[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 147 (Monday, December 4, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2114]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


  IN HONOR OF LARS-ERIK NELSON, WASHINGTON COLUMNIST FOR THE NEW YORK 
                       DAILY NEWS, ON HIS PASSING

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. CAROLYN B. MALONEY

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, December 4, 2000

  Mrs. MALONEY of New York. Mr. Speaker, today I pay special tribute to 
Lars-Erik Nelson, Washington columnist for The New York Daily News, who 
passed away on November 20, 2000. Mr. Nelson, an enormously talented 
journalist, was revered by both his colleagues in the news media and by 
many members of this body.
  Mr. Nelson served as the Washington columnist for the Daily News for 
nearly two decades. He was an imaginative, generous, and perceptive 
writer. His work has been especially noted for its nonpartisan, honest, 
and straightforward style. His column served as an ideal conduit 
through which his readers in New York City's five boroughs could gain 
accurate and concise insight into the political events and 
personalities inside the Beltway.
  Many of Mr. Nelson's outside-Washington readers brushed up on their 
political awareness by reading his columns while riding New York City 
subways. His identification with New Yorkers was most evident in his 
clear yet flowing prose and served as his most noted trademark. Michael 
Oreskes, the Washington bureau chief of The New York Times said Nelson 
was ``a journalist's journalist. Honest, forthright, wise and 
clearheaded. He was cerebral without being stuffy.'' Columnist Jimmy 
Breslin described Mr. Nelson, fluent in Russian and an accomplished 
watercolor painter, as ``one of the few intellectuals left in the 
newsroom.''
  Lars-Erik Nelson, a native New Yorker who graduated from Columbia 
College, began his journalism career writing for several newspapers in 
the greater New York area. He then became a diplomatic correspondent 
for Reuters, where he specialized in Soviet and Eastern European 
affairs. While reporting in Europe and Russia, Mr. Nelson covered the 
fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. After briefly 
working as the Moscow Bureau Chief of Newsweek, Mr. Nelson joined the 
Daily News in 1979, where he worked as Washington Bureau Chief from 
1981 until 1993, when he became a Washington columnist for Newsday. He 
returned to the Daily News as a columnist in 1995. For the past two 
years, he has also been a regular contributor to The New York Review of 
Books.
  Mr. Speaker, the journalistic communities of both Washington, D.C. 
and New York City have suffered the loss of a great writer and advocate 
for objective and sound journalism. Mr. Nelson, a veteran journalist 
who never missed an opportunity to share his advice with a rookie 
reporter, was a man who personified the ideal journalist. His 
remarkably astute columns should be looked upon as examples of superior 
journalism by younger journalists of today.
  I express my most sincere condolences to both his family and 
coworkers. Lars-Erik Nelson will be sorely missed.

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