And for a man who never chased the limelight, accolades still came, largely due to--rather than in spite of--the decency he brought to his trade.
Boyd won a Pulitzer Prize in 1973--which he shared with one of his reporters--for his investigation of George McGovern's running mate, Senator Thomas Eagleton.
Eagleton, Boyd learned, had undergone electric shock treatment as part of a program of psychological therapy. It was a stunning revelation.
But Boyd did not rush to print the story. Instead, he and his partner trekked to North Dakota to find McGovern and give him advance warning of the story and a chance to respond.
"It was the only fair and decent thing to do," Boyd says.
In return, McGovern "double-crossed" the Knight Ridder team, according to McCartney, holding a press conference that revealed Eagleton's psychological history and destroyed Boyd's exclusive story.
"They said 'Sorry boys, we're going public,'" Boyd recalls. "It was a frustrating thing for us."
But Boyd's touch of compassion--to the surprise of many in the Washington establishment--did not go unnoticed by the Pulitzer committee. The committee bestowed one of its coveted prizes on Boyd and in doing so, tipped its hat to him for his judicious restraint, a trait that Broder concedes is "not usually acknowledged in journalism."
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