Nicholas D. Kristof
Encyclopedia
Nicholas Donabet Kristof (born October 29, 1959 in Yamhill
, Oregon
) is an American journalist
, author
, op-ed
columnist
, and a winner of two Pulitzer Prize
s. He has written an op-ed column for The New York Times
since November 2001 and is known for bringing to light human rights
abuses in Asia and Africa, such as human trafficking
and the Darfur conflict
. Archbishop Desmond Tutu
of South Africa
has described Kristof as an "honorary African" for shining a spotlight on the conflicts.
, Oregon
. He is the son of Ladis "Kris" Kristof (born Vladislav Krzysztofowicz), who was born of Polish
and Armenian parents in former Austria-Hungary
and who emigrated to the United States after World War II
, and Jane Kristof, both long-time professors at Portland State University
in Portland, Oregon
. Nicholas Kristof graduated from Yamhill Carlton High School
, where he was student body president and school newspaper editor, and later went on to become a Phi Beta Kappa
graduate of Harvard College
. At Harvard, he studied government and worked on The Harvard Crimson
newspaper; "Alums recall Kristof as one of the brightest undergraduates on campus," according to a profile in the Crimson. After Harvard, he studied law at Magdalen College, Oxford
as a Rhodes Scholar. He earned his law degree with first-class honors and won an academic prize. Afterward, he studied Arabic in Egypt
for the 1983-84 academic year. He has a number of honorary degrees.
After joining The New York Times in 1984, initially covering economics, he served as a Times correspondent in Los Angeles
, Hong Kong
, Beijing
, and Tokyo
. He rose to be the associate managing editor of The New York Times, responsible for Sunday editions. His columns have often focused on global health, poverty, and gender issues in the developing world. In particular, since 2004 he has written dozens of columns about Darfur
and visited the area 11 times. He has also been a pioneer in multimedia: he was the first blogger on the New York Times' website, and he also Tweet
s, has a Facebook
fan page and a YouTube
channel. Kristof resides outside New York City with his wife, Sheryl WuDunn
, and their three children: Gregory, Geoffrey and Caroline.
Kristof's bio says he has traveled to more than 150 countries. Jeffrey Toobin
of CNN
and The New Yorker
, a Harvard classmate, has said: "I’m not surprised to see him emerge as the moral conscience of our generation of journalists. I am surprised to see him as the Indiana Jones of our generation of journalists.”
Bill Clinton
said in September 2009: "There is no one in journalism, anywhere in the United States at least, who has done anything like the work he has done to figure out how poor people are actually living around the world, and what their potential is....So every American citizen who cares about this should be profoundly grateful that someone in our press establishment cares enough about this to haul himself all around the world to figure out what's going on....I am personally in his debt, as are we all."
Kristof is a member of the board of overseers of Harvard University
and a member of the board of trustees of the Association of American Rhodes Scholars.
, earned a Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting
for their reporting on the pro-democracy student movement and the related Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
. They were the first married couple to win a Pulitzer for journalism. Kristof has also received the George Polk Award and an award from the Overseas Press Club
for his reporting which focuses on human rights and environmental issues.
Kristof was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary
in 2004 and again in 2005 "for his powerful columns that portrayed suffering among the developing world's often forgotten people and stirred action." In 2006 Kristof won his second Pulitzer, the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary
"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."
In 2009, Kristof and WuDunn received the Dayton Literary Peace Prize
's 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award. He has also won the 2008 Anne Frank Award and the 2007 Fred Cuny Award for Prevention of Deadly Conflict. Commentators have occasionally suggested Kristof for the Nobel Peace Prize, but when Media Web named Kristof its "print journalist of the year" in 2006 and asked him about that, it quoted him as saying: "I can't imagine it going to a scribbler like me. That's a total flight of fancy."
, include China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power
(1994), Thunder from the East: Portrait of a Rising Asia
and Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide
(Knopf, September 2009).
Among many of the motivations for writing "Half the Sky," Kristof explained to Jane Wales of the World Affairs Council of Northern California
that the idea for the book was sparked by the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests
. After covering the protests, which resulted in some 500 deaths, Kristof and WuDunn were shocked to learn that roughly 39,000 Chinese girls died each year because they were not given the same access to food and medical care as boys. Yet WuDunn and Kristof could not find coverage of these deaths, even though they were far more numerous than the casualties at Tiananmen Square. That led them to dig deeper into questions of gender, Kristof said. Half the Sky covers topics such as sex trafficking and forced prostitution, contemporary slavery, gender-based violence, and rape as a weapon of war and method of justice, as it shines light on the multitude of ways women are oppressed and violated in the world.
"Half the Sky" immediately hit the best-seller lists. Carolyn See, the book critic of The Washington Post
, said in her review: "'Half the Sky' is a call to arms, a call for help, a call for contributions, but also a call for volunteers. It asks us to open our eyes to this enormous humanitarian issue. It does so with exquisitely crafted prose and sensationally interesting material....I really do think this is one of the most important books I have ever reviewed." In Cleveland, a reviewer for The Plain Dealer said: "As Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" once catalyzed us to save our birds and better steward our earth, 'Half the Sky' stands to become a classic, spurring us to spare impoverished women these terrors, and elevate them to turn around the future of their nations.". The Seattle Times
review predicted that "Half the Sky" may "ignite a grass-roots revolution like the one that eliminated slavery." In CounterPunch
, Charles R. Larson declared: "Half the Sky is the most important book that I have read since Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, published in 1962. I am not alone in saying that this is the most significant book that I have ever reviewed."
On May 6, 2003, less than two months into the war, Kristof published an op-ed column titled "Missing in Action: Truth," in which he questioned whether or not the intelligence gathered by the Bush administration, which purportedly indicated that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction
, was either faked or manipulated. In this article, Kristof cited as his source a “former ambassador” who had traveled to Niger in early 2002 and reported back to the Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) and the State Department that the uranium “allegations were unequivocally wrong and based on forged documents.” Kristof added, "The envoy's debunking of the forgery was passed around the administration and seemed to be accepted—except that President Bush and the State Department kept citing it anyway." Two months later, Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV came forward publicly and published a now-famous op-ed in The New York Times titled "What I Didn't Find in Africa". This set off a series of events which resulted in what become known as "Plamegate": the disclosure by journalist Robert Novak
of the – until then covert – status as a CIA officer of Ambassador Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame Wilson. A criminal investigation was launched as to the source of the leak, as a consequence of which I. Lewis Libby, then-Chief of Staff to Vice President Dick Cheney
, was indicted on obstruction of justice, false statement, and perjury charges, and subsequently convicted and sentenced to 30 months in federal prison and a $250,000 fine (though he never served time in prison because President Bush commuted his prison sentence). Kristof's May 6 article was mentioned in the federal indictment of Scooter Libby as a key point in time, and a contributing factor that caused Libby to inquire about the identity of the "envoy" and later divulge the secret identity of his wife to reporters.
