Mike Feinsilber fought the epic AP-UPI rivalry from both camps with wit and grace
A veteran of the epic wire service rivalry between The Associated Press and United Press International has died
WASHINGTON (AP) — Mike Feinsilber, whose masterful way with words and mischievous wit enlivened American journalism for five decades, the bulk of them at The Associated Press, died Monday. He was a month shy of 90.
Feinsilber died at home, said his wife of 55 years, Doris Feinsilber, a pioneering computer programmer at the CIA. “He was doing poorly, but was not in pain," she said.
Feinsilber's career was rooted in the wire services and their epic rivalry — working first for United Press International, then for AP. But he never embodied the just-the-facts stereotype of that trade, though he was as fast as any in the competition to be first.
He wrote with elegance, style, authority, brevity and a playful, gentle wit, all in service of finding the humanity in things.
