David,

I'm sorry to read of the loss of this much admired journalist. This week also saw the passing of another pursuer of truth, Boston radio talk host, David Brudnoy. I spent literally thousands of hours listening to him over the last few decades. Even though Brudnoy was a self-described, Conservative-Libertarian, this Liberal found him enormously stimulating. His shows were like graduate school, and he covered so many disparate subjects with intelligence, and wit. Too often we shut ourselves off from opposing views, and that's our loss. Unlike many contemporary talk show hosts, Brudnoy treated listeners who disagreed with him with respect. Perhaps Reg will echo my thoughts. Here is a short piece on Brudnoy.

Peter T.

Here are a few thoughts from Andrew Sullivan:

BRUDNOY: David Brudnoy was and is a class act. He was a Tory libertarian, a loyal Republican, ornery in a gentlemanly way, and a brilliant, emollient radio personality. I was on his show a few times, broadcast from his cozy, Victorian-style Back Bay apartment, with friendly and unfriendly callers all treated in the same courteous but unsparing manner. His own openness about his struggle with HIV was a real boon to others, like me, who dealt with this alone to begin with. He also proved that it isn't simply possible to be a conservative and to favor gay dignity, but that it is quintessentially conservative to do so. Homosexuality is like the weather: an unalterable part of the human condition, as noble and as tawdry as every other facet of human life and experience. Conservatives should seek to understand it, and to bring it within the boundaries of civilized life. David was an emblem of that civilization: a prince of a conversationalist, a charmer and a friend. His final and heartiest laugh? That HIV didn't kill him. God bless him.