Murrey Marder, Early McCarthy Skeptic, Dies at 93

By BRUCE WEBER
Published: March 19, 2013
By certain journalistic lights, the reporter Murrey Marder was an editor’s nightmare. He wrote slowly and squeezed against deadlines. He debated with editors. His articles were long, often complicated and never laid claim to stylish writing.

But by another, more important standard, Mr. Marder, who died on March 11 at 93, was an ace. In nearly 40 years at The Washington Post, he embodied the role of public watchdog, becoming an emblem of meticulous, thorough news gathering when his persistence in laying bare the lies and exaggerations of Senator Joseph R. McCarthy’s anti-Communist crusade helped bring McCarthy to ruin.