Bernard Kalb

{{Infobox officeholder

|name = Bernard Kalb

|image = Bernard Kalb (cropped).jpg

|caption = Kalb, {{circa|1985}}

| office = 19th Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs

| term_start = August 12, 1985

| term_end = October 8, 1986

| preceded = Robert John Hughes

| succeeded = Charles E. Redman

| office1 = 11th Spokesperson for the United States Department of State

| termstart1 = 1985

| termend1 = 1986

| preceded1 = Robert John Hughes

| succeeded1 = Charles Edgar Redman

|birth_date = {{birth date|1922|2|4}}

|birth_place = New York City, U.S.

|death_date = {{death date and age|2023|1|8|1922|2|4}}

|death_place = North Bethesda, Maryland, U.S.

|alma_mater = {{Plainlist|

}}

|occupation = {{hlist|Journalist|moderator|media critic|lecturer|author}}

|spouse = Phyllis Bernstein

|children = 4

|relatives = Marvin Kalb (brother)

}}

Bernard Kalb (February 4, 1922 – January 8, 2023) was an American journalist, moderator, media critic, lecturer, and author.

Early life and education

Kalb was born in New York City on February 4, 1922,{{cite book|editor-last1=Maisel|editor-first1=L. Sandy|editor-link1=L. Sandy Maisel|editor-last2=Forman|editor-first2=Ira N.|editor-link2=Ira Forman|title=Jews in American Politics|year=2001|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_oh2AAAAMAAJ&q=Bernard+Kalb+February+4,+1922}} the son of Bella (Portnoy) and Max Kalb. His father was a Polish Jewish immigrant and his mother was a Ukrainian Jew.{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/08/business/media/bernard-kalb-dead.html | title=Bernard Kalb, Veteran Foreign Correspondent, is Dead at 100 | work=The New York Times | date=January 8, 2023 | last1=Hevesi | first1=Dennis }}{{cite web |title=Bernard Kalb, a longtime foreign affairs newsman, has died at 100 |website=NPR |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230726213904/https://www.npr.org/2023/01/08/1147777864/bernard-kalb-a-longtime-foreign-affairs-newsman-has-died-at-100 |archive-date=2023-07-26 |url-status=live |url=https://www.npr.org/2023/01/08/1147777864/bernard-kalb-a-longtime-foreign-affairs-newsman-has-died-at-100}} He graduated from the City College of New York with a B.S.S. and later received an M.A. from Harvard University.{{cite web|url=https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/sites/default/files/archives/speeches/1985/61885b.htm|title=Nomination of Bernard Kalb To Be an Assistant Secretary of State|website=www.reaganlibrary.gov|access-date=May 2, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180125134607/https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/sites/default/files/archives/speeches/1985/61885b.htm|archive-date=January 25, 2018|url-status=dead}}

Career

Kalb covered international affairs for more than three decades at CBS News, NBC News, and The New York Times. For nearly half of that time he was abroad, based in Indonesia, Hong Kong, Paris, and Saigon.

Near the end of his tenure at the Times, Kalb received a fellowship from the Council on Foreign Relations—awarded annually to a foreign correspondent—and took a leave from the newspaper for a year.{{cn|date=January 2023}}

Bernard Kalb and his younger brother, journalist Marvin Kalb, traveled extensively with Henry Kissinger on diplomatic missions and they later wrote a biography titled Kissinger. The brothers also co-authored The Last Ambassador, a novel about the collapse of Saigon in 1975.{{cite web |title=Bernard Kalb, a longtime foreign affairs newsman, has died at 100 |website=NPR |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230726213904/https://www.npr.org/2023/01/08/1147777864/bernard-kalb-a-longtime-foreign-affairs-newsman-has-died-at-100 |archive-date=2023-07-26 |url-status=live |url=https://www.npr.org/2023/01/08/1147777864/bernard-kalb-a-longtime-foreign-affairs-newsman-has-died-at-100 | date=January 8, 2023 }}

In 1984, Kalb was appointed Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs and spokesman for the U.S. State Department. It was the first time that a journalist who covered the State Department had been named as its spokesperson.{{cite news|url=https://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F10612F83C5C0C7A8EDDA80994DC484D81|title=BERNARD KALB NAMED TO POST AT STATE DEPT.|website=The New York Times|date=November 29, 1984 |access-date=May 2, 2018}}

Kalb quit this post two years later to protest what he called "the reported disinformation program" conducted by the Reagan Administration against the Libyan leader Col. Muammar al-Gaddafi.{{cite web|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1075205,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930081659/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1075205,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 30, 2007|title=Bernard Kalb's Modest Dissent|first=John S.|last=Demott|date=June 21, 2005|publisher=|access-date=May 2, 2018|via=www.time.com}} Kalb said, "you face a choice, as an American, as a spokesman, as a journalist, whether to allow oneself to be absorbed in the ranks of silence, whether to vanish into unopposed acquiescence or to enter a modest dissent. Faith in the word of America is the pulse beat of our democracy".https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/kalb-bernard-1922 {{Bare URL inline|date=August 2022}}

In his later career, Kalb traveled as a lecturer and moderator. He was the founding anchor and a panelist on the weekly CNN program Reliable Sources from 1993 to 1998.{{cn|date=January 2023}}

Awards and honors

Kalb won an Overseas Press Club Award for a 1968 documentary on the Vietcong.[https://www.nytimes.com/1984/11/29/world/bernard-kalb-named-to-post-at-state-dept.html BERNARD KALB NAMED TO POST AT STATE DEPT.]

==Personal life and death==

Kalb and his wife, Phyllis Bernstein, had four daughters. He turned 100 on February 4, 2022.{{cite web|url=https://jewishinsider.com/2022/02/daily-kickoff-which-jew-should-join-the-view-uae-and-israel-increasingly-in-the-same-boat/|title=Daily Kickoff |website=jewishinsider.com|publisher=Jewish Insider|date=February 4, 2022|access-date=February 5, 2022}}

On January 2, 2023, Kalb suffered a fall and died from his injuries six days later at his home in North Bethesda, Maryland. He was 100.{{cite news|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/08/business/media/bernard-kalb-dead.html|title = Bernard Kalb, Veteran Foreign Correspondent, Is Dead at 100|last = Hevesi|first = Dennis|date = January 8, 2023|access-date = January 8, 2023|newspaper = The New York Times|url-access = limited}}{{Cite web |last=Passantino |first=Jon |publication-date=2023-01-09 |title=Bernard Kalb, founding CNN 'Reliable Sources' anchor, dies at 100 |url=https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/08/media/bernard-kalb-death/index.html |date=2023-01-08 |website=CNN |language=en}}