Alexander Cockburn Has Died [View all]
Alexander Cockburn, the radical and acerbic journalist who had written longtime columns in both the conservative Wall Street Journal and the leftist outlet the Nation, died Friday in Germany. He was 71.
The influential writer had been fighting cancer, according to his editor, Katrina vanden Heuvel.
Unlike another prominent writer, Christopher Hitchens, with whom he had often been compared, Cockburn did not share the story of his illness. It was a rare quiet move in a career characterized by a thirst for public debate.
For 28 years, Cockburn wrote the Beat the Devil column in the Nation. His last column for the publication will appear July 30.
"Alexander reveled in being a troublemaker, and his provocative, polemical, elegant style usually engaged us and his reporting and analysis opened windows onto under-unreported news," Vanden Heuvel, the Nation's editor and publisher, said in an email to The Times. "I often felt I wasn't doing my job right if we didn't get a dozen or so subscription cancellations as a result of some Cockburn column."
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-0722-alexander-cockburn-20120722,0,1547586.story
Didn't seem like a favorite here at DU, but he did lead an interesting career. RIP
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