, and ensure full transparency to assuage any United States concerns. In return, the Iranians demanded abolition of sanctions and a US statement that Iran does not belong in the so-called "Axis of Evil." In his columns, Kristof revealed the documents detailing this proposal and argued that the "grand bargain" proposal was killed by hard-liners in the Bush administration. According to Kristof, this was an "appalling mistake" since "the Iranian proposal was promising and certainly should have been followed up. It seems diplomatic mismanagement of the highest order for the Bush administration to have rejected that process out of hand, and now to be instead beating the drums of war and considering air strikes on Iranian nuclear sites." Kristof further believes that even if the grand bargain is not currently feasible, there is still an option for what he calls a "mini-bargain", i.e., a more modest proposal for normalizing U.S.-Iranian relations.
In June 2007 Kristof spoke on the importance of the "grand bargain" with Iran at a conference organized by the American Iranian Council
in New Brunswick
, New Jersey
. The conference brought together a host of distinguished national and international policy makers, among them Congressman Dennis Kucinich
(D-OH), Ambassador Javad Zarif from Iran's UN Mission, Senator Chuck Hagel
, and Ambassador Anders Lidén
from Sweden, in an attempt to improve the public's understanding of U.S.-Iranian relations and promote normalization with Iran. Kristof recounted his trips to Iran and told the audience that on a people-to-people level Iran is one of the most pro-American countries in the Middle East. He argued that American hard-liners, such as Dick Cheney
, are reinforcing and strengthening Iranian hard-liners, and vice versa. He reiterated his support for the grand bargain and warned against the possibility of a military strike on Iran, calling it "absolutely terrifying" and remarking that he can't imagine something that would do more to undermine American interests in the region.
, a former US Army germ-warfare researcher named a "person of interest
" by the Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI), might be a "likely culprit" in the 2001 anthrax attacks
. Hatfill was never charged with any crime. In July 2004 Hatfill sued the Times and Kristof for libel, asserting claims for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress
. Subsequently, Hatfill voluntarily dismissed Kristof as a defendant in the case when it became clear that the District Court lacked personal jurisdiction over Kristof. The suit continued against the Times and was initially dismissed by the District Court on the basis that the allegations in Kristof's articles, even if untrue, did not constitute defamation. In July 2005, however, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit reversed the decision, and reinstated the suit against The New York Times. In January 2007 Judge Claude M. Hilton
of the Eastern District of Virginia tossed out the suit, claiming that Kristof's anthrax articles were "cautiously worded" and asserted that the scientist could be innocent. Judge Hilton wrote that Kristof "made efforts to avoid implicating his guilt" and that "Mr. Kristof reminded readers to assume plaintiff's (Hatfill) innocence." Kristof praised the dismissal of the suit, commenting that he was "really pleased that the judge recognized the importance of this kind of reporting" and that it was "terrific to have a judgment that protects journalism at a time when the press has had a fair number of rulings against it". When the FBI exonerated Hatfill, Kristof wrote a column on Aug. 27, 2008, "Media's Balancing Act," in which he wrote: "So, first, I owe an apology to Dr. Hatfill. In retrospect, I was right to prod the F.B.I. and to urge tighter scrutiny of Fort Detrick, but the job of the news media is supposed to be to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. Instead, I managed to afflict the afflicted."
. At the beginning of 2004, he was among the first reporters to visit Darfur
and describe "the most vicious ethnic cleansing you've never heard of." He recounted what he called "a campaign of murder, rape and pillage by Sudan," and he was among the first to call it genocide. His biography says he has made 11 trips to the region, some illegally by sneaking in from Chad
, and on at least one occasion he was detained at a checkpoint when the authorities seized his interpreter and Kristof refused to leave him behind. Kristof's reporting from Sudan has been both praised and criticized. Robert DeVecchi, past president of the International Rescue Committee
, told the Council on Foreign Relations
: "Nicholas Kristof...had an unprecedented impact in single-handedly mobilizing world attention to this crisis. There are undoubtedly hundreds of thousands of refugees in and from the Darfur region who owe their very lives to this formidable humanitarian and journalist." New York Magazine said that Kristof "single-handedly focused the world's attention on Darfur," and the Save Darfur Coalition said that "he is the person most responsible for getting this issue into America's consciousness and the resulting efforts to resolve it." Samantha Power
, the author of Pulitzer Prize-winning book on genocide, told an American Jewish World Service audience that Kristof was probably the person the Janjaweed militia in Darfur most wanted to kill. In June 2008, the actress Mia Farrow
spoke as Kristof was honored with the Anne Frank Award, declaring: "Nick Kristof was one of the first to publicly insist that the words Never Again mean something for the people of Darfur. For his courage and his conviction in telling tell searing truths, he is the voice of our collective conscience, demanding we bear witness to the first genocide of the 21st century and encouraging us not to sit by while innocents die. Every once in a great while a moral giant appears among us. Nicholas Kristof is that person." For his coverage of Darfur, Ann Curry
of NBC
suggested that Kristof was "the modern journalist who showed courage and leadership comparable to the great Edward R. Murrow
." On the other hand, some Arab commentators have criticized Kristof for focusing on atrocities by Arab militias in Darfur and downplaying atrocities by non-Arab militias. A book by Mahmood Mamdani of Columbia University, "Saviors and Survivors," criticized Kristof's reporting for over-simplifying a complex historically-rooted conflict and packaging it as "genocide." Other Arabs and Africans, including some critical of Sudan, have sometimes made similar arguments. Sudan's government has also objected that Kristof's reporting exaggerates the scale of suffering and ignores the nuances of tribal conflicts in Darfur.
movement, claiming that the sweatshop
model is a primary reason why Taiwan
and South Korea
—which accepted sweatshops as the price of development—are modern countries with low rates of infant mortality and high levels of education, while India—which generally has resisted sweatshops—suffers from a high rate of infant mortality (3.1 million Indian children under the age of five die every year, mostly from diseases of poverty.) While admitting that sweatshop work is tedious, grueling, and sometimes dangerous, he argues that it is considerably less dangerous or arduous than most alternatives in poor countries. Sweatshops provide much-needed jobs and boost the economy of extremely poor countries. He has called for well-meaning Americans to stop campaigning against sweatshops because it leads to closing down of manufacturing and processing plants in places where they are needed most. Responding to his critics, Kristof argues that campaigning to raise the wages in sweatshops will not achieve that goal; rather, the pressure will cause companies to rely on capital-intensive factories in better-off countries, avoiding Africa altogether.
and what he calls the United Nations
's inability to stand up to Turkey on this issue. Kristof believes the United Nations has capitulated to regimes that have actively committed atrocities in the past (Turkey) and in the present (Sudan).
