The Inconvenient Journalist: A Memoir

by Dusko Doder, Louise Branson (Primary Contributor)

In The Inconvenient Journalist , Dusko Doder, writing with his spouse and journalistic partner Louise Branson, describes how one February night crystalized the values and personal risks that shaped his life. The frigid Moscow night in question was in 1984, and Washington Post correspondent Doder reported signs that Soviet leader Yuri Andropov had died. The CIA at first dismissed the reporting, saying that "Doder must be smoking pot." When Soviet authorities confirmed Andropov's death, journalists and intelligence officials questioned how a lone reporter could scoop the multibillion-dollar US spy agency. The stage was set for Cold War-style revenge against the star journalist, and that long night at the teletype machine in Moscow became a pivotal moment in Doder's life.

After emigrating to the United States from Yugoslavia in 1956, Doder committed himself to the journalist's mission. He knew that reporting the truth could come at a price, something driven home by his years of covering Soviet dissidents and watching his Washington Post colleagues break the Watergate story. Still, he was not prepared for a cloaked act of reprisal from the CIA.

Taking aim at Doder, the CIA insinuated a story into Time magazine suggesting that he had been coopted by the KGB. Doder's professional world collapsed and his personal life was shaken as he fought Time in court. In The Inconvenient Journalist , Doder reflects on this attempt to destroy his reputation, his dedication to reporting the truth, and the vital but precarious role of the free press today.

The Inconvenient Journalist is a powerful human story and a must-read for all concerned about freedom of the press and truthful reporting.

Genres: Journalism, Nonfiction

272 pages, Hardcover

Published September 15, 2021

About the author

Dusko Doder was an American journalist. He was the head of the Moscow bureau of the The Washington Post from 1981 until 1985.

Reviews

[Michael Hassel Shearer · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Inconvenient Journalist by Dusko Doner with Louise Branson
This book was a pleasure to read. Dusko was born and raised in Yugoslavia and without his father’s blessing moved to the US to strive for his dream of becoming a world known journalist for a prestigious newspaper. The story consists of two parts both equally interesting: (1) his striving to reach his dream while ignoring and watching his home life crumble and (2) a plot by the CIA to discredit him for announcing to the world the death of Yuri Andropov, The General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union before the CIA knew it.
His journalistic career was helped by his lifelong friend Clyde Farnsworth also an international journalist. Doder is able to get an assignment as the UPI reporter in the Moscow bureau. Fluent in Russian, he like many before and after learns that sources are not easy to find that will discuss the goings on inside the Kremlin. He works long hours and drinks large quantities of vodka building up his sources. Although he is rejected by The New York Times for embarrassing Harrison Salisbury; The Times world leader in everything in Soviet Politics (who did not speak Russian) he moves to the Washington Post at the time The Post in the minor league. Due to the Watergate Affair the Post gains prestige and he is able to assist this with his reporting from Moscow. Including his worldwide scoop of the death of Andropov before the US Intelligence community was aware of this.
His stories of how he gathers news in Russia is very interesting while at the same time he is now very honest about his work destroyed his marriage and relationship with his son.
The CIA never forgets and concocts a story with Time Magazine that Doder must surely be a spy for the Soviets. The Post tries to have it both ways and Doder leaves The Post.
Along with his second wife, a journalist and co-author of this book, Louise Branson they survive financial distress defending Doder’s name and finally succeed in winning the case against Time. After leaving The Post he and Louise work in China and were eye-witnesses to the Tiananmen Uprising and also to the Yugoslavian breakup.
Each of these last two stories I wish were covered more in the book. Nevertheless, this is a book I heartily recommend for those interested in journalism under difficult conditions.

[Mandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The ups and downs of a journalist’s life, the highs and lows, the ambition and the personal cost – all are covered in this fascinating memoir by Yugoslav born Dusko Doder. Emigrating to the US in 1956 he was determined to make his mark as a top journalist, and he did, becoming foreign correspondent for the Washington Post. And then it all came crashing down. The book is a really interesting account of a journalistic career, a glimpse into a complicated and intense world. Ambition at the expense of personal relationships, dedication to telling the truth, acceptance and clear-headedness about his own failings – Doder is consistently open, honest and insightful. I found it a compelling read and very much enjoyed it.

[Frank Silverstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

Its a great personal story about living in Moscow at the end of the cold war, about working at the Washington Post and having Ben Bradley as a mentor and a boss and about the personal cost of having enormous professional ambition. It is also about the cosmic unfairness of life.

[Christine Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dusko Doder’s The Inconvenient Journalist is a sharply written, deeply personal reflection on one man’s unwavering conviction that truth must be pursued—even when doing so demands an extraordinary toll. With clear-eyed prose, Doder lays bare the costs of integrity: personal loss, professional exile, and the quiet heroism of speaking out when silence is safer.

Having once shared a book club with Louise Branson—Doder’s wife and co-author—I read this memoir with a heightened sense of personal and historical insight. Branson completed the book after illness prevented Doder from finishing it, and her contribution lends the work a quiet authority and emotional resonance that only someone who walked alongside him could provide.

For anyone who believes journalism is more than storytelling—who sees it as an act of moral courage—this is a sobering, essential read.

RIP Dusko.