Media Critic And Journalist Known For Sharp Wit, Bow tie Dies

By: Journalist and media critic Robert Schulman, known for his signature bow tie and barbed humor, has died. He was 91.

Keith Runyon, opinion page editor for The Courier-Journal and a longtime friend of Mr. Schulman, said Mr. Schulman died of natural causes Sunday at a nursing home.

Mr. Schulman would direct his barbs at virtually anybody, even his own publisher. He worked for The Courier-Journal and Louisville Times from 1974 to 1981.

"He was a very important figure in Kentucky journalism and indeed the nation's," Runyon said. "He set standards for ethics and self-criticism that others have emulated and rarely obtained."

Mr. Schulman, a New York native, started his career as a reporter for The St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 1937. He worked for Time Inc. in Seattle and came to Kentucky in 1968 as a commentator for WHAS-TV. In 1990, he and four other investors created an alternative weekly newspaper called LEO.

U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Ky., one of the investors, called Mr. Schulman "the conscience of local journalism in Louisville." "He was a very strong patron of the arts. He never ever lost his curiosity about the world, and I think everybody who knew him really appreciated that," he said.

The Louisville chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists last summer honored him with its first lifetime achievement award.