i and U.S. negotiation with Hamas
as a means to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict
. He criticizes Israel for what he views as collective punishment
of Gazans and holds that the lack of negotiations only strengthens extremists. He also advocates removing Israeli settlement
s from Hebron
since "the financial cost is mind-boggling, and the diplomatic cost is greater," even if the settlements were not illegal in the eyes of much of the world. Kristof contrasts "two Israels": an oppressive security state in the Palestinian territories
and a "paragon of justice, decency, fairness - and peace," in the work of Israeli human rights activists, journalists, and jurists.
in his New York Times op-ed columns as a flail to shame American healthcare. For example: "... it’s scandalous that babies born in the United States are less likely to survive their first year than babies born in Slovenia" (31 January 2006); "American children are twice as likely to die by the age of 5 as children in Portugal, Spain or Slovenia" (28 February 2009); and "No wonder we spend so much on medical care, and yet have some health care statistics that are worse than Slovenia’s" (12 September 2009). However, his 31 January 2006 blog ("Apologies to Slovenia") had expressed regret at the offense he had caused. On 15 September 2009 the acting consul general for Slovenia, Melita Gabrič, objected to Kristof's use of Slovenia as a "derisory sort of punch line."
and also use military aircraft to jam
Libyan state communications. He remarked, "let’s remember the risks of inaction — and not psych ourselves out. For crying out loud!"
, universal health care
, a commitment to public service
, low income disparity
and structured planning could be made to work within an organization. He then suggested that the military could serve as a model for improving American society along those lines. This brought criticism from several other commentators, who argued that the military is only effective at what it does by severely limiting the freedom of its members. Jonah Goldberg
argued that "You’ve got to love how a system that requires total loyalty, curbs free speech, free association, freedom of movement etc is now either 'lefty' or 'liberal' because it gives 'free' healthcare and daycare" and hinted that the ideas in Kristof's column resembled fascism
. David French added that "If you want to see the military do what it does best, then ride out on a mission with an armored cavalry squadron. If you want to see the military struggle to do its job well, then I suggest you spend some time with its social services."
In July 2011, President Barack Obama
, at a Twitter
town hall, referred to Kristof as "a great columnist" -- and then proceeded to disagree with him.
, Mississippi
. In September 2006, Kristof and Parks traveled to Equatorial Guinea
, Cameroon
, and the Central African Republic
and reported on AIDS, poverty, and maternal mortality. During the trip, Kristof published his New York Times columns while Parks wrote about her observations in her blog.
The success of this partnership prompted the Times to hold the Second Annual Win A Trip with Nick Kristof contest in 2007. Leana Wen, a medical student at Washington University in St. Louis
, and Will Okun, a teacher at Westside Alternative High School in Chicago, were the winners of the 2007 competition. During summer 2007, they traveled with Kristof to Rwanda
, Burundi
, and eastern Congo
. Filmmaker Eric Daniel Metzgar
joined Kristof, Wen and Okun on their trip. The resulting film, Reporter, premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival
and aired on HBO in February 2010. In reviewing the film, which was executive produced by Ben Affleck
, Entertainment Weekly wrote: "In Reporter, he's a compelling figure, a cross between Mother Teresa
and the James Woods
character in Salvador
, and what seals the intensity of his job is the danger." The Washington Post observed, "Ideally, [Kristof] hopes to teach his companions, who won a contest to travel with him, about the value of witnessing the world's atrocities and scintillating them into stories that will call on people to act. Which is what Kristof did with his work in Darfur, Sudan: He caused people -- from George Clooney on down -- to do whatever they can."
For the Third Win A Trip, Kristof chose University of South Carolina
student Paul Bowers, and the two traveled in Senegal
, Guinea Bissau, Guinea
, Sierra Leone
, and Liberia
.
The fourth Win a Trip journey took place in May 2010, with Mitch Smith, a Kansan student studying at University of Nebraska. Smith had never been outside the United States before. They traveled to Gabon
, Republic of Congo, and Democratic Republic of Congo. For the Fifth Win A Trip, in 2011, Kristof took a medical student, Saumya Dave, and a teacher, Noreen Connolly, through Morocco
, Mauritania
, Senegal
, Niger
and Burkina Faso
.
Yamhill, Oregon
Yamhill is a city in Yamhill County, Oregon, United States. Located in the northern part of the county, it is situated at the intersection of Oregon Route 47 and Oregon Route 240. The population was 794 at the 2000 census. The 2008 estimate is 855 residents...
, Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
) is an American journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, op-ed
Op-ed
An op-ed, abbreviated from opposite the editorial page , is a newspaper article that expresses the opinions of a named writer who is usually unaffiliated with the newspaper's editorial board...
columnist
Columnist
A columnist is a journalist who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs....
, and a winner of two Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
s. He has written an op-ed column for The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
since November 2001 and is known for bringing to light human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
abuses in Asia and Africa, such as human trafficking
Human trafficking
Human trafficking is the illegal trade of human beings for the purposes of reproductive slavery, commercial sexual exploitation, forced labor, or a modern-day form of slavery...
and the Darfur conflict
War in Darfur
The Darfur Conflict was a guerrilla conflict or civil war centered on the Darfur region of Sudan. It began in February 2003 when the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army and Justice and Equality Movement groups in Darfur took up arms, accusing the Sudanese government of oppressing non-Arab Sudanese in...
. Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Desmond Tutu
Desmond Mpilo Tutu is a South African activist and retired Anglican bishop who rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of apartheid...
of South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
has described Kristof as an "honorary African" for shining a spotlight on the conflicts.
Biography
Nicholas Kristof grew up on a sheep and cherry farm in YamhillYamhill, Oregon
Yamhill is a city in Yamhill County, Oregon, United States. Located in the northern part of the county, it is situated at the intersection of Oregon Route 47 and Oregon Route 240. The population was 794 at the 2000 census. The 2008 estimate is 855 residents...
, Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
. He is the son of Ladis "Kris" Kristof (born Vladislav Krzysztofowicz), who was born of Polish
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
and Armenian parents in former Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
and who emigrated to the United States after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, and Jane Kristof, both long-time professors at Portland State University
Portland State University
Portland State University is a public state urban university located in downtown Portland, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1946, it has the largest overall enrollment of any university in the state of Oregon, including undergraduate and graduate students. It is also the only public university in...
in Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
. Nicholas Kristof graduated from Yamhill Carlton High School
Yamhill Carlton High School
Yamhill Carlton High School is a public high school in Yamhill, Oregon, United States. The school was built in the 1930s and was to cost $65,000, with the Public Works Administration providing $27,000 towards the project.-Academics:...
