Martin AustermuhleIn the December issue of the Washingtonian, the magazine lauds the “Best of Washington,” including restaurants, dance clubs, pizza, late night dining, hip clothes, and more. Among the magazine’s bevy of lists is a ranking of the “50 Best & Most Influential Journalists,” written by Garrett Graff, formerly of Fishbowl DC fame.
While journalists for the usual suspects abounded — Mike Allen of Time; Dan Balz, David Broder, Steve Coll, Marc Fisher, Al Kamen, Howard Kurtz and others from the Post; Wolf Blitzer from CNN; Thomas Friedman, Maureen Dowd, Linda Greenhouse, and more from the New York Times; and so on — we were happy to see one local name recognized. Tom Sherwood, of NBC 4 fame, was listed as a newcomer to the list, described as a “local reporter with solid sources and unique insight into the sausage-making that is the District government.”
We couldn’t agree more. Sherwood could well be described as the godfather of District political reporting, a man whose decades of work breaking down the machinations of local politics commands respect the city across. His current feature on NBC 4’s website, “The Notebook,” serves as the perch from which he communicates his incisive mix of reporting and analysis with a voice all his own. Sherwood also co-authored the seminal “Dream City: Race, Power, and the Decline of Washington, D.C.”, a 1994 book in which he and Examiner columnist Harry Jaffe exhaustively researched and reported on the rise and rule of former mayor Marion Barry, including a gripping narrative on Barry’s spiral into drug use and eventual arrest and trial.
DCist extends its congratulations to Mr. Sherwood for the recognition, and we have but one question to ask: when is the follow-up to “Dream City” due?
