Nicholas Kristof
Nicholas Donabet Kristof (born April 27, 1959) is an American journalist and political commentator. A winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, he is a regular CNN contributor and an op-ed columnist for The New York Times.
Nicholas Kristof
April 27, 1959
- Journalist
- author
- columnist
1984–present
3
Born in Chicago, Kristof was raised in Yamhill, Oregon, the son of two professors at nearby Portland State University. After graduating from Harvard University, where he wrote for The Harvard Crimson, Kristof intermittently interned at The Oregonian. He joined the staff of The New York Times in 1984.
Kristof is a self-described progressive.[1] According to The Washington Post, Kristof "rewrote opinion journalism" with his emphasis on human rights abuses and social injustices, such as human trafficking and the Darfur conflict.[2] Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa described Kristof as an "honorary African" for shining a spotlight on neglected conflicts in the continent.[3]
Early life and education[edit]
Kristof was born in Chicago, Illinois, and grew up on a family sheep farm and cherry orchard in Yamhill, Oregon.[4] He is the son of Jane Kristof (née McWilliams) and Ladis "Kris" Kristof (born Władysław Krzysztofowicz; 1918-2010), both long-time professors at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. His father was born to Polish and Armenian parents in the Chernivtsi, former Austria-Hungary, who immigrated to the United States after World War II.[5][6][7] Kristof graduated from Yamhill Carlton High School, where he was student body president and school newspaper editor. He attended Harvard College, where he was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate. At Harvard, he studied government, interned at Portland's The Oregonian, and worked on The Harvard Crimson newspaper. According to a profile of him, "Alums recall Kristof as one of the brightest undergraduates on campus."[8]
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. He studied Arabic in Egypt for the 1983–84 academic year at The American University in Cairo.[9] He has a number of honorary degrees.
Prizes[edit]
In 1990, Kristof and his wife, Sheryl WuDunn, won a Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for their reporting on the pro-democracy student movement and the related Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.[28] 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." Kristof was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize again in 2012 and 2016; altogether, he has been a Pulitzer finalist seven times.
In 2008, Kristof received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.[29][30]
In 2009, Kristof and WuDunn received the Dayton Literary Peace Prize's 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award.[31] Together, they also received the 2009 World of Children Lifetime Achievement Award.[32] He has also won the 2008 Anne Frank Award, the 2007 Fred Cuny Award for Prevention of Deadly Conflict, and the 2013 Advancing Global Health Award (from Seattle Biomed). 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."[33]
In 2011, Kristof was named one of seven "Top American Leaders" by the Harvard Kennedy School and The Washington Post. "His writing has reshaped the field of opinion journalism," The Washington Post explained in granting the award.[2] That same year, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society.[34] Earlier, in 2007, U.S. News & World Report named Kristof one of "America's Best Leaders."[35]
In 2013, Kristof was awarded the Goldsmith Award for Career Excellence in Journalism by Harvard University. Alex Jones, the Pulitzer Prize-winning director of Harvard Kennedy School of Government's Shorenstein Center, declared in presenting the award that "the reporter who's done more than any other to change the world is Nick Kristof."[36] In the same year, Kristof was named an International Freedom Conductor by the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, largely for his work exposing human trafficking and linking it to modern slavery. The last person named to receive the title, two years earlier, was the Dalai Lama.[37]
In 2021, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences awarded Kristof and The New York Times opinion video team an Emmy award for their video, "Heartache in the Hot Zone: The Front Line Against Covid-19."[38]
Opinion and stances[edit]
Iraq War[edit]
Kristof was opposed to the Iraq War and grew further opposed as time went on. In a column published on January 28, 2003, he summarized his position by writing, "If we were confident that we could oust Saddam with minimal casualties and quickly establish a democratic Iraq, then that would be fine -- and such a happy scenario is conceivable. But it's a mistake to invade countries based on best-case scenarios."[45] He continued, "Frankly, it seems a bad idea to sacrifice our troops' lives -- along with billions of dollars -- in a way that may add to our vulnerability."[46]
Kristof was criticized at the time for reporting that Iraqis opposed an American invasion. Andrew Sullivan was among Kristof's critics but in 2018, on the 15th anniversary of the war, apologized to Kristof in a tweet.[47]
In a column published on August 27, 2002, "Wimps on Iraq," he wrote "To us the existing Iraq debate seems largely beside the point; the real issue isn't whether we want to overthrow Saddam, but what price we would have to pay to get the job done."[45] He concludes, after detailing five practical concerns about invading Iraq, "So if Mr. Bush were really addressing these concerns, weighing them and then concluding that on balance it's worth an invasion, I'd be reassured. But instead it looks as if the president, intoxicated by moral clarity, has decided that whatever the cost, whatever the risks, he will invade Iraq."[45] In the same column, he wrote, "President Bush has convinced me that there is no philosophical reason we should not overthrow the Iraqi government, given that Iraqis themselves would be better off, along with the rest of the world. But Mr. Bush has not overcome some practical concerns about an invasion."[45]
In the column "The Day After" in September 2002, Kristof wrote, "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?"[48]
On May 6, 2003, less than two months into the war, Kristof published the op-ed column "Missing in Action: Truth" in which he questioned whether 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 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."[49]
Two months later, former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV came forward publicly and published a now-famous op-ed in The New York Times, "What I Didn't Find in Africa."[50] This set off a series of events which resulted in what become known as "Plamegate," the disclosure by the journalist Robert Novak of the until-then covert status as a CIA officer of 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 ("Scooter") 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 Libby as a key point in time and a contributing factor that caused Libby to inquire about the identity of the "envoy" and later to divulge the secret identity of his wife to reporters.[51]
"Grand bargain" with Iran[edit]
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 Initiative, and ensure full transparency to assuage any US 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 the "grand bargain" proposal and argued that it was killed by hardliners in the Bush administration.