, where he was student body president and school newspaper editor, and later went on to become a Phi Beta Kappa
Phi Beta Kappa Society
The Phi Beta Kappa Society is an academic honor society. Its mission is to "celebrate and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences"; and induct "the most outstanding students of arts and sciences at America’s leading colleges and universities." Founded at The College of William and...
graduate of Harvard College
Harvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
. At Harvard, he studied government and worked on The Harvard Crimson
The Harvard Crimson
The Harvard Crimson, the daily student newspaper of Harvard University, was founded in 1873. It is the only daily newspaper in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is run entirely by Harvard College undergraduates...
newspaper; "Alums recall Kristof as one of the brightest undergraduates on campus," according to a profile in the Crimson. After Harvard, he studied law at Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...
as a Rhodes Scholar. He earned his law degree with first-class honors and won an academic prize. Afterward, he studied Arabic in Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
for the 1983-84 academic year. He has a number of honorary degrees.
After joining The New York Times in 1984, initially covering economics, he served as a Times correspondent in Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
, Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
, and Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
. He rose to be the associate managing editor of The New York Times, responsible for Sunday editions. His columns have often focused on global health, poverty, and gender issues in the developing world. In particular, since 2004 he has written dozens of columns about Darfur
Darfur
Darfur is a region in western Sudan. An independent sultanate for several hundred years, it was incorporated into Sudan by Anglo-Egyptian forces in 1916. The region is divided into three federal states: West Darfur, South Darfur, and North Darfur...
and visited the area 11 times. He has also been a pioneer in multimedia: he was the first blogger on the New York Times' website, and he also Tweet
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
s, has a Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
fan page and a YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
channel. Kristof resides outside New York City with his wife, Sheryl WuDunn
Sheryl WuDunn
Sheryl WuDunn is a Chinese American business executive, author, lecturer, and the first Asian American to win a Pulitzer Prize.A senior banker focusing on growth companies in technology, new media and the emerging markets, WuDunn also works with double bottom line firms, alternative energy issues,...
, and their three children: Gregory, Geoffrey and Caroline.
Kristof's bio says he has traveled to more than 150 countries. Jeffrey Toobin
Jeffrey Toobin
Jeffrey Ross Toobin is an American lawyer, author, and legal analyst for CNN and The New Yorker.-Early life and education:...
of CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
and The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, a Harvard classmate, has said: "I’m not surprised to see him emerge as the moral conscience of our generation of journalists. I am surprised to see him as the Indiana Jones of our generation of journalists.”
Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
said in September 2009: "There is no one in journalism, anywhere in the United States at least, who has done anything like the work he has done to figure out how poor people are actually living around the world, and what their potential is....So every American citizen who cares about this should be profoundly grateful that someone in our press establishment cares enough about this to haul himself all around the world to figure out what's going on....I am personally in his debt, as are we all."
Kristof is a member of the board of overseers of Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
and a member of the board of trustees of the Association of American Rhodes Scholars.
Prizes
In 1990 Kristof and his wife, Sheryl WuDunnSheryl WuDunn
Sheryl WuDunn is a Chinese American business executive, author, lecturer, and the first Asian American to win a Pulitzer Prize.A senior banker focusing on growth companies in technology, new media and the emerging markets, WuDunn also works with double bottom line firms, alternative energy issues,...
, earned a Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting
Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting
This Pulitzer Prize has been awarded since 1942 for a distinguished example of reporting on international affairs, including United Nations correspondence. In its first six years , it was called the Pulitzer Prize for Telegraphic Reporting - International...
for their reporting on the pro-democracy student movement and the related Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
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...
. They were the first married couple to win a Pulitzer for journalism. Kristof has also received the George Polk Award and an award from the Overseas Press Club
Overseas Press Club
The Overseas Press Club of America was founded in 1939 in New York City by a group of foreign correspondents. The wire service reporter Carol Weld was a founding member...
for his reporting which focuses on human rights and environmental issues.
Kristof was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary
Pulitzer Prize for Commentary
The Pulitzer Prize for Commentary has been awarded since 1970. The Pulitzer Committee issues an official citation explaining the reasons for the award.-List of winners and their official citations:...
in 2004 and again in 2005 "for his powerful columns that portrayed suffering among the developing world's often forgotten people and stirred action." In 2006 Kristof won his second Pulitzer, the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary
Pulitzer Prize for Commentary
The Pulitzer Prize for Commentary has been awarded since 1970. The Pulitzer Committee issues an official citation explaining the reasons for the award.-List of winners and their official citations:...
"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."
In 2009, Kristof and WuDunn received the Dayton Literary Peace Prize
Dayton Literary Peace Prize
The Dayton Literary Peace Prize, which was first awarded in 2006, "is the only annual U.S. literary award recognizing the power of the written word to promote peace." Awards are given for adult fiction and non-fiction books published at some point within the immediate past year that have led...
's 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award. He has also won the 2008 Anne Frank Award and the 2007 Fred Cuny Award for Prevention of Deadly Conflict. Commentators have occasionally suggested Kristof for the Nobel Peace Prize, but when Media Web named Kristof its "print journalist of the year" in 2006 and asked him about that, it quoted him as saying: "I can't imagine it going to a scribbler like me. That's a total flight of fancy."
Books
Kristof's books, all co-authored with his wife Sheryl WuDunnSheryl WuDunn
Sheryl WuDunn is a Chinese American business executive, author, lecturer, and the first Asian American to win a Pulitzer Prize.A senior banker focusing on growth companies in technology, new media and the emerging markets, WuDunn also works with double bottom line firms, alternative energy issues,...
, include China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power
China Wakes
China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power 1994, by husband-and-wife reporters Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, gives impressions and vignettes from their stay in China.- Summary :...
(1994), Thunder from the East: Portrait of a Rising Asia
Thunder from the East
Thunder from the East: A Portrait of Rising Asia is a 2000 book co-authored by husband and wife team Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. It is a nonfiction study of contemporary Asia.-External links:**...
and Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide
Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide
Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide is a book by the husband-wife team of Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn published by Knopf in September 2009...
(Knopf, September 2009).
Among many of the motivations for writing "Half the Sky," Kristof explained to Jane Wales of the World Affairs Council of Northern California
World Affairs Council of Northern California
The World Affairs Council of Northern California, founded in 1947 and headquartered in San Francisco, CA, offers a forum where diverse audiences engage in critical issues that inform their actions...
that the idea for the book was sparked by the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests
Tiananmen Square protests
Tiananmen Square in Beijing has been the central point for several major historical protests, with their most commonly referred to Chinese name in parentheses....
. After covering the protests, which resulted in some 500 deaths, Kristof and WuDunn were shocked to learn that roughly 39,000 Chinese girls died each year because they were not given the same access to food and medical care as boys. Yet WuDunn and Kristof could not find coverage of these deaths, even though they were far more numerous than the casualties at Tiananmen Square. That led them to dig deeper into questions of gender, Kristof said. Half the Sky covers topics such as sex trafficking and forced prostitution, contemporary slavery, gender-based violence, and rape as a weapon of war and method of justice, as it shines light on the multitude of ways women are oppressed and violated in the world.
