WASHINGTON — Michael Getler, a Washington Post foreign correspondent and editor who later led the Paris-based International Herald Tribune and served as an incisive in-house media critic at The Post and PBS, died Thursday at a hospice center in Washington. He was 82.
The cause was complications from bile duct cancer, said his wife, Sandra.
A former Navy aviator and defense-magazine writer, Mr. Getler joined the Post as a military affairs reporter in 1970, during the Vietnam War. He later chronicled Cold War tensions from Bonn, the capital of West Germany.
In subsequent editing roles, including as assistant managing editor for foreign news, he directed coverage that resulted in two Pulitzer Prizes for international reporting.
But he achieved his greatest public renown as an ombudsman, a sensitive and often thankless role that entails critiquing colleagues for the tone, tastefulness, and fairness of their stories — while seldom satisfying the most vehement outside critics.
His time as Post ombudsman, from 2000 to 2005, coincided with intense scrutiny of the media for their coverage of the deadlocked 2000 presidential election, the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and the polarizing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Mr. Getler became known for sharp observations that became the talk of the newsroom — and other newsrooms. The New York Times reported that work virtually came to a standstill when Mr. Getler’s criticism — ‘‘lobbed like hand grenades’’ — became available internally before it ran in the Sunday paper.
‘‘Like an Old Testament prophet,’’ read a Times profile of Mr. Getler, ‘‘this respected journalist has come back . . . to thunder at his people about their wayward ways.’’
The article cited his displeasure with a piece in the Style section on Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, a Republican who played a decisive role in the 2000 election recount, that opined: ‘‘One of the reasons Harris is so easy to mock is because she, to be honest, seems to have applied her makeup with a trowel.’’
Mr. Getler called the cutting quip ‘‘a classic example of the arrogance of journalists that undermines people’s confidence in the media.’’
After his contract at the Post expired, Mr. Getler moved to PBS as the broadcasting system’s first ombudsman. During his 12 years on the job, he drew periodic attention for challenging powerful forces inside and outside the media.
