Elisabeth Bumiller

Elisabeth Bumiller (born May 15, 1956) is an American author and journalist who is currently a national affairs correspondent for the "New York Times".

Personal

She has been married since 1983 to Steven R. Weisman, also a former White House correspondent, who reported from India and Japan for the "New York Times" and is now the international economic correspondent for that newspaper. The couple have two children.

Born in Aalborg, Denmark to a Danish mother and American father, Bumiller moved to the U.S. when she was three years old. She moved to Cincinnati, where she graduated from Walnut Hills High School in 1974. She is a 1977 graduate of Northwestern University.

Career

Bumiller was the "Times"' White House correspondent from September 10, 2001 until 2007. She has been criticized, along with other White House reporters, for not questioning George W. Bush aggressively during a press conference in the run-up to the Iraq war. Bumiller said, on the press conference in 2003 on the eve of the U.S. invasion of Iraq:

I think we were very deferential because ... it's live, it's very intense, it's frightening to stand up there. Think about it, you're standing up on prime-time live TV asking the president of the United States a question when the country's about to go to war. There was a very serious, somber tone that evening, and no one wanted to get into an argument with the president at this very serious time. [ [http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2006/06/05/bumiller/index.html War Room: A White House farewell letter, By Tim Grieve, Salon, June 5, 2006] ]

In 2003, in an article headlined "Keepers of Bush Image Lift Stagecraft to New Heights," she wrote of the president's famous "Mission Accomplished" speech, "George W. Bush's Top Gun landing on the deck of the carrier Abraham Lincoln will be remembered as one of the most audacious moments of presidential theater in American history," and described it as "the latest example of how the Bush administration [is] going far beyond the foundations in stagecraft set by the Reagan White House." [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9803EFDC173EF935A25756C0A9659C8B63 "Keepers of Bush Image Lift Stagecraft to New Heights," by Elisabeth Bumiller, New York Times, May 16, 2003] ]

At a panel discussion sponsored by Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism on November 4, 2004, in Washington, D.C., Bumiller elicited audience laughter when she stated, "You can't just say the president is lying." Speaking about the challenges of presenting balanced news reporting, she had earlier said,

"That’s why it’s very hard to write those, because you can’t say George Bush is wrong here. There’s no way you can say that in the New York Times. So we contort ourselves up and say, “Actually”— I actually once wrote this sentence: “Mr. Bush’s statement did not exactly . . . ” It was some completely upside down statement that was basically saying he wasn’t telling the truth."

When the moderator asked shortly after why she couldn't "just say the president is lying," she responded,

"You can in an editorial, but I’m sorry, you can’t in a news column. Mr. Bush is lying?...You can say Mr. Bush’s statement was not factually accurate. You can’t say the president is lying—that’s a judgment call." [ [http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2481 "You Can't Just Say the President is Lying," Extra!, January/February 2005] ]

In 2008, Bumiller became involved in controversies related to her coverage of Senator John McCain's presidential campaign for the New York Times. In March 2008, she and McCain argued over questions she put to him regarding Senator John Kerry's proposal that McCain be his running mate. During the argument, Bumiller asked McCain "Can I ask you about your … why you’re so angry?" [ [http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/03/07/transcript-mccain-vs-bumiller "Transcript: McCain vs. Bumiller" Wall Street Journal, Washington Wire, March 7, 2008] ]

In September 2008, Bumiller wrote a front page article in the Times raising questions about the McCain campaign's vetting of vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. Bumiller's article incorrectly reported that Palin had previously been a member of the Alaska Independence Party. After the McCain campaign criticized Bumiller's reporting, the Times corrected the inaccurate report. [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/02/us/politics/02vetting.html "Palin Disclosures Raise Questions on Vetting, New York Times, September 2, 2008, page A1] ]

Books

She is the author of "May You Be the Mother of a Hundred Sons", a study of women's roles in 1980s Indian society, as well as "The Secrets of Mariko", a book focusing on the inner workings of a Japanese family during a year in the early 1990s.

In 2007, Bumiller went on leave to write a biography of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, published by Random House in December 2007. [ [http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2006/06/05/bumiller/index.html War Room - Salon.com ] ] The book portrays Rice catering to Bush's desire to invade Iraq, and it describes her being taken completely by surprise when Hamas won the Palestinian elections. [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/28/opinion/28dowd.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin Jump on the Peace Train, by Maureen Dowd, "New York Times", November 28, 2007] ] She returned to the paper full time in October 2007.

References

External links

* Profile in [http://www.northwestern.edu/magazine/northwestern/summer2005/features/bumiller/ Northwestern Alumni Magazine]
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