News & Politics

Robert Devaney • March 5, 2015

Legendary Washington newsman Arnaud de Borchgrave, former editor-in-chief of the Washington Times and top foreign correspondent for Newsweek for 30 years, died Feb. 15 at the age of 88 of cancer.

Known around town and the world for his access to international leaders as well as for a stylish, high-profile manner, de Borchgrave was one of the last of the great, on-the-scene, hands-on journalists who were actually where he said he was. He personified and lived the life of the foreign correspondent at Newsweek magazine and later put his charismatic and journalistic stamp on a young Washington Times.

He was born in Belgium on Oct. 26, 1926. During World War II, his father, Count Baudouin de Borchgrave d’Altena, was director of military intelligence for the exiled Belgium government. His mother, Audrey Townshend, was the daughter of a British general. De Borchgrave escaped the Nazi invasion of southern France only to return with Canadian forces at Juno Beach during D-Day in 1944.

In 1949, de Borchgrave worked for the United Press news agency and succeeded Walter Cronkite — later the managing editor and lead anchor for CBS News — as its Belgium bureau chief. By 1951, de Borchgrave was head of the Paris bureau for Newsweek in Paris and later hired his successor, Ben Bradlee, who would go to become executive editor of the Washington Post.

The list of places and persons de Borchgrave reported on is a long one and included leaders of Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Libya, Syria and wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan and the Middle East.

Known for his foreign reporting, de Borchgrave was also known for the advantage of his sartorial style, his expense accounts and his seemingly perpetual tan.

A few quotes by de Borchgrave in a Newsweek feature in 2012 tell the tale:

— “I saw this in Morocco once. I had a Chesterfield coat with a black velvet collar. Looked like a diplomat. Nasser was coming in his yacht to Casablanca and getting together with all these Arab heads of state, and the media was dressed, as you know, how the media dresses. I was dressed like an ambassador. And I managed to get in with the ambassadors. I did that over and over again.”

— “Reporting always came first. For example, Newsweek had me on the lecture tour after each major scoop. They would bring me back to talk to the advertisers. But I remember once having a deal with Juan Carlos of Spain. I said, ‘Newsweek is about to put me on a big lecture tour of the states. What if something happens to Franco and you become king?’ So we organized a little code. The message that he would send me was, ‘Charlie is on his way to Rome and wants to see you.’ That meant Franco is sick and dying. I was in Seattle when I got it. I canceled the rest of the tour. The Newsweek business team was furious. They’d invested a lot of money. But I said, ‘I’m sorry, I’m going to get the biggest scoop—the first interview with the new king of Spain.’ Which I did.”

— “I lived extremely well. I traveled a lot. In those days we always traveled first-class. Was never questioned. We stayed in five-star hotels. Never questioned. If we had to stay in one place for several days or weeks, we could get a suite. Never questioned. I never had an expense account questioned in the whole 30 years I worked at Newsweek.”

In 1985, de Borchgrave, who had never worked at a newspaper, became the editor-in-chief of the then three-year-old Washington Times and quickly put it on the map, going up against the city’s biggest paper, the Washington Post, which at the time owned Newsweek.

Owned by the Unification Church and its founder, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the Washington Times was a conservative voice in the nation’s capital during the Reagan years. Nevertheless, de Borchgrave denied that Moon or the church directly influenced editorial policy at the newspaper. De Borchgrave left the Times in 1991.

“Arnaud was an extraordinary man,” Wesley Pruden, told the Washington Times, where Pruden succeeded de Borchgrave as editor-in-chief until his retirement in 2008. “He came to us when we were struggling against considerable hostility to establish a second newspaper in Washington, and overnight he gave the Times identity, purpose and credibility. His friends teased Arnaud that he was ‘a legend in his own mind,’ but we were all in awe of his enormous self-confidence and his intrepid and relentless pursuit of the story. He leaves us a true legend in his own times.”

Indeed, the headline of a specially printed fake edition of the Washington Times in 1996 did read, “A legend in his own mind,” accompanied by a front page photo of de Borchgrave wearing military fatigues. It is for a 70th birthday party for de Borchgrave at the Washington Times headquarters on New York Avenue. The party was attended by Bradlee, who knew de Borchgrave from his Newsweek years — it is the only time that Bradlee is known to have come to the Times offices.

