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George Will

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George Frederick Will (born May 4, 1941) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning, conservative, American newspaper columnist, journalist, and author.

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Education and early career

Will was born in Champaign, Illinois, graduated from University Laboratory High School of Urbana, Illinois, and attended Trinity College, in Hartford, Connecticut (B.A.). He received his M.A. from the University of Oxford and his Ph.D. in political science from Princeton University. His 1968 Ph.D. dissertation was entitled "Beyond the Reach of Majorities: Closed Questions in the Open Society".

Will then taught political philosophy at Michigan State University and the University of Toronto. He taught at Harvard University in 1995 and again in 1998. From 1970 to 1972, he served on the staff of Senator Gordon Allott (R-CO).

Career in journalism

Will served as an editor for the conservative magazine National Review from 1973 to 1976. He joined the Washington Post Writers Group in 1974, writing a syndicated twice-weekly column, which became widely circulated among newspapers across the country. In 1976, he became a contributing editor for Newsweek, writing a biweekly backpage column. As of 2006, Will still writes both columns.

Will won a Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for "distinguished commentary on a variety of topics" in 1977. Often combining factual reporting with conservative commentary, Will's columns are known for their erudite vocabulary, allusions to political philosophers, and frequent references to baseball.

Will has also written two best selling books on the game of baseball, three books on political philosophy, and has published eleven compilations of his columns for the Washington Post and Newsweek and of various book reviews and lectures.

Will has also appeared as a news analyst for ABC since the early 1980s, and was a founding member on the panel of ABC's This Week with David Brinkley in 1981 (now titled This Week with George Stephanopolous). Will was also a regular panelist on television's Agronsky & Company from 1977–1984.

George F. Will has become the rare journalist-pundit well-known enough to have entered American popular culture. In Season 6 of the famous sitcom Seinfeld, Cosmo Kramer comments on Will's handsome appearance. While Elaine says "he's smart", Kramer comments that he has never considered him to be "that bright".

In the early 1990s, George Will's personality and wit were the subject of humor in a sketch on Saturday Night Live. The sketch was based on his book about baseball, , and consisted of a trivia game with famous baseball players trying to answer questions in an exaggerated, faux-erudite version of Will's elegant but somewhat pompous writing style. George's character in the skit was played by Dana Carvey.

In 2006, he was referenced in a Simpsons episode as a supporter of evolution.

Controversy

Will's detractors point to what they call a troubling pattern of ethical lapses. Will helped Ronald Reagan prepare for his 1980 debate against Jimmy Carter, breaking with the journalistic tradition of neutrality. Immediately after the debate, Will—who was not a member of the ABC News staff—appeared on ABC's Nightline. He was introduced by host Ted Koppel, who said "It's my understanding that you met for some time yesterday with Governor Reagan," and that Will "never made any secret of his affection" for the Republican candidate. It was not explicitly disclosed that Will had assisted with or been present during Reagan's debate preparation. Will went on to praise Reagan, saying his "game plan worked well. I don't think he was very surprised" (Nightline Special Edition, October 28, 1980).

Twenty-four years later, appearing on an NPR program, Carter stated that before the 1980 debate, Will gave the Reagan campaign a top-secret briefing book stolen from Carter's office (Fresh Air, October 21, 2004). According to a report, he repeated this accusation in 2005 (The Alabama Plainsman, July 28, 2005). In a 2005 syndicated column, Will called his role in Reagan's debate preparation "inappropriate" but denied any role in stealing the briefing book. As he had done to Carter privately, Will wrote in his column that he gave the book a "cursory glance" and found it a "crashing bore and next to useless—for [Carter], or for anyone else" (Washington Post, August 11, 2005). In response to the column, Carter wrote a letter to the Washington Post retracting his accusations. Carter apologized to Will for "any incorrect statement that I have ever made about his role in the use of my briefing book ... I have never thought Mr. Will took my book" (Washington Post, August 31, 2005).

A media watchdog group, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, criticized Will in connection with the 1996 election, for "commenting on the presidential race while his second wife, Mari Maseng Will, was a senior staffer for the Dole presidential campaign," including commenting on a Dole speech without disclosing that his wife had helped write it. Will previously served on an informal board of advisors to Hollinger International, a newspaper company controlled by Canadian-born British financier Lord Black. The board met once a year and Will received an annual payment of $25,000. The board was disbanded in 2001. In March, 2003, Will wrote a syndicated column which praised a speech by Black and did not disclose their previous business relationship.

This relationship, and others Black had cultivated with various media and international figures, was exposed in a New York Times story. Will denied any wrongdoing and the story quoted him as saying, "My business is my business. Got it?" (New York Times, December 22, 2003). The editor of the Washington Post editorial page, Fred Hiatt, stated afterwards, "given that ... Will wrote his column two years or more after ending any financial relationship with Black and ... the column wasn't really about Black, but used comments from Black to bolster Will's thesis about national sovereignty in Europe, the lack of disclosure doesn't strike me as a major lapse" (Washington Post, January 11, 2004).

Will's journalistic ethics, along with those of the newspaper that syndicates his column, The Washington Post, have also been questioned by conservative critics at Accuracy in Media (AIM). In their [Media Monitor], AIM revealed that in December of 2004 The Post, in an article related to the Indian Ocean tsunami, claimed that, after the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, Catholic priests "roamed the streets" hanging suspected heretics, whom they blamed for the quake. Such a charge appears nowhere in the historical record, and The Post was duly informed of that fact. Not only did The Post fail to retract the calumny, but its columnist, Will, [quoted as fact] the same charge as it appeared in the 2005 book A Crack in the Edge of the World, by the English author Simon Winchester. Though notified of the complete falsity of the charge, neither Will nor [Winchester], unlike others who mistakenly made the claim, has taken any steps to correct his error.

Awards

In addition to more than 15 honorary degrees:

Works

References

  1. ["Briefing Book Baloney", Washington Post, August 10, 2005] (Will's column refuting briefing book allegation)
  2. [President Carter interview, Fresh Air, Thursday October 21, 2004] (Carter alleges Will's role in briefing book theft, about 28:30 into the interview)
  3. Auburn paper: http://www.theplainsman.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/07/28/42e82902e1f1f
  4. GFW Carter column: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/10/AR2005081001796.html
  5. Carter Letter: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/30/AR2005083001763.html
  6. SNL Sketch: http://snltranscripts.jt.org/89/89qsportsmachine.phtml

Quotations

External links

Biography

Works

Commentary (critical)

 

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