Linda Deutsch (September 24, 1943 – September 1, 2024) was an American journalist who worked for the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

(AP) and covered court cases from 1967 until her retirement in 2014, including the high-profile trials of

Charles Manson Charles Milles Manson (; November 12, 1934 – November 19, 2017) was an American criminal, cult leader, and musician who led the Manson Family, a cult based in California in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Some cult members committed a Manson ...

Sirhan Sirhan Sirhan Bishara Sirhan (; ; born March 19, 1944) is a Palestinian-Jordanian man who assassinated Senator Robert F. Kennedy, a younger brother of American president John F. Kennedy and a candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 1968 U ...

O. J. Simpson Orenthal James Simpson (July 9, 1947 – April 10, 2024), also known by his nickname "the Juice", was an American professional American football, football player, actor, and media personality who played in the National Football League (NFL) ...

, and

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Michael Jackson, one of the most culturally significan ...

Early life and education

Deutsch was born on September 24, 1943, in

Perth Amboy, New Jersey Perth Amboy is a city (New Jersey), city in northeastern Middlesex County, New Jersey, Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, within the New York metropolitan area, New York Metro Area. As of the 2020 United States census, the city' ...

, and was raised in the

Jersey Shore The Jersey Shore, commonly called the Shore by locals, is the coast, coastal region of the U.S. state of New Jersey. The term encompasses about of shore, oceanfront bordering the Atlantic Ocean, from Perth Amboy, New Jersey, Perth Amboy in the n ...

community of Bradley Beach.2023 Graduate Commencement Program
,

Monmouth University Monmouth University is a private university in West Long Branch, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1933 as Monmouth Junior College, it became Monmouth College in 1956 and Monmouth University in 1995 after receiving its university charter, c ...

. Accessed September 2, 2024. "Honorary Degree Linda Deutsch '65... Born in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, she was raised in the seaside town of Bradley Beach, graduated from Asbury Park High School, and earned a bachelor's degree in English from Monmouth in 1965." She became interested in journalism at age 12, when she founded a newsletter for an

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one of the most significant cultural figures of the ...

fan club. She graduated from

Asbury Park High School Asbury Park High School is a comprehensive, community public high school serving students in seventh through twelfth grades. It is in a landmark building in Asbury Park, in Monmouth County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, that was constru ...

and in 1965 from

, where she earned a bachelor's degree in English. She was encouraged to become a journalist by her uncle, a newspaper editor, despite journalism's severe lack of gender diversity at the time.

Career

While in college, Deutsch interned for a summer at the ''Perth Amboy Evening News''. That summer, aged 20, she covered the 1963 civil rights march on Washington and heard Martin Luther King give his "

I Have a Dream "I Have a Dream" is a Public speaking, public speech that was delivered by American civil rights activist and Baptist minister Martin Luther King Jr. during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. In the speech, Kin ...

" speech. Her report on the event was her first front-page byline. After graduating, she moved to Southern California and joined '' The San Bernardino Sun'' for a short time. When Deutsch first joined the

in January 1967, she was the only woman in the Los Angeles bureau. Speaking on her experience as a woman in journalism, she said in 2015: "I personally was never harassed ... I was very fortunate in that aspect, but I think it was because er colleaguessaw that I could do the job. You don't harass somebody that's making you look good. And so the only discrimination, really, was in pay and in assignments." Over the course of her career, she rose through the ranks and earned the title of special correspondent in 1992, a designation bestowed on only 18 reporters since the AP was founded in 1846. Deutsch covered the

assassination of Robert F. Kennedy On June 5, 1968, Robert F. Kennedy was shot by Sirhan Sirhan at the Ambassador Hotel (Los Angeles), Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California, and pronounced dead the following day. Kennedy, a United States senator and candidate in the 19 ...

(1968) and the trials of Kennedy's assassin

(1969), cult leader

( 1970–1971),

Angela Davis Angela Yvonne Davis (born January 26, 1944) is an American Marxist and feminist political activist, philosopher, academic, and author. She is Distinguished Professor Emerita of Feminist Studies and History of Consciousness at the University of ...