In 1998, De Borchgrave went on to work for United Press International and stayed on as a columnist until his death. He was also director of the Transnational Threats Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

De Borchgrave’s survivors include his wife of 45 years, Alexandra Villard De Borchgrave; a daughter by his second wife (Eileen Ritschel), Trisha de Borchgrave; a sister; a two granddaughters. A son by his first wife (Dorothy Solon), Arnaud de Borchgrave, Jr., died in 2011.

Linnea Kristiansson •

“This is a clear violation of the District of Columbia Whistleblower Protection Act,” said Metropolitan Police Department officer Hilton Burton, as he initiated a lawsuit against MPD Chief Cathy Lanier and the District in August 2012.

But two weeks ago, on Feb. 11, after less than a day of deliberations, a D.C. Superior Court jury rejected Burton’s whistleblower lawsuit.

Burton was demoted two ranks and transferred from his position in the Special Operations Division after he provided a police escort to actor Charlie Sheen nearly four years ago. Lanier and the department received numerous complaints about the escort, and Lanier testified in June 2011 before the D.C. Council that the officers involved in the escort acted outside of department regulations.

On April 19, 2011, Sheen traveled from Dulles International Airport to D.C. He received a police escort in order to make an appearance at an event at Constitution Hall. Sheen was so impressed by his escort that he tweeted with a photo attached: “In a car with Police escort in front and rear! Driving like someone’s about to deliver a baby!”

After the details of the Sheen escort were revealed, MPD released a statement informing the public that the incident was under investigation. The statement also said that it wasn’t departmental practice to utilize emergency equipment for non-emergency situations.

In the lawsuit, Burton claimed that MPD did not have a “clear policy in place to safeguard the health and safety to the public as it relates to non-dignitary escorts.” At the time of the Sheen incident, Lanier told the Washington Post that the department did not give escorts to celebrities.

“There are limited circumstances where we do police escorts,” Lanier said in April 2011. She explained that those circumstances are based on the need for security and that protocols are followed.

The two-week civil trial drew dozens of spectators. Lanier and other officers took the witness stand and testified about whether prior to the Sheen escort D.C. police had a long-standing policy of escorting celebrities. Lanier said that Burton’s demotion was performance-related and had nothing to do with Burton’s statement to the Council, but he believes it was retaliation for questioning the veracity of the chief.

“The police and the citizens of the District are hurt by this decision,” Burton said. “They are basically telling everyone that Lanier can do and say whatever she wants and get away with it.”

Lanier said in a statement released after the verdict that she appreciated ”the jury’s commitment to finding the truth.” “Although it was difficult to listen to attacks on my credibility, the truth came out in the end,” she said.

Peter Murray • February 26, 2015

“I’m not willing to let law enforcement off the hook,” FBI Director James B. Comey said in a Feb. 12 speech about policing and race Thursday at Georgetown University’s Gaston Hall. The speech marked the first time an FBI director has spoken on the topic and comes on the heals of nationwide unrest spurred by the deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice and others who were killed at the hands of police officers.

In addition to race, Comey touched on technology, community policing and trust as areas that police needed to improve upon, but he also argued that most police officers are “good people” who are “overwhelmingly doing the right thing and making the right choices.” He also highlighted his “affection” for law enforcement.

On the increased militarization of police forces, Comey argued, “It’s not the stuff [the equipment]. It’s about the training and the discipline and how we use it.” He asked rhetorically, “Do we use that stuff to confront people who are protesting in a crowd? Do we use a sniper rifle to see closer in a crowd?”

In a strong condemnation of how police report law-enforcement-involved deaths, Comey said it was “ridiculous” that such deaths are harder to find information on than “how many people went to the emergency room with fly symptoms last week.” He said it is impossible to “understand or address these issues” without more data and details on how police shooting incidents occur. Comey critiqued the current system of voluntary reporting in such incidents and said, “Without complete or accurate data, we are left with ideological thunderbolts.”

Speaking on Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, Comey harked back to the nation’s history of slavery and law enforcement’s “complicity” in that history, calling it “our inheritance as law enforcement.” He said the “mental shortcut” of assuming “everyone lies and everyone is guilty” is “easy but… false,” yet “irresistible.” He went on to say that if law enforcement can’t change their “latent biases” they can at least change their “behavior in response to those instinctive reactions.”

Comey implied that fixing the ways police use technology and react to minorities will help law enforcement regain the trust of the American people. He called the current lack of trust in minority communities “corrosive” to the “entire justice system.”

However, Comey also took swings at law enforcement’s critics, saying that broader societal problems lead poor kids to “inherit a life of crime” and that body cameras will not solve “a host of problems” in the criminal justice system.

Comey closed out his remarks on a conciliatory note, quoting Martin Luther King Jr. in saying, “We must learn to live as brothers or we will perish together as fools,” adding, “Relationships are hard. Relationships require work. So let’s begin that work. It is time to start seeing each other as who we really are.”

Peter Murray •

A new Condé Nast Traveler feature has ranked D.C. as the top American city for “music lovers,” above New York, Los Angeles, Nashville, Austin, Memphis, Detroit and more for the top spot. This ranking defies common sense and logic.

No doubt the District is a great place to be a music lover with venues like the 9:30 Club, the Kennedy Center, the Black Cat, the Historic Synagogue at Sixth & I, the Lincoln Theatre, the Howard Theatre, U Street Music Hall, Gypsy Sally’s, DC9 and Echostage, to name a few. D.C. is the home to great music genres like go-go and hugely talented musicians like the Foo Fighters, Fugazi, Thievery Corporation and, more recently, Paperhaus, Will Eastman – with a stable of young electronic acts he has helped raise – and Wale.

But Condé Nast only scratches the surface of that history. Here’s what they had to say about our city:

“Despite its staid reputation—or maybe because of it—the nation’s capital has fostered thriving underground music scenes for decades, including go-go (the funky genre’s driving force, Chuck Brown, was from D.C.) and hardcore, led by bands like Bad Brains and Fugazi. Today there are plenty of places to see live music in D.C., including legendary venues like Bohemian Caverns, where Miles Davis and John Coltrane once played; the 9:30 Club has hosted everyone from Arcade Fire to Rob Zombie. D.C.’s museums are also filled with music history: The National Museum of American History, for instance, has old cassettes and other pop-culture ephemera in its collection.”

Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Arcade Fire and Rob Zombie have nothing to do with D.C. other than that they got paid to play here once or maybe a handful of times. Also, why shout out Rob Zombie over pretty much every other major music act that has played at the 9:30 Club at some time or another?

Sure, “old cassettes and other pop-culture ephemera” are cool, but are they a reason that D.C. should be the number one city for music lovers in America? Absolutely not. Music lovers would probably prefer more local acts, more venues, more music festivals, more recording studios and more of an industry infrastructure to support all of that than technological artifacts.

D.C. is a great city for music lovers and should certainly make this list – and be proud to make it – but by putting the District at the top, Condé Nast calls their entire ranking into question. In all, the publication comes off as more patronizing to the District than anything else.

New York City or Los Angeles deserves the top spot on this list. Both are home to hundreds of venues not to mention all of the country’s major (and most of the minor) record labels and the music media. Massive pop stars and bright-eyed, aspiring musicians alike call both cities home. For Christ’s sake, bands move to those places to get their careers started. They don’t move to D.C.; they move away from D.C. to those cities.

Hopefully this changes and D.C. eventually – and rightfully – becomes the best city in America for music lovers. A stronger industry presence or festivals on national park land (cough, cough, the National Mall and Meridian Hill Park) could change that. More venues, like the one proposed by I.M.P. at the Wharf development in Southwest, could help too. For the District to reach this title, in essence, D.C. needs more reasons for musicians to stay put. A list put out by Condé Nast meant to throw a curveball at its readers just isn’t going to do it.

Robert Devaney •

While some in the neighborhood knew Rhino Bar would be closing, this week’s news still made major media buzz. The legendary Rhino Bar and Pumphouse, popular with Georgetown University students, will close Feb. 28.

Known for its sports bar verve, Rhino at 3295 M St. NW is a big fan zone for the Boston Red Sox and Philadelphia Eagles as well as for college basketball, especially the Hoyas. It is full of sports memorabilia.

For those who want a piece of the place, there is an online auction by Rasmus Auctions that lists just about everything that isn’t nailed down. Lighted advertising signage, flat-screen televisions, bar tables, stools and other restaurant fixtures are on the list, but it is the memorabilia that is worth noting.

First, there is the presiding rhino head at the center of the bar as well as signs from previous bars that existed at the property: Winston’s and the Shamrock. There are signed sports jerseys in frames that include Patrick Ewing, Derek Jeter, Michael Jordan, Joe Namath, Magic Johnson, Joe Theisman, Larry Bird and many more along with autographed magazines covers of sports figures.

The bidding continues until Feb. 27 with inspection at Rhino Bar, noon to 4 p.m., Feb. 26, and removal, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., March 2. Check out Rasmus.com/auction/250679/bar-and-restaurant-online-auction-washington-dc/