campaign for Newsweek.
” Four years later, we know how lucky we also are to enjoy each other so completely”, hewrote during their anniversary next year.
Howard Fineman and his family, Amy Nathan, in 2015 in Washington, DC. via Getty Images: Mark Sagliocco
He went on to record in 49 of the country’s 50 says, speaking with politicians on both sides of the aisle. From Jimmy Carter to Barack Obama, FINEMAN covered nine political campaigns, interviewed every major prospect, and made regular appearances on MSNBC, including” Hardball” with Chris Matthews.
He has appeared on” The Daily Show”,” Face the Nation”,” Charlie Rose” and” Larry King Live”, among many other programs.
Fineman left his position at Newsweek in 2010 to turn HuffPost’s political writer, according to Arianna Huffington.
” It really was n’t a difficult decision at all once I really began to think about it because this is where the action is,” he said at the time. Nobody was possibly pass up the chance to plunge headlong into the future, in my opinion.
Fineman” joined HuffPost when we had ten reporters in Washington, one book and 20 million special guests”, Huffington said in a speech to HuffPost.
His beautiful mentorship, intelligent voice, and brave embrace of the novel as our World Editorial Director helped HuffPost reach 17 international editions and more than 200 million unique visitors, and, most importantly, helped to deepen the collegial and friendly culture he was so happy of,” according to Huffington. ” American journalism is better because of Howard Fineman,  , and I will miss him dearly”.
Fineman speaks with his Huffington Post coworkers. Damon Dahlen/HuffPost
After serving as one of the first print reporters to submit for MSNBC.com, Fineman left HuffPost in 2017 to take his commentary to NBC News. He described it as a bittersweet homecoming. He cited one of the most impactful years in his long career as his time at HuffPost, which began when the site was just a young new media upstart.
There is NO place where people care about and cheer one another up the way HuffPosters do, he wrote in a note to staffers.” I have been in and worked in a lot of newsrooms. That spirit abides not only in Washington, D.C., but also all over the world.
Fineman is survived by his wife, Amy, his children Meredith and Nick and his daughter- in- law Summer.
