Nicholas D. Kristof
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Nicholas D. Kristof (born April 27, 1959) is a political scientist, author, and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist specializing in East Asia. He is currently a columnist for The New York Times and previously served as the as The New York Times' Bureau Chief in Hong Kong, Beijing, and Tokyo. He has written a number of books on Asia, most notably ' (1994) and ' (2000), both co-authored with his wife, Sheryl WuDunn. He has also published Japanese Economy at the Millennium (1999), a look at the problems and issues ailing the modern economy of Japan.
Biography
The son of Ladis Kristof, a Romania-born Armenian who immigrated to the United States after World War II and was for many years a professor of political science at Portland State University, Nicholas Kristof grew up on a cherry farm in Yamhill, Oregon and later went on to become a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard College and Magdalen College, Oxford where he was a Rhodes Scholar.In 1990, Kristof and his wife, Sheryl WuDunn, earned a Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for their reporting on the pro-democracy student movement and the related Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Kristof has also received the George Polk Award and an award from the Overseas Press Club for his reporting. Kristof's op-eds in the Times focus on pollution and human rights.
Kristof was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 2005 "for his powerful columns that portrayed suffering among the developing world's often forgotten people and stirred action." Kristof was against the war in Iraq, but promotes greater international intervention (presumably through the United Nations and similar organizations) to stop genocide such as that taking place in the Darfur conflict in Sudan. In 2006, Kristof won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for "for his graphic, deeply reported columns that, at personal risk, focused attention on genocide in Darfur and that gave voice to the voiceless in other parts of the world."
He has also raised consciousness of the success of Portland, Oregon's light rail, bicycle paths and urban growth boundaries in such sprawling, auto-congested suburban areas as New York City. Kristof has been a pioneer in online journalism creating multimedia reports that accompany his columns on the web site of The New York Times.
Early in May 2003, Kristof spoke to Joseph Wilson about the reliability of documents claiming that Iraq had tried to obtain uranium from Niger. The Times published on May 6, 2003 an op-ed by Kristof suggesting that, "a former U.S. ambassador to Africa was dispatched to Niger. In February 2002, according to someone present at the meetings, that envoy reported to the C.I.A. and State Department that the information was unequivocally wrong and that the documents had been forged."[#endnote_oped] This article by Kristof was mentioned in the federal indictment of I. Lewis Libby as a contributing factor in Libby's effort in May 2003 to learn about Joseph Wilson's trip to Niger[#endnote_indictment].
Both Nicholas Kristof & Samantha Power, another Pulitzer Prize winner, are well known for their efforts to increase media attention on the crises of the Darfur region of Sudan.
Defamation suit by Dr. Steven Hatfill
In 2002, Kristof wrote a series of columns indirectly suggesting that scientist Dr. Steven Hatfill might have perpetrated the 2001 anthrax attacks. Kristof claimed that Hatfill was a "person of interest" in the 2001 anthrax attacks case. The FBI never pressed charges against Hatfill. Hatfill has since lost two jobs and his career has been destroyed.Nicholas Kristof and the New York Times are currently being sued for defemation by Dr. Hatfill, in a case to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. The complaint was dismissed by a district court but the decision was reversed by the U.S. court of appeals for the fourth circuit [link]. Kristof is to be represented by attorney David Schultz, and the Committee for Freedom of the Press will represent the New York Times. Hatfill's attorney has not been named yet.
This court case comes after a string of recent problems with inaccurate reporting by the Times, including the inaccurate designation of the masked man in the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal as well as the now-discredited front-page reporting by Judith Miller in 2002 regarding Iraq's supposed WMD program. But the Hatfill suit holds the potential of forcing the paper to pay millions of dollars in damages.
References
- ↑ "[Missing in Action: Truth]" by Nicholas Kristof (May 6, 2003) in the New York Times
- ↑ PDF file: [Press release] for the Lewis Libby indictments (October 28, 2005)
External links
- ["The Best Hope for Peace in Darfur"] recorded on April 19, 2006 at [The New York Society for Ethical Culture], mp3 format
- [New York Times columns] available to TimesSelect subscribers only
- ["On the Ground"] Kristof's blog in which he responds to readers' comments and provides background to his columns
- [Pulitzer Prizes] The Pulitzer Prizes website where Kristof's 2006 winning columns are posted.
- [Kristof Profile] Profile by the Harvard Crimson, where Kristof worked as an undergrad
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