John Pomfret (journalist)
Encyclopedia
John Pomfret is an American journalist and writer. He was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
and raised in New York
. He attended Stanford University
, receiving his B.A.
and M.A.
in East Asian Studies. In 1980, he was one of the first American students to go to China and study at Nanjing University
. Between 1983 and 1984 he attended Singapore’s Institute of Southeast Asian Studies as a Fulbright Scholar, researching the Cambodian conflict.
He started his journalistic career at the Stanford Daily as a photographer, from where he was fired. After that he worked at a newspaper in Riverside County, California
, and after a year was hired by Associated Press
to work in New York
, covering the graveyard shift.
After two years with the AP in New York, in 1988, he was sent to China as a foreign correspondent, thanks to his knowledge of Mandarin and Asian studies background. Among other things he covered the 1989 student protests
in Beijing, after which he was expelled from China due to alleged links with student ringleaders. After that, he worked in several countries, including Bosnia
, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda
, Sri Lanka
, Afghanistan
, Iraq
, Turkey
and Iran
. For over 15 years he covered the armed conflicts in these countries and the politics of the post-Cold War era. He later served as the editor
of the Washington Post's weekend opinion section, Outlook.
During his career, he received several awards, including 2003's Osborne Elliot Prize for the best coverage of Asia
by the Asia Society
and 2007's Shorenstein Prize
for coverage of Asia.
The experiences he had when he attended Nanjing University, and his perspective of the Chinese opening, are narrated in his 2006 book "Chinese Lessons: Five Classmates and the Story of the New China."
Pomfret won an Alicia Patterson Journalism Fellowship] in 2004 writing about education in China.
He speaks, reads and writes Mandarin
, and also speaks French, Japanese and Serbo-Croatian. He lives near Washington, D.C.
, with his wife and family.
The piece was also criticized by Columbia Journalism Review
, journalism professor Jay Rosen, and throughout the blogosphere. http://www.cjr.org/behind_the_news/women_are_dumb.php http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/pressthink/2008/03/04/three_stories_f.html The Columbia Journalism Review's Megan Garber hypothesized that, despite the widespread criticism of the piece, "judging by the hundreds of comments the piece has already received, it’s a winner, tally-wise, whatever else its (many) failings. Because of that, we’ll probably see more similarly ridiculous pieces in the Post’s pages and elsewhere." Pomfret has said that "it presented a different, albeit very non-PC take at a time when women and politics is a riveting topic in this country. I expected the piece to be controversial, but I did not expect the intensity of the reaction." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/07/AR2008030702915.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee is the largest city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, the 28th most populous city in the United States and 39th most populous region in the United States. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. According to 2010 census data, the...
and raised in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. He attended Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, receiving his B.A.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
and M.A.
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
in East Asian Studies. In 1980, he was one of the first American students to go to China and study at Nanjing University
Nanjing University
Nanjing University , or Nanking University, is one of the oldest and most prestigious institutions of higher learning in China...
. Between 1983 and 1984 he attended Singapore’s Institute of Southeast Asian Studies as a Fulbright Scholar, researching the Cambodian conflict.
He started his journalistic career at the Stanford Daily as a photographer, from where he was fired. After that he worked at a newspaper in Riverside County, California
Riverside County, California
Riverside County is a county in the U.S. state of California. One of 58 California counties, it covers in the southern part of the state, and stretches from Orange County to the Colorado River, which forms the state border with Arizona. The county derives its name from the city of Riverside,...
, and after a year was hired by Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
to work in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, covering the graveyard shift.
After two years with the AP in New York, in 1988, he was sent to China as a foreign correspondent, thanks to his knowledge of Mandarin and Asian studies background. Among other things he covered the 1989 student protests
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, also known as the June Fourth Incident in Chinese , were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in Beijing in the People's Republic of China beginning on 15 April 1989...
in Beijing, after which he was expelled from China due to alleged links with student ringleaders. After that, he worked in several countries, including Bosnia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda
Rwanda
Rwanda or , officially the Republic of Rwanda , is a country in central and eastern Africa with a population of approximately 11.4 million . Rwanda is located a few degrees south of the Equator, and is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo...
, Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
, Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
, Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
, Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
and Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
. For over 15 years he covered the armed conflicts in these countries and the politics of the post-Cold War era. He later served as the editor
Editing
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...
of the Washington Post's weekend opinion section, Outlook.
During his career, he received several awards, including 2003's Osborne Elliot Prize for the best coverage of Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
by the Asia Society
Asia Society
The Asia Society is a non-profit organization that focuses on educating the world about Asia. It has several centers in the United States and around the world Hong Kong, Manila, Mumbai, Seoul, Shanghai, and Melbourne...
and 2007's Shorenstein Prize
Shorenstein Prize
The Shorenstein Prize is awarded annually by the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, and the Walter H. Shorenstein Forum for Asia Pacific Studies at Stanford University...
for coverage of Asia.
The experiences he had when he attended Nanjing University, and his perspective of the Chinese opening, are narrated in his 2006 book "Chinese Lessons: Five Classmates and the Story of the New China."
Pomfret won an Alicia Patterson Journalism Fellowship] in 2004 writing about education in China.
He speaks, reads and writes Mandarin
Standard Mandarin
Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Chinese, also known as Mandarin or Putonghua, is the official language of the People's Republic of China and Republic of China , and is one of the four official languages of Singapore....
, and also speaks French, Japanese and Serbo-Croatian. He lives near Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, with his wife and family.
Charlotte Allen article controversy
On March 2, 2008, the Washington Post's Outlook opinion section published a controversial piece about women, authored by conservative writer Charlotte Allen and edited by Pomfret, entitled "We Scream, We Swoon. How Dumb Can We Get." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/29/AR2008022902992.html The piece claimed that "Depressing as it is, several of the supposed misogynist myths about female inferiority have been proven true" and suggested that women should "shriek and swoon and gossip and...not mind the fact that way down deep, we can be...kind of dim." The piece was criticized by the paper's ombudsman, who wrote "The Post is a newspaper, not a comedy club. And Allen's article was a bad joke." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/07/AR2008030702915.html?hpid=opinionsbox1The piece was also criticized by Columbia Journalism Review
Columbia Journalism Review
The Columbia Journalism Review is an American magazine for professional journalists published bimonthly by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism since 1961....
, journalism professor Jay Rosen, and throughout the blogosphere. http://www.cjr.org/behind_the_news/women_are_dumb.php http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/pressthink/2008/03/04/three_stories_f.html The Columbia Journalism Review's Megan Garber hypothesized that, despite the widespread criticism of the piece, "judging by the hundreds of comments the piece has already received, it’s a winner, tally-wise, whatever else its (many) failings. Because of that, we’ll probably see more similarly ridiculous pieces in the Post’s pages and elsewhere." Pomfret has said that "it presented a different, albeit very non-PC take at a time when women and politics is a riveting topic in this country. I expected the piece to be controversial, but I did not expect the intensity of the reaction." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/07/AR2008030702915.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
External links
- John Pomfret's official web site
- http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/conversations/Pomfret/pomfret-con1.htmlJohn Pomfret Interview: Conversations with History; Institute of International Studies, UC BerkeleyUniversity of California, BerkeleyThe University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
] - Asia Society's announcement of his Osborne Elliot Prize
- John Pomfret's bio by The Globalist