Dream Assignment

Washington has too many columnists, says Robert J. Donovan of the Los Angeles Times, who could be considered a Washington columnist of sorts himself. But there are not many like Donovan. No pundit, he specializes in writing around the news and stresses a new, people-oriented approach in interviews with the famous, the forgotten and the obscure. His low-key offbeat efforts do not aim for headlines, but the Times is now syndicating them to 200 papers in the U.S.

Actually Donovan does not consider himself a columnist at all in the conventional sense. "My stuff has no title, no regular schedule, no limitation of any kind--in length, subject or geography. There isn't even a budget. I'm totally free. I simply talk with people. When you read me, you're really reading them." What Donovan does, on the average of twice a week, is seek out "somebody interesting, with something to say that is different and yet relevant --but not a hot news source who is about to go on Meet the Press." After a quarter-century of Washington service with the Times and the old New York Herald Tribune, Donovan, 59, does not lack for sources, and he has a sharp eye for the unusual.

Allen on Nixon. A tall, white-haired charmer, Donovan frequently goes to interviews without any prepared questions or topics, preferring to let his subjects chat away on things they really care about. Instead of prodding Dean Rusk about Viet Nam, he concentrated on the former Secretary of State's experiences with students at the University of Georgia--where he now teaches --and got a wry description of Rusk's generation-gap difficulties: "A dialogue between those who are beginning to forget and those who have no chance to remember." When President Nixon imposed wage and price controls, Donovan sought out Michael DiSalle for recollections on his days as director of price stabilization in the Truman era. Last week he zeroed in on Coach George Allen of the Washington Redskins, who led the Los Angeles Rams last year; he told Donovan's readers back home: "There's more enthusiasm for football here than in L.A." Said Allen of Football Fan Nixon: "He came back after being beaten twice. The determination to come back shows he is a competitor, and that is why he likes football."

Donovan's latest assignment is a reporter's dream, but it came only after a deep disappointment. Last year Times Publisher Otis Chandler induced Donovan to give up his post as Washington bureau chief and come to Los Angeles, where everybody--including Donovan--assumed that he was being groomed to become editor of the paper. Instead, the Times's top job went to Metropolitan Editor William F. Thomas, 47; as a consolation prize, Donovan got to write his own ticket. He chose to return to Washington.

"I was hypersensitive to the fear of coming back and messing up a bureau I'd put together," he says, "and I dreaded the idea of becoming just one more pundit. I had to find a niche, and I think I've latched on to an idea that's sustainable. This is a fresh-stocked lake."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.