Suzanne Malveaux

Suzanne M. Malveaux (born December 4, 1966), is an American television news reporter. She is at present the White House correspondent for CNN.

In August 2007, Malveaux was the moderator of the 31st annual convention of the National Association of Black Journalists [http://www.sptimes.com/2007/08/10/Worldandnation/Journalists_ask_if_sh.shtml] and has served on various panels at previous conventions of the NABJ, of which she is a member. [http://www.nabj.org/newsroom/news_releases/v-print/story/52714p-81300c.html]

Personal

Malveaux, whose first name is pronounced Sue-zahn [http://www.rollingout.com/cover/index.php?p=4514&more=1&page=1] , was born in Lansing, Michigan into a New Orleans-based family of African, Spanish, and French descent. Her father is of Louisiana French Creole descent [http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/08/29/btsc.malveaux/?iref=mpstoryview] .

Her father, Floyd J. Malveaux, is a prominent African-American doctor who became the dean of the College of Medicine at Howard University; he is now the executive director of the Merck Childhood Asthma Network and a founder of Howard University's National Human Genome Center. ["Appointments, Tenure Decisions, and Promotions of African Americans in Higher Education", "The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education", No. 8 (Summer, 1995), pp. 106-108] [http://www.aetna.com/diversity/aahcalendar/2002/mayprofile.html] [http://biography.jrank.org/pages/2866/Malveaux-Floyd.html] . Her mother is the former Myrna Maria Ruiz, a retired schoolteacher. The economist Julianne Malveaux is a distant cousin [http://www.rollingout.com/cover/index.php?p=4514&more=1&page=1] .

She has three siblings:
*Suzette M. Malveaux (twin with Suzanne and an associate professor at the Columbus School of Law, Catholic University of America) [http://law.cua.edu/Fac_Staff/MalveauxS//index.cfm]
*Courtney M. Malveaux (an assistant attorney general for the state of Virginia and chairman of the Richmond Republican Committee) [http://thehill.com/under-the-dome/ventura-slams-schwarzenegger-on-budget-2004-11-02.html] [http://www.richmond-gop.org/]
*Gregory F. Malveaux (an associate professor of English at Montgomery College). [http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/verified/catalog/PEOPLE.pdf]

Her family lived in New Orleans and later Howard County, Maryland, and she attended Centennial High School in Ellicott City, Maryland.

Malveaux graduated "cum laude" from Harvard University with a degree in sociology; a classmate was future CNN reporter Soledad O'Brien. [http://www.rollingout.com/cover/index.php?p=4514&more=1&page=1] She graduated with a master's degree in broadcasting from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1991. [http://www.rollingout.com/cover/index.php?p=4514&more=1&page=1]

Career

Malveaux's first television job was with New England Cable News as a general assignment reporter in Boston, Massachusetts, during 1993–1996.Fact|date=September 2007 She then moved back to Washington, D.C., and worked for NBC affiliate WRC-TV during 1996–1999 as a self-described "rock-and-roll" reporter reporting local and crime news.Fact|date=September 2007

In 1999 she joined NBC Network News, three years in Washington, including as a Pentagon correspondent, and three years in Chicago.Fact|date=September 2007 She covered national stories such as Bill Clinton's impeachment, Elián González, the Kosovo War, the 2000 Presidential Election, the 9/11 attacks, and the 2001 war in Afghanistan.Fact|date=September 2007

Since May 2002, she has been a White House correspondent for CNN, based at their Washington, D.C. bureau. She can be seen nightly on CNN giving her view of the presidential race.

Role as a black journalist

As Malveaux said in an interview about her position as an African American journalist “When I think of my grandparents and I think about the time of segregation, I think what would they think of their grandchild sitting in that seat, that CNN seat in that small little [White House] briefing room? There [are] only about 20 seats and I’m sitting in one of them. It’s so important that I feel like I’m representing people who couldn’t even imagine that we could be in that kind of position.” [http://www.rollingout.com/cover/index.php?p=4514&more=1&page=2]

Controversies

2007 Laura Bush interview

In summer 2007, Suzanne Malveaux interviewed Laura Bush during the First Lady's trip through several southern African countries. "Laura Bush commented that condoms are "absolutely necessary" and that she was "perfectly fine" with the proposed idea -- now passed in the House and introduced in the Senate -- that the abstinence only provision be waived from the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)." This was reported in the Feminist Daily News Wire on July 5, 2007.

A search of CNN and YouTube failed to find the video of the interview. It can only be found on the [http://thinkprogress.org/2007/07/04/laura-bush-abstinence/ ThinkProgress.com blog] .

2007 Pelosi trip

In the spring of 2007, the group Media Matters for America published an article criticizing Malveaux's reporting on the trip of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Syria, taking the view that Malveaux was parroting White House talking points and ignoring the GOP's own communications with and travel to Syria.

2007 Democratic Party debate

On November 16, 2007 while moderating a debate between candidates for the Democratic Party presidential nomination, Malveaux modified a question asked by audience member LaShannon Spencer. Spencer asked what qualities the candidates' nominees to the Supreme Court of the United States should possess. Malveaux directed the question to Senator Chris Dodd and further asked him if he would require nominees to support abortion rights. When the question was put to Senator Joe Biden he responded "Suzanne's decided. I'm not answering her question. I'm answering the question of the woman who was there, okay?"

References

External links

* [http://www.cnn.com/CNN/anchors_reporters/malveaux.suzanne.html CNN - Biography]
* [http://feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswirestory.asp?id=10402 "Laura Bush Rebukes Husband on Abstinence Only Requirement"] Feminist Daily News Wire, Feminist Majority Foundation July 5, 2007.
* [http://mediamatters.org/items/200704020012 "CNN's Malveaux parroted White House criticism of Pelosi's Syria visit, but ignored GOP-led trip,"] Media Matters For America, April 2, 2007.
* [http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/08/29/btsc.malveaux/?iref=mpstoryview Malveaux's CNN report about her cousins in New Orleans's 9th Ward and their experiences during Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath]