He was a reporter’s reporter
Mark Silva was a reporter other reporters turned to for advice.
A fast and facile writer, he had a machinelike ability to pump out insightful stories that drew praise from colleagues, readers and even politicians he covered, who complimented him for his fairness and accuracy.
Mr. Silva reported on the brawl of politics in Florida and Washington. He covered presidential elections, including the 2000 vote recount. He was traveling with President George W. Bush when the 9/ 11 attacks occurred. Bush was reading “The Pet Goat” before a group of Florida schoolchildren, and “he instantly went into journalist mode and wrote a very compelling account of that,” said Michael Tackett, an editor in the Washington bureau of the New York Times.
Mr. Silva also touched on lighter fare, like the taste of goat brains — “mushy and kind of bland” — encountered by White House correspondents during a Bush visit to the Middle East.
Politicians on both sides of the aisle appreciated his impartiality and knowledge, including two party lions who ran for president, Republican Jeb Bush and Democrat John Kerry. After Mr. Silva died Tuesday of brain cancer, Bush tweeted: “He was a good man and a fair and principled reporter. I was lucky to know him.”
Kerry tweeted, “A fair reporter with great senses of both decency and humor.”
Mr. Silva, 63, whose cancer was diagnosed in late May, died at his home in Alexandria, Virginia, Tackett said. Friends and family had pulled together to help him in a campaign they called “Silva Strong.”
Young Mark grew up in Schenectady, New York, where his father, Daniel, worked for its dominant employer, General Electric. He attended Brown University and got his master’s degree at Columbia University. He started out at small newspapers in Michigan and North Carolina, Tackett said.
In Florida, he reported on the 2000 presidential election recount for the Miami Herald and was a political correspondent for the Orlando Sentinel.
He was a dean among political writers in the state capital of Tallahassee when Margaret Telev worked for the Tampa Tribune in the mid1990s.
“He was just so generous and helpful,” said Telev, who’s now chief White House correspondent for Bloomberg News. “If a young reporter was struggling with how to approach a story, he’d talk you through it.”
After the Sentinel, Mr. Silva joined the Chicago Tribune’s Washington bureau, covering the Bush administration. In addition to a sharp analytical mind, “He had the most collegial of ways,” said James Warren, the Tribune’s former D. C. bureau chief.
“He was a wonderful reporter ... great sense of humor, really good sources,” Dana Perino said on Fox News’ “The Five.” Perino, a former press secretary in the Bush White House, recalled, “I think he went with us to over 40 countries.”
Later, at Bloomberg News in Washington, Mr. Silva headed a group of 50 to 60 people covering government, Tackett said. Shifting from reporting to management, “He had the temperament, and he had the capacity and the judgment,” he said.
Most recently, he was an assistant managing editor for U. S. News & World Report, where he oversaw its “Best States” platform, ranking the 50 states on how they serve their residents.
He also wrote the 2008 book “McCain: The Essential Guide to the Republican Nominee.”
Mr. Silva’s skills enabled him to reinvent himself as the newspaper business changed and constricted. He wrote or contributed to pioneering blogs, including “The Swamp” for the Tribune and “Political Capital” for Bloomberg.
In his off hours, he enjoyed craft beers and nature photography, as well as playing blues on his guitar and driving German- engineered cars.
Mr. Silva is survived by his wife, Nina Sichel; his daughter, Lisa; his son, Dylan; and a grandson.