"Half the Sky" immediately hit the best-seller lists. Carolyn See, the book critic of The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, said in her review: "'Half the Sky' is a call to arms, a call for help, a call for contributions, but also a call for volunteers. It asks us to open our eyes to this enormous humanitarian issue. It does so with exquisitely crafted prose and sensationally interesting material....I really do think this is one of the most important books I have ever reviewed." In Cleveland, a reviewer for The Plain Dealer said: "As Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" once catalyzed us to save our birds and better steward our earth, 'Half the Sky' stands to become a classic, spurring us to spare impoverished women these terrors, and elevate them to turn around the future of their nations.". The Seattle Times
The Seattle Times
The Seattle Times is a newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, US. It is the largest daily newspaper in the state of Washington. It has been, since the demise in 2009 of the printed version of the rival Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Seattle's only major daily print newspaper.-History:The Seattle Times...
review predicted that "Half the Sky" may "ignite a grass-roots revolution like the one that eliminated slavery." In CounterPunch
Counterpunch
Counterpunch can refer to:* Counterpunch , a punch in boxing* CounterPunch, a bi-weekly political newsletter* Counterpunch , a type of punch used in traditional typography* Punch-Counterpunch, a Transformers character...
, Charles R. Larson declared: "Half the Sky is the most important book that I have read since Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, published in 1962. I am not alone in saying that this is the most significant book that I have ever reviewed."
Iraq War
In the run-up to the Iraq War, Kristof opposed the impending invasion and occupation of Iraq, particularly because he felt that the Bush administration did not articulate a well-reasoned basis for it and did not have clear, long-term plans for post-invasion Iraq. In a column published six months before the Iraq invasion titled "Wimps on Iraq", Kristof warned, "It looks as if the president, intoxicated by moral clarity, has decided that whatever the cost, whatever the risks, he will invade Iraq. And that's not policy, but obsession." In a column entitled "The Day After" in September 2002, during a reporting visit to Iraq, he declared: "In one Shiite city after another, expect battles between rebels and army units, periodic calls for an Iranian-style theocracy, and perhaps a drift toward civil war. For the last few days, I've been traveling in these Shiite cities—Karbala, Najaf and Basra—and the tension in the bazaars is thicker than the dust behind the donkey carts. So before we rush into Iraq, we need to think through what we will do the morning after Saddam is toppled. Do we send in troops to try to seize the mortars and machine guns from the warring factions? Or do we run from civil war, and risk letting Iran cultivate its own puppet regime?"On May 6, 2003, less than two months into the war, Kristof published an op-ed column titled "Missing in Action: Truth," in which he questioned whether or not the intelligence gathered by the Bush administration, which purportedly indicated that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction
Weapons of mass destruction
A weapon of mass destruction is a weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to a large number of humans and/or cause great damage to man-made structures , natural structures , or the biosphere in general...
, was either faked or manipulated. In this article, Kristof cited as his source a “former ambassador” who had traveled to Niger in early 2002 and reported back to the Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
(CIA) and the State Department that the uranium “allegations were unequivocally wrong and based on forged documents.” Kristof added, "The envoy's debunking of the forgery was passed around the administration and seemed to be accepted—except that President Bush and the State Department kept citing it anyway." Two months later, Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV came forward publicly and published a now-famous op-ed in The New York Times titled "What I Didn't Find in Africa". This set off a series of events which resulted in what become known as "Plamegate": the disclosure by journalist Robert Novak
Robert Novak
Robert David Sanders "Bob" Novak was an American syndicated columnist, journalist, television personality, author, and conservative political commentator. After working for two newspapers before serving for the U.S. Army in the Korean War, he became a reporter for the Associated Press and then for...
of the – until then covert – status as a CIA officer of Ambassador Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame Wilson. A criminal investigation was launched as to the source of the leak, as a consequence of which I. Lewis Libby, then-Chief of Staff to Vice President Dick Cheney
Dick Cheney
Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney served as the 46th Vice President of the United States , under George W. Bush....
, was indicted on obstruction of justice, false statement, and perjury charges, and subsequently convicted and sentenced to 30 months in federal prison and a $250,000 fine (though he never served time in prison because President Bush commuted his prison sentence). Kristof's May 6 article was mentioned in the federal indictment of Scooter Libby as a key point in time, and a contributing factor that caused Libby to inquire about the identity of the "envoy" and later divulge the secret identity of his wife to reporters.
"Grand bargain" with Iran
Kristof published several articles criticizing the missed opportunity of the "grand bargain"—a proposal by Iran to normalize relations with the United States, implement procedures to assure the US it will not develop nuclear weapons, deny any monetary support to Palestinian resistance groups until they agree to stop targeting civilians, support the Arab Peace InitiativeArab Peace Initiative
The Beirut Summit was a meeting of the Arab League in Beirut, Lebanon in March 2002 to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The meeting became especially noteworthy for the adoption, by the Arab states attending, of a proposal offering a comprehensive peace between the Arab countries and...
, and ensure full transparency to assuage any United States concerns. In return, the Iranians demanded abolition of sanctions and a US statement that Iran does not belong in the so-called "Axis of Evil." In his columns, Kristof revealed the documents detailing this proposal and argued that the "grand bargain" proposal was killed by hard-liners in the Bush administration. According to Kristof, this was an "appalling mistake" since "the Iranian proposal was promising and certainly should have been followed up. It seems diplomatic mismanagement of the highest order for the Bush administration to have rejected that process out of hand, and now to be instead beating the drums of war and considering air strikes on Iranian nuclear sites." Kristof further believes that even if the grand bargain is not currently feasible, there is still an option for what he calls a "mini-bargain", i.e., a more modest proposal for normalizing U.S.-Iranian relations.
In June 2007 Kristof spoke on the importance of the "grand bargain" with Iran at a conference organized by the American Iranian Council
American Iranian Council
The American-Iranian Council was formed in 1997 as a bi-partisan think tank focused upon promoting better relations between the United States and Iran. Former United States Secretary of State Cyrus Vance was the original honorary Chair of the organization...
in New Brunswick
New Brunswick, New Jersey
New Brunswick is a city in Middlesex County, New Jersey, USA. It is the county seat and the home of Rutgers University. The city is located on the Northeast Corridor rail line, southwest of Manhattan, on the southern bank of the Raritan River. At the 2010 United States Census, the population of...
, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
. The conference brought together a host of distinguished national and international policy makers, among them Congressman Dennis Kucinich
Dennis Kucinich
Dennis John Kucinich is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1997. He was furthermore a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in the 2004 and 2008 presidential elections....
(D-OH), Ambassador Javad Zarif from Iran's UN Mission, Senator Chuck Hagel
Chuck Hagel
Charles Timothy "Chuck" Hagel is a former United States Senator from Nebraska. A member of the Republican Party, he was first elected in 1996 and was reelected in 2002...
