It is not quite so easy to make obituary references to a fellow journalist whom you have known for a long time. But world media has risen as one to pay moving tributes to R. W. Apple Jr of the New York Times, better known as Johnny Apple, who passed away on Wednesday at age 71.
In a NYT career spanning 43 years, he travelled to more than 100 countries. Johnny, who covered Vietnam and the 1991 Gulf War, the Iranian revolution, the Falklands war and the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II, was described by his colleague Andrew Rosenthal as “the best mind and the worst body in American journalism.”
The Independent says: “American journalism was mourning one of its giants yesterday, the New York Times man Johnny Apple, whose exploits as a political writer and foreign correspondent were matched by a Falstaffian appetite for good food, high living and erudite wit.”
One of the best tributes paid to Johnny came from Richard Holbrooke, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, who now writes a monthly column for The Washington Post.
Holbrooke wrote: “It is impossible to call Johnny Apple’s death the end of an era, because he belonged to no specific era, only to himself. But the journalistic standards he stood for are eroding under the assault of the 24-hour news cycle and the endless stream of mostly unprocessed data and rumor and commentary, all mixed into one messy stew (Johnny would say ‘cassoulet’).
“By the end of his career he was no longer the high-expense-account enfant terrible everyone remembers. He had become one of the last defenders of standards whose loss will be very costly to all of us.
an earlier era, one in which print journalists were all that mattered and their coverage could change events.
“When he wrote a devastating front-page article in 1967 that called the Vietnam War a stalemate, President Lyndon B. Johnson hit the roof, blamed his own team in Vietnam for leaking the story, and tried to counter it with a now-familiar blend of counterattack and discrediting. But the article hurt, because it was accurate.
“When Apple realized in 1975 that a one-term Georgia governor named Jimmy Carter had the potential to go all the way, it had a huge effect and helped launch Carter. It is highly unlikely that a single reporter could make such a difference today.
“What made Johnny unforgettable, of course, was not simply his reportorial skill; it was his outsized appetite for life. His legendary zest for food, wine, flowers, great houses, hotels, art and politics — and much more — was overwhelming. He didn’t just know which hotel to stay in, he knew which room to ask for. He told you what to order in restaurants.”
The Newsweek has another interesting anecdote about his wonderful appetite for good food.
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.