Robin Toner, NY Times Reporter, Is Dead at 54 [View All]

[babylonsister]

Robin Toner, Times Reporter, Is Dead at 54

By TODD S. PURDUM
Published: December 12, 2008

Robin Toner, who was the first woman to be the national political correspondent of The New York Times and who had a significant hand in the coverage of five presidential elections, innumerable Congressional and gubernatorial campaigns and the great legislative debates of the day, died early Friday at her home in Washington. She was 54.

Jamie Rose for The New York Times

Robin Toner at the U.S. Capitol in Washington in December 2006.

The cause was complications of colon cancer, her family said.

In a career of nearly 25 years at The Times, and in an age of increasing specialization, Ms. Toner reported authoritatively on almost every domestic issue, whether it was taxes, welfare, Social Security, immigration or health-care policy.

And in a craft in which small errors are commonplace and bigger mistakes a regular occupational hazard, Ms. Toner devised a meticulous personal method for checking and re-checking names, dates, facts and figures in her own raw copy, a step few reporters take. As a result: only half a dozen published corrections over the years, on more than 1,900 articles with her byline.

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/13/obituaries/12toner.html?_r=2&hp