, and Ambassador Anders Lidén
Anders Lidén
Anders Arvid Lidén is the Ambassador to the United Nations from Sweden. He was appointed to the position in 2004.- Career :...
from Sweden, in an attempt to improve the public's understanding of U.S.-Iranian relations and promote normalization with Iran. Kristof recounted his trips to Iran and told the audience that on a people-to-people level Iran is one of the most pro-American countries in the Middle East. He argued that American hard-liners, such as Dick Cheney
Dick Cheney
Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney served as the 46th Vice President of the United States , under George W. Bush....
, are reinforcing and strengthening Iranian hard-liners, and vice versa. He reiterated his support for the grand bargain and warned against the possibility of a military strike on Iran, calling it "absolutely terrifying" and remarking that he can't imagine something that would do more to undermine American interests in the region.
Anthrax attacks columns
In 2002 Kristof wrote a series of columns indirectly suggesting that Steven HatfillSteven Hatfill
Steven Jay Hatfill is an American physician, virologist and bio-weapons expert who underwent what was considered by many to be a trial by media with great toll on his personal and professional life...
, a former US Army germ-warfare researcher named a "person of interest
Person of interest
"Person of interest" is a phrase used by law enforcement when announcing the name of someone involved in a criminal investigation who has not been arrested or formally accused of a crime. The phrase was adopted by the media and widely disseminated, thus most law enforcement agencies have picked up...
" by the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
(FBI), might be a "likely culprit" in the 2001 anthrax attacks
2001 anthrax attacks
The 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States, also known as Amerithrax from its Federal Bureau of Investigation case name, occurred over the course of several weeks beginning on Tuesday, September 18, 2001, one week after the September 11 attacks. Letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to...
. Hatfill was never charged with any crime. In July 2004 Hatfill sued the Times and Kristof for libel, asserting claims for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress
Intentional infliction of emotional distress
Intentional infliction of emotional distress is a tort claim of recent origin for intentional conduct that results in extreme emotional distress. Some courts and commentators have substituted mental for emotional, but the tort is the same...
. Subsequently, Hatfill voluntarily dismissed Kristof as a defendant in the case when it became clear that the District Court lacked personal jurisdiction over Kristof. The suit continued against the Times and was initially dismissed by the District Court on the basis that the allegations in Kristof's articles, even if untrue, did not constitute defamation. In July 2005, however, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit reversed the decision, and reinstated the suit against The New York Times. In January 2007 Judge Claude M. Hilton
Claude M. Hilton
Claude M. Hilton is a United States federal judge.Born in Scott County, Virginia, Hilton received a B.S. from Ohio State University in 1963 and a J.D. from American University, Washington College of Law in 1966. He was an assistant commonwealth's attorney of Arlington, Virginia from 1967 to 1968...
of the Eastern District of Virginia tossed out the suit, claiming that Kristof's anthrax articles were "cautiously worded" and asserted that the scientist could be innocent. Judge Hilton wrote that Kristof "made efforts to avoid implicating his guilt" and that "Mr. Kristof reminded readers to assume plaintiff's (Hatfill) innocence." Kristof praised the dismissal of the suit, commenting that he was "really pleased that the judge recognized the importance of this kind of reporting" and that it was "terrific to have a judgment that protects journalism at a time when the press has had a fair number of rulings against it". When the FBI exonerated Hatfill, Kristof wrote a column on Aug. 27, 2008, "Media's Balancing Act," in which he wrote: "So, first, I owe an apology to Dr. Hatfill. In retrospect, I was right to prod the F.B.I. and to urge tighter scrutiny of Fort Detrick, but the job of the news media is supposed to be to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. Instead, I managed to afflict the afflicted."
Sudan and Darfur
Kristof is particularly well-known for his reporting on SudanSudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
. At the beginning of 2004, he was among the first reporters to visit Darfur
Darfur
Darfur is a region in western Sudan. An independent sultanate for several hundred years, it was incorporated into Sudan by Anglo-Egyptian forces in 1916. The region is divided into three federal states: West Darfur, South Darfur, and North Darfur...
and describe "the most vicious ethnic cleansing you've never heard of." He recounted what he called "a campaign of murder, rape and pillage by Sudan," and he was among the first to call it genocide. His biography says he has made 11 trips to the region, some illegally by sneaking in from Chad
Chad
Chad , officially known as the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west...
, and on at least one occasion he was detained at a checkpoint when the authorities seized his interpreter and Kristof refused to leave him behind. Kristof's reporting from Sudan has been both praised and criticized. Robert DeVecchi, past president of the International Rescue Committee
International Rescue Committee
The International Rescue Committee is a leading nonsectarian, nongovernmental international relief and development organization based in the United States, with operations in over 40 countries...
, told the Council on Foreign Relations
Council on Foreign Relations
The Council on Foreign Relations is an American nonprofit nonpartisan membership organization, publisher, and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs...
: "Nicholas Kristof...had an unprecedented impact in single-handedly mobilizing world attention to this crisis. There are undoubtedly hundreds of thousands of refugees in and from the Darfur region who owe their very lives to this formidable humanitarian and journalist." New York Magazine said that Kristof "single-handedly focused the world's attention on Darfur," and the Save Darfur Coalition said that "he is the person most responsible for getting this issue into America's consciousness and the resulting efforts to resolve it." Samantha Power
Samantha Power
Samantha Power is an Irish American academic, governmental official and writer. She is currently a Special Assistant to President Barack Obama and runs the Office of Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights as Senior Director of Multilateral Affairs on the Staff of the National Security Council...
, the author of Pulitzer Prize-winning book on genocide, told an American Jewish World Service audience that Kristof was probably the person the Janjaweed militia in Darfur most wanted to kill. In June 2008, the actress Mia Farrow
Mia Farrow
Mia Farrow is an American actress, singer, humanitarian, and fashion model.Farrow first gained wide acclaim for her role as Allison Mackenzie in the soap opera Peyton Place, and for her subsequent short-lived marriage to Frank Sinatra...
spoke as Kristof was honored with the Anne Frank Award, declaring: "Nick Kristof was one of the first to publicly insist that the words Never Again mean something for the people of Darfur. For his courage and his conviction in telling tell searing truths, he is the voice of our collective conscience, demanding we bear witness to the first genocide of the 21st century and encouraging us not to sit by while innocents die. Every once in a great while a moral giant appears among us. Nicholas Kristof is that person." For his coverage of Darfur, Ann Curry
Ann Curry
Ann Curry is an American television news journalist and co-anchor on NBC's morning television program Today. She is the former news anchor on Today, a role she began in March 1997, and was the host of Dateline NBC from 2005-2011.Curry is a Board Member at the IWMF .-Biography:Curry was born in...
of NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
suggested that Kristof was "the modern journalist who showed courage and leadership comparable to the great Edward R. Murrow
Edward R. Murrow
Edward Roscoe Murrow, KBE was an American broadcast journalist. He first came to prominence with a series of radio news broadcasts during World War II, which were followed by millions of listeners in the United States and Canada.Fellow journalists Eric Sevareid, Ed Bliss, and Alexander Kendrick...
