Thursday
Editorial in the Wall Street Journal of June 15, 2006

Note from the Editor's desk - The following editorial from the Wall Street Journal was sent by the Washingtonian staff and we include it for your reading. We are putting it on a page of its own so it will be more easily accessible. The online WSJ is at this link.

From WSJ June 15, 2006
Publisher Patriot

The world of journalism and politics lost a friend of liberty this week with the presumed drowning of Philip Merrill in a boating accident. The 72-year-old publisher went for a solo weekend sail on the Chesapeake Bay, and the 41-foot Merrilly was later found without him.

In the view of some modern media ethicists, journalist aren’t supposed to spend time in government. But Mr. Merrill moved between the two with ease, and the country is better for it. He was a successful publisher of the Capital-Gazette newspapers and Washingtonian magazine. He also worked for six presidential administrations over the years, usually in foreign policy or Defense posts, and most notably as assistant secretary general of NATO during the historic period from 1996 to 1992 when the Soviet empire was imploding and Germany was uniting.

We knew Mr. Merrill as a stalwart hawk against Soviet oppression and a believer in free markets. He was also a philanthropist, giving away big chunks of his wealth to a variety of causes, notably in education with a $10 million gift to the University of Maryland for a journalism college.

Above all, he was an energetic businessman-journalist who understood that a free press is a more vital and independent if it also makes money. The last time we talked to him--at a dinner honoring his friend and our former colleague, George Melloan--Mr. Merrill offered all sorts of ideas for how newspapers could make money on the Internet. He stayed up last with the younger writers, telling stories. As usual, they were very good stories.

return to Merrill weblog