(1971–1972), activist

Daniel Ellsberg Daniel Ellsberg (April 7, 1931June 16, 2023) was an American political activist, economist, and United States military analyst. While employed by the RAND Corporation, he precipitated a national political controversy in 1971 when he released th ...

(1973), bank robber Patty Hearst (1976), the ''Exxon Valdez'' oil spill (1989), acquitted double murderer (SPECULATION)

(

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

), murderer

Phil Spector Harvey Phillip Spector (December 26, 1939 – January 16, 2021) was an American record producer and songwriter who is best known for pioneering recording practices in the 1960s, followed by his trials and conviction for murder in the 2000s. S ...

(2009), singer

, actor Robert Blake, serial killer

Richard Ramirez Ricardo Leyva Muñoz Ramirez (; February 29, 1960 – June 7, 2013), better known as Richard Ramirez, was an American serial killer and sex offender whose killing spree occurred in Greater Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area in the ...

, and parricidal brothers

Lyle and Erik Menendez Joseph Lyle Menendez (born January 10, 1968) and Erik Galen Menendez (born November 27, 1970), commonly referred to as the Menendez brothers, are American brothers convicted of Parricide, killing their parents, José and Mary Louise "Kitty" Me ...

. She became a

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

finalist for her role as a pool reporter at Simpson's trial. The trial also marked her first time acting as a television journalist; her reporting was widely broadcast due to the Associated Press's neutral reputation. In 1975, Deutsch was sent to

Guam Guam ( ; ) is an island that is an Territories of the United States, organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. Guam's capital is Hagåtña, Guam, Hagåtña, and the most ...

, where she interviewed evacuees from Vietnam following the

Fall of Saigon The fall of Saigon, known in Vietnam as Reunification Day (), was the capture of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, by North Vietnam on 30 April 1975. As part of the 1975 spring offensive, this decisive event led to the collapse of the So ...

. In 1992 she reported on the

Rodney King riots The 1992 Los Angeles riots were a series of riots and civil disturbances that occurred in Los Angeles County, California, United States, during April and May 1992. Unrest began in South Los Angeles, South Central Los Angeles on April 29, after ...

. In 1997, she promoted the late Theo Wilson's memoir ''Headline Justice: Inside the Courtroom – The Country's Most Controversial Trials'' on a book tour and at her own expense. Deutsch retired in 2014. She returned temporarily in 2019 to follow up with Simpson about his life after imprisonment for a 2007 armed robbery in Nevada. That year, she also endowed journalism scholarships at her alma mater Monmouth University for $1 million.

Personal life and death

Deutsch never married nor had children. She said of her life in 2015: "I have a godson who means the world to me. And I have a very full life, but it never included marriage. I think my relationships mostly broke up because of my work." Deutsch was diagnosed with

pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of ...

in 2022. After a round of successful treatment, it reappeared mid-2024. She died at home in Los Angeles, on September 1, 2024, at the age of 80, surrounded by family and friends.

Honors and awards

*University of Missouri's Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism, 1992 *Monmouth University Distinguished Alumni Award, 1996 * Society of Professional Journalists "Fellow of the Society", the organization's highest honor awarded for contributions to the journalism profession, 2005 *

Lifetime Achievement Award Lifetime achievement awards are awarded by various organizations, to recognize contributions over the whole of a career, rather than or in addition to single contributions. Such awards, and organizations presenting them, include: A * A.C. ...

from the

International Women's Media Foundation The International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF), located in Washington, D.C., is an organization working internationally to elevate the status of women in the media. The IWMF has created programs to help women in the media develop practical so ...

, 2015 * Lifetime Achievement Award from the Washington Press Club Foundation, which she received at the Congressional Dinner on February 25, 2016

References

External links

Linda Deutsch's personal websiteProfile of Deutsch by the International Women's Media Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Deutsch, Linda 1943 births 2024 deaths 20th-century American journalists 20th-century American women journalists 21st-century American journalists 21st-century American women journalists Associated Press reporters Deaths from pancreatic cancer in California Journalists from New Jersey Monmouth University alumni Asbury Park High School alumni People from Bradley Beach, New Jersey People from Perth Amboy, New Jersey Journalists from Los Angeles