." On the other hand, some Arab commentators have criticized Kristof for focusing on atrocities by Arab militias in Darfur and downplaying atrocities by non-Arab militias. A book by Mahmood Mamdani of Columbia University, "Saviors and Survivors," criticized Kristof's reporting for over-simplifying a complex historically-rooted conflict and packaging it as "genocide." Other Arabs and Africans, including some critical of Sudan, have sometimes made similar arguments. Sudan's government has also objected that Kristof's reporting exaggerates the scale of suffering and ignores the nuances of tribal conflicts in Darfur.
Criticism of the anti-sweatshop movement
Kristof is critical of the anti-sweatshopAnti-sweatshop
Anti-Sweatshop refers to campaigning movements to improve the conditions of workers in Sweatshops, i.e. manufacturing places characterized by low wages, poor working conditions and often child labor...
movement, claiming that the sweatshop
Sweatshop
Sweatshop is a negatively connoted term for any working environment considered to be unacceptably difficult or dangerous. Sweatshop workers often work long hours for very low pay, regardless of laws mandating overtime pay or a minimum wage. Child labour laws may be violated. Sweatshops may have...
model is a primary reason why Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
and South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
—which accepted sweatshops as the price of development—are modern countries with low rates of infant mortality and high levels of education, while India—which generally has resisted sweatshops—suffers from a high rate of infant mortality (3.1 million Indian children under the age of five die every year, mostly from diseases of poverty.) While admitting that sweatshop work is tedious, grueling, and sometimes dangerous, he argues that it is considerably less dangerous or arduous than most alternatives in poor countries. Sweatshops provide much-needed jobs and boost the economy of extremely poor countries. He has called for well-meaning Americans to stop campaigning against sweatshops because it leads to closing down of manufacturing and processing plants in places where they are needed most. Responding to his critics, Kristof argues that campaigning to raise the wages in sweatshops will not achieve that goal; rather, the pressure will cause companies to rely on capital-intensive factories in better-off countries, avoiding Africa altogether.
Turkish denial of the Armenian Genocide
Kristof has also criticized in his Times column the Turkish government's ongoing denial of the Armenian GenocideArmenian Genocide
The Armenian Genocide—also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Crime—refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I...
and what he calls the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
's inability to stand up to Turkey on this issue. Kristof believes the United Nations has capitulated to regimes that have actively committed atrocities in the past (Turkey) and in the present (Sudan).
Israeli–Palestinian conflict
Kristof supports IsraelIsrael
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i and U.S. negotiation with Hamas
Hamas
Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...
as a means to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict
Israeli–Palestinian conflict
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The conflict is wide-ranging, and the term is also used in reference to the earlier phases of the same conflict, between Jewish and Zionist yishuv and the Arab population living in Palestine under Ottoman or...
. He criticizes Israel for what he views as collective punishment
Collective punishment
Collective punishment is the punishment of a group of people as a result of the behavior of one or more other individuals or groups. The punished group may often have no direct association with the other individuals or groups, or direct control over their actions...
of Gazans and holds that the lack of negotiations only strengthens extremists. He also advocates removing Israeli settlement
Israeli settlement
An Israeli settlement is a Jewish civilian community built on land that was captured by Israel from Jordan, Egypt, and Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War and is considered occupied territory by the international community. Such settlements currently exist in the West Bank...
s from Hebron
Hebron
Hebron , is located in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Nestled in the Judean Mountains, it lies 930 meters above sea level. It is the largest city in the West Bank and home to around 165,000 Palestinians, and over 500 Jewish settlers concentrated in and around the old quarter...
since "the financial cost is mind-boggling, and the diplomatic cost is greater," even if the settlements were not illegal in the eyes of much of the world. Kristof contrasts "two Israels": an oppressive security state in the Palestinian territories
Palestinian territories
The Palestinian territories comprise the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Since the Palestinian Declaration of Independence in 1988, the region is today recognized by three-quarters of the world's countries as the State of Palestine or simply Palestine, although this status is not recognized by the...
and a "paragon of justice, decency, fairness - and peace," in the work of Israeli human rights activists, journalists, and jurists.
Slovenia
Kristof consistently uses SloveniaSlovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
in his New York Times op-ed columns as a flail to shame American healthcare. For example: "... it’s scandalous that babies born in the United States are less likely to survive their first year than babies born in Slovenia" (31 January 2006); "American children are twice as likely to die by the age of 5 as children in Portugal, Spain or Slovenia" (28 February 2009); and "No wonder we spend so much on medical care, and yet have some health care statistics that are worse than Slovenia’s" (12 September 2009). However, his 31 January 2006 blog ("Apologies to Slovenia") had expressed regret at the offense he had caused. On 15 September 2009 the acting consul general for Slovenia, Melita Gabrič, objected to Kristof's use of Slovenia as a "derisory sort of punch line."
Libya
During the 2011 Libyan unrest, Kristof wrote that the U.S. should create a no-fly zoneNo-fly zone
A no-fly zone is a territory or an area over which aircraft are not permitted to fly. Such zones are usually set up in a military context, somewhat like a demilitarized zone in the sky, and usually prohibit military aircraft of a belligerent nation from operating in the region.-Iraq,...
and also use military aircraft to jam
Radio jamming
Radio jamming is the transmission of radio signals that disrupt communications by decreasing the signal to noise ratio. Unintentional jamming occurs when an operator transmits on a busy frequency without first checking whether it is in use, or without being able to hear stations using the frequency...
Libyan state communications. He remarked, "let’s remember the risks of inaction — and not psych ourselves out. For crying out loud!"
U.S. Government
In a column published in the New York Times on June 15, 2011 Kristof argued that the United States military was a prime example of how comprehensive social safety netSocial safety net
Social safety nets, or "socioeconomic safety nets", are non-contributory transfer programs seeking to prevent the poor or those vulnerable to shocks and poverty from falling below a certain poverty level. Safety net programs can be provided by the public sector or by the private sector...
, universal health care
Universal health care
Universal health care is a term referring to organized health care systems built around the principle of universal coverage for all members of society, combining mechanisms for health financing and service provision.-History:...
, a commitment to public service
Public services
Public services is a term usually used to mean services provided by government to its citizens, either directly or by financing private provision of services. The term is associated with a social consensus that certain services should be available to all, regardless of income...
