I was saddened to hear the news over the weekend that longtime PJ Media columnist Claudia Rosett has passed away at age 67. Claudia had maintained her column, The Rosett Report, at PJ Media since 2006, and although her writings here had been infrequent in recent years, she has contributed more than a thousand columns in these pages. And PJM was just a small part of her prolific and courageous journalism career.
Much of her career was spent with the Wall Street Journal, serving as its Moscow bureau chief and editorial page editor for the Asia division. She was fearless and passionate, especially when reporting about repressive regimes around the world. Claudia was the only print journalist who witnessed the Tiananmen Square uprising in 1989, dodging bullets to get the story out to the world (you can read her first-hand account here). She was also a fierce critic of the United Nations and is widely credited with exposing corruption in the international body. She received several awards for her reporting on the UN’s Oil-for-Food program in Iraq. In recent years she had traveled to Hong Kong to cover protests over the encroachment of China. She was also a foreign policy fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum.
On a personal note, Claudia was a lovely person and true professional in every sense of the word. She was unfailingly polite and an editor’s dream. Every word and sentence was carefully chosen, and she had the ability to make complicated foreign policy issues easily understandable. Accolades poured out on Twitter over the weekend:
May Claudia Rosett, beloved member of the IWF family, rest in peace.
Claudia's influential journalism & contributions to foreign policy reporting will be remembered. She led a remarkable life & will be deeply missed. We share our deepest sympathies for her family & loved ones. pic.twitter.com/JpnjhpbsV4
— Independent Women's Forum (@IWF) May 28, 2023
In a just world Claudia Rosett would have had several Pulitzers…for her eye-witness accounts of Tiananmen Massacre, for reporting on USSR’s demise as WSJ‘s Moscow bureau chief, etc. She was also a wonderful friend for over 40 years. Swift passage to the greatest story of all. pic.twitter.com/6ILJBLC7of
— David Asman (@DavidAsmanfox) May 28, 2023
Looking back on her work for PJ Media over the years, I was touched to read her first “blog” post from 2006. It embodies Claudia’s practical realism and hopes that good would always triumph over evil.
“There are times I’ve wondered if there is some equilibrium amount of evil in the world –every time it is beaten back, it grows again,” Claudia wrote. “We trounce the Nazis and the Cold War begins; the Soviet Union finally collapses and out of a blue September sky, Islamic fascists are upon us. And yet, when freedom-loving people keep faith with themselves — and each other — there are mighty forces set in motion, which, as Winston Churchill foresaw at the beginning of World War II, will ‘roll on full flood, inexorable, irresistible, benignant, to broader lands and better days.'”
Our prayers go out to Claudia’s family during this difficult time, and may she rest in peace.
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