Naomi Nover

Naomi Nover (née Goll; December 25, 1910 – April 22, 1995) was an American journalist who was a longtime member of the White House Press Corps remembered for her combative, and sometimes abusive, relationship with other journalists.

Early life and education Naomi Goll was born in Buffalo, New York and attended the University at Buffalo.

In 1934 she married Buffalo News columnist Barnet Nover and, in 1936, moved with him to Washington, D.C., where he had been hired as a reporter for The Washington Post. Despite this, Nover continued to renew the White House press pass and congressional press gallery pass that had originally been issued to her late husband, attending White House press briefings and other media events in the Washington area. According to Foreign Policy, Nover "paid her own way on nearly every presidential trip abroad until her death in 1995 despite never actually doing any reporting". Over a period of years the door of the Nover memorial refrigerator stopped functioning and rust developed on it, until it was finally removed sometime prior to 1995. While part of the press gaggle accompanying President of the United States Ronald Reagan to Xi'an, China, she pushed a Chinese guard with her umbrella who had blocked her path. Stephen would characterize Nover as "anything but a sweet old lady ... cursing at people, screeching and crying without any provocation, and continually beating innocent cameramen". In her autobiography, NBC News' Andrea Mitchell recalled that, on foreign presidential trips, "while we covered the president, she shopped", a fact that created logistical issues for other members of the press corps.

Nover's ire was not always reserved for her fellow reporters. During an incident in the United States Capitol, Nover – upon finding all toilet stalls in a public restroom occupied – physically expelled a woman from one so she herself could use it.

Multiple attempts by some members of the White House Press Corps to have Nover's media credentials revoked produced no result.