The Common Good Needed Someone to Protect It
<em>The Washington Post</em>’s Fred Hiatt understood that basic values need to be defended.
The loudest, most prominent voices in public life are not always the most influential. Some of the people who leave the most profound impact—the ones who actually shape the thinking of a generation—do so quietly. Fred Hiatt, who died earlier this week, was one of those people.
Hiatt was not exactly silent. You may have read his columns in or, before that, his reporting. But he did not appear much’s editorial page, he would always be seen as somehow speaking for the paper. Also, television destroys nuance. Among other things, he was responsible for producing the ’s unsigned editorials for more than two decades—that’s about three a day, every day, 365 days a year—and he didn’t want some rash comment or badly worded answer to spoil them.