, low income disparity
Income disparity
The gender pay gap is the difference between male and female earnings expressed as a percentage of male earnings, according to the OECD. The European Commission defines it as the average difference between men’s and women’s hourly earnings...
and structured planning could be made to work within an organization. He then suggested that the military could serve as a model for improving American society along those lines. This brought criticism from several other commentators, who argued that the military is only effective at what it does by severely limiting the freedom of its members. Jonah Goldberg
Jonah Goldberg
Jonah Jacob Goldberg is an American conservative syndicated columnist and author. Goldberg is known for his contributions on politics and culture to , of which he is editor-at-large...
argued that "You’ve got to love how a system that requires total loyalty, curbs free speech, free association, freedom of movement etc is now either 'lefty' or 'liberal' because it gives 'free' healthcare and daycare" and hinted that the ideas in Kristof's column resembled fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
. David French added that "If you want to see the military do what it does best, then ride out on a mission with an armored cavalry squadron. If you want to see the military struggle to do its job well, then I suggest you spend some time with its social services."
In July 2011, President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
, at a Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
town hall, referred to Kristof as "a great columnist" -- and then proceeded to disagree with him.
Education Reform
In a 2011 New York Times op-ed, Kristof wrote that he is not a fan of teachers unions who often trade job security for lower wages thus protecting bad teachers who become almost impossible to dismiss. Despite his distaste for teachers unions, Kristoff advocates for paying teachers a much higher salary as a way to attract and retrain more talented individuals to the profession.Win a Trip with Nick Kristof contest
In 2006, The New York Times launched the Win a Trip with Nick Kristof contest, offering a college student the opportunity to win a reporting trip to Africa with Kristof by submitting essays outlining what they intend to accomplish in such a trip. From among 3,800 students who submitted entries, Kristof chose Casey Parks of JacksonJackson, Mississippi
Jackson is the capital and the most populous city of the US state of Mississippi. It is one of two county seats of Hinds County ,. The population of the city declined from 184,256 at the 2000 census to 173,514 at the 2010 census...
, Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
. In September 2006, Kristof and Parks traveled to Equatorial Guinea
Equatorial Guinea
Equatorial Guinea, officially the Republic of Equatorial Guinea where the capital Malabo is situated.Annobón is the southernmost island of Equatorial Guinea and is situated just south of the equator. Bioko island is the northernmost point of Equatorial Guinea. Between the two islands and to the...
, Cameroon
Cameroon
Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon , is a country in west Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the...
, and the Central African Republic
Central African Republic
The Central African Republic , is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It borders Chad in the north, Sudan in the north east, South Sudan in the east, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo in the south, and Cameroon in the west. The CAR covers a land area of about ,...
and reported on AIDS, poverty, and maternal mortality. During the trip, Kristof published his New York Times columns while Parks wrote about her observations in her blog.
The success of this partnership prompted the Times to hold the Second Annual Win A Trip with Nick Kristof contest in 2007. Leana Wen, a medical student at Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis is a private research university located in suburban St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1853, and named for George Washington, the university has students and faculty from all fifty U.S. states and more than 110 nations...
, and Will Okun, a teacher at Westside Alternative High School in Chicago, were the winners of the 2007 competition. During summer 2007, they traveled with Kristof to 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...
, Burundi
Burundi
Burundi , officially the Republic of Burundi , is a landlocked country in the Great Lakes region of Eastern Africa bordered by Rwanda to the north, Tanzania to the east and south, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west. Its capital is Bujumbura...
, and eastern Congo
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...
. Filmmaker Eric Daniel Metzgar
Eric Daniel Metzgar
Eric Daniel Metzgar is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker. His debut film, a documentary entitled The Chances of the World Changing, which he directed, produced, shot and edited, premiered at the 2006 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival...
joined Kristof, Wen and Okun on their trip. The resulting film, Reporter, premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
and aired on HBO in February 2010. In reviewing the film, which was executive produced by Ben Affleck
Ben Affleck
Benjamin Géza Affleck-Boldt , better known as Ben Affleck, is an American actor, film director, writer, and producer. He became known with his performances in Kevin Smith's films such as Mallrats and Chasing Amy...
, Entertainment Weekly wrote: "In Reporter, he's a compelling figure, a cross between Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa , born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu , was a Roman Catholic nun of Albanian ethnicity and Indian citizenship, who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India, in 1950...
and the James Woods
James Woods
James Howard Woods is an American film, stage and television actor. Woods is known for starring in critically acclaimed films such as Once Upon a Time in America, Salvador, Nixon, Ghosts of Mississippi, Casino, and in the television legal drama Shark. He has won three Emmy Awards, and has gained...
character in Salvador
Salvador (film)
Salvador is a 1986 war drama film which tells the story of an American journalist in El Salvador covering the Salvadoran civil war. While trying to get footage, he becomes entangled with both leftist guerrillas and the right wing military...
, and what seals the intensity of his job is the danger." The Washington Post observed, "Ideally, [Kristof] hopes to teach his companions, who won a contest to travel with him, about the value of witnessing the world's atrocities and scintillating them into stories that will call on people to act. Which is what Kristof did with his work in Darfur, Sudan: He caused people -- from George Clooney on down -- to do whatever they can."
For the Third Win A Trip, Kristof chose University of South Carolina
University of South Carolina
The University of South Carolina is a public, co-educational research university located in Columbia, South Carolina, United States, with 7 surrounding satellite campuses. Its historic campus covers over in downtown Columbia not far from the South Carolina State House...
student Paul Bowers, and the two traveled in Senegal
Senegal
Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
, Guinea Bissau, Guinea
Guinea
Guinea , officially the Republic of Guinea , is a country in West Africa. Formerly known as French Guinea , it is today sometimes called Guinea-Conakry to distinguish it from its neighbour Guinea-Bissau. Guinea is divided into eight administrative regions and subdivided into thirty-three prefectures...
, Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...
, and Liberia
Liberia
Liberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open...
.
The fourth Win a Trip journey took place in May 2010, with Mitch Smith, a Kansan student studying at University of Nebraska. Smith had never been outside the United States before. They traveled to Gabon
Gabon
Gabon , officially the Gabonese Republic is a state in west central Africa sharing borders with Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, and with the Republic of the Congo curving around the east and south. The Gulf of Guinea, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean is to the west...
, Republic of Congo, and Democratic Republic of Congo. For the Fifth Win A Trip, in 2011, Kristof took a medical student, Saumya Dave, and a teacher, Noreen Connolly, through Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
, Mauritania
Mauritania
Mauritania is a country in the Maghreb and West Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the west, by Western Sahara in the north, by Algeria in the northeast, by Mali in the east and southeast, and by Senegal in the southwest...
, Senegal
Senegal
Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
, Niger
Niger
Niger , officially named the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east...
and Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso – also known by its short-form name Burkina – is a landlocked country in west Africa. It is surrounded by six countries: Mali to the north, Niger to the east, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Côte d'Ivoire to the southwest.Its size is with an estimated...
.
External links
- Nicholas D. Kristof at the New York Times
- Kristof archive and author page from The New York Review of BooksThe New York Review of BooksThe New York Review of Books is a fortnightly magazine with articles on literature, culture and current affairs. Published in New York City, it takes as its point of departure that the discussion of important books is itself an indispensable literary activity...
- Interview with Kristof for Guernicamag.com