Tony Kornheiser - Print Career

Print Career

Kornheiser began his career in New York City, where he wrote for Newsday between 1970 and 1976, The New York Times between 1976 and 1979, and also worked as a teacher. Kornheiser joined The Washington Post in 1979 as a general assignment reporter in Style and Sports. He became a full-time sports columnist in 1984. He also wrote columns for the Post's Style Section between November 12, 1989, and September 30, 2001.

His columns were usually sarcastic with touches of humor. The most distinct style of his columns is that he often uses his alter ego in italics to question his points of views for self-deprecation, like "Excuse me, Tony..."

In 1991, Kornheiser created a string of now-famous Bandwagon columns to describe the Washington Redskins' Super Bowl run that year. He started the idea when the Redskins trounced the Detroit Lions 45-0. He officially unveiled the first Bandwagon column when the team had an undefeated 4-0 record. From then on, the Bandwagon column appeared weekly. When the Redskins advanced to Super Bowl XXVI, Kornheiser and his Post colleagues Jeanne McManus and Norman Chad rode a thirty-three-foot recreational vehicle decorated as the Bandwagon for a 1,200-mile journey to Minneapolis, Minnesota.

In the 1990s, Kornheiser usually wrote three columns per week, which were a Tuesday column and a Thursday column in the Sports Section and a Sunday column in the Style Section. Because of his work on both radio and Pardon the Interruption, he stopped writing Style Section columns and only wrote one column a week. His last Style Section column was published on September 30, 2001. His three books, Pumping Irony, Bald as I Wanna Be and I'm Back for More Cash, are the compilations of his Style Section columns.

Kornheiser was a finalist for the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.

He also started working for ESPN in 1997 and kept his column at the Post. As part of his ESPN Radio contract, Kornheiser wrote columns called Parting Shots for ESPN The Magazine between 1998 and 2000.

In 2005, Kornheiser started to write short columns called A Few Choice Words with his photo in the Post's Sports Section. These short, sports-related columns appeared on the second page of the Post's Sports section and were much shorter than the full-length columns Kornheiser used to write for the paper. This was the first time that the Post displayed a columnist's photo beside his column. He called these short columns "columnettes." He usually wrote three "columnettes" per week unless he had other duties. He did not write columns between April 26, 2006, and August 7, 2006, to prepare as an analyst of ESPN's Monday Night Football.

Starting August 8, 2006, he wrote columns called Monday Night Diary to describe his adventures on Monday Night Football. His short-column space was later replaced by Dan Steinberg's D.C. Sports Bog.

On May 14, 2008, it was announced that Kornheiser had accepted a buyout from the Post. "I love the paper. They were great to me every day that I was there," he told Reuters. "But I don't do much for the paper anymore." Kornheiser had not written a regular column for the paper's print edition since 2006. However, Wilbon and Tony continued to tape a "Talking Points" mini online TV feature for the Washington Post until June 3, 2009 when an installment termed the final one was posted on the Post's site. In it Michael Wilbon says he thinks there will be further installments while Kornheiser seems certain it is a permanent decision management has made.

On May 20, 2010, Kornheiser said on his radio show that in fact he was fired by the Washington Post, saying "they fired me in a despicable way."