Marvin Kitman, who routinely savaged broadcast TV as a critic, died June 29 at age 93. He was suffering from cancer.
Born in Pittsburgh in 1929, he grew up in Brooklyn. He spent time in the US. Army, and was a reporter at a newspaper at Fort Dix in New Jersey. He later wrote for The Saturday Evening Post.
Kitman ventured into television, where he was a TV critic for WPIX New York and WNEW New York (now WNYW).
He started writing for Long Island, New York, daily paper Newsday in late 1969. He stayed there for 35 years, according to The New York Times, cranking out nearly 5,800 columns. His column, a mix of TV insights and wit, was titled “The Marvin Kitman Show.”
In 1982, Kitman was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for criticism. His last Newsday column was published in 2005. “Newsday gave me a tryout, and after 35 years we decided it wasn’t working out,” he wrote.
Kitman’s books included The Number One Best Seller: The True Adventures of Marvin Kitman; George Washington’s Expense Account; The Man Who Would Not Shut Up: The Rise of Bill O’Reilly; and Gullible’s Travels: A Comical History of the Trump Era.
He ran for president in 1964, the Times reported, and demanded a recount when he got more votes than he expected at the New Hampshire primary.
In more recent years, Kitman wrote for the Huffington Post, which he ended up criticizing for compensation-related matters, and for his blog, MarvinKitman.com, about both TV and politics, where he frequently denounced Donald Trump.
