R.I.P. Frances Lewine

Journalist Frances Lewine--who covered presidential politics for the AP and CNN for decades--died at 86. Beyond writing and editing copy, Lewine was herself a mover and shaker:

"Lewine ... was often frustrated at being 'relegated to social and family stories and sidebars while male colleagues covered the president.'

"She wrote that it was a 'source of disappointment and anger' that the AP never considered her an equal to male White House colleagues.

"That anger, she wrote, energized her 'to become a leader in the movement of women journalists in the 1950s, '60s and '70s to protest discrimination against women in their jobs and assignments.'

"To protest the Gridiron Club's policy against women, Lewine founded the 'Counter-Gridiron.' A group of women reporters and sympathetic male reporters met regularly at her home to organize protests, she recalled. Eventually, she was the second woman invited to join the Gridiron.

"Lewine was one of six plaintiffs in a sex-discrimination suit filed against the AP, which was settled out of court for $2 million and changed the news organization's policies. ...

Lewine's predilection for speaking up and out continued in her commentary on our present times.

Her words:

"'Reporters should understand that they have an obligation to search for the truth and to stand in the front line in holding governments and officials accountable for their actions.'"