According to Kristof, that was an "appalling mistake"[52] 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."[53] 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," a more modest proposal for normalizing American-Iranian relations.[53]
Anthrax attacks columns[edit]
On October 12, 2001, Times reporter Judith Miller became one of several victims of alleged anthrax attacks.[54][55] The book Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War, which Miller had co-written with two other Times staffers, had been published ten days earlier on October 2.[56] It became a top New York Times bestseller a few weeks later.[57] Its cover art depicted a white envelope like those used in the anthrax incidents. The text, written before the September 11 attacks, made reference to jihadist terrorists.[58]
In 2002, Kristof wrote a series of columns[59][60] indirectly suggesting that Steven Hatfill, a former U.S. Army germ-warfare researcher named as a "person of interest" by the FBI might be a "likely culprit"[61][62] in the anthrax attacks.[63][64] Hatfill was never charged with any crime. In July 2004, Hatfill sued the Times and Kristof for libel, claiming defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.[65] Subsequently, Hatfill voluntarily dismissed Kristof as a defendant in the case when it became clear that the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, lacked personal jurisdiction over Kristof. The suit continued against the Times itself but was dismissed in 2004 on the basis that allegations within Kristof's articles did not constitute defamation though they appeared untrue.
The appeals court reversed the lower court ruling in 2005, reinstating Hatfill's suit against the Times.[66] In January 2007, Presiding Judge Claude M. Hilton again dismissed the suit and ruled that Kristof's anthrax articles were "cautiously worded" and asserted that the scientist may perhaps be innocent.[67] Judge Hilton wrote that Kristof "made efforts to avoid implicating his guilt" and that "Mr. Kristof reminded readers to assume plaintiff's innocence."[67] 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."[67] After the case was dismissed in 2007, the dismissal was upheld by the Appeals Court. In 2008, the case was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which refused to grant certiorari in the case and effectively left the Appeals Court decision in place. The basis for the dismissal was that Hatfill was a "public figure" and had not proved malice on the part of the Times.[68]
Sudan and Darfur[edit]
Kristof is particularly well known for his reporting on Sudan. 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 was among the first to call it genocide. His biography says that 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."[69] New York Magazine said that Kristof "single-handedly focused the world's attention on Darfur,"[70] 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."[71] Samantha Power, the author of A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide, the 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 by 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."[72]
On the other hand, some 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 oversimplifying a complex historically-rooted conflict and packaging it as "genocide." Others, including some critical of Sudan, have sometimes made similar arguments. The Sudanese government has also objected that Kristof's reporting exaggerates the scale of suffering and ignores the nuances of tribal conflicts in Darfur. The Sudan government and pro-government news media criticized him in March 2012 for sneaking into Sudan's Nuba Mountains region without a visa to report on hunger and bombings there by saying that his illegal entry was "shameful and improper."[73]
Criticism of anti-sweatshop movement[edit]
Nicholas Kristof argues that sweatshops are, if not a good thing, defensible as a way for workers to improve their lives and for impoverished countries to transform themselves into industrial economies. In his argument, sweatshops are an unpleasant but necessary stage in industrial development. Kristof is critical of the way "well-meaning American university students regularly campaign against sweatshops", particularly the anti-sweatshop movement's strategy of encouraging consumer boycotts against sweatshop-produced imports. Kristof and WuDunn counter that the sweatshop model is a primary reason that Taiwan and South Korea, which accepted sweatshops as the price of development, are today modern countries with low rates of infant mortality and high levels of education, but India, which has generally resisted sweatshops, suffers from a high rate of infant mortality.[74] Kristof and WuDunn admit that sweatshop labor is grueling and dangerous but argue that it is an improvement over most alternatives in extremely poor countries by providing much-needed jobs and boosting economies. They caution that anti-sweatshop boycott campaigns could lead to the closing down of manufacturing and processing plants in places like Africa, where they are needed most. "This is not to praise sweatshops," they admit:
Win-a-Trip with Nick Kristof contest[edit]
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 Jackson, 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.[101] 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[102][103] and aired on HBO in February 2010.[104] 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."[105] 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 [sic] 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."[104]
Since 2010, the Center for Global Development has screened applicants for the contest, forwarding Kristof a short list of finalists for his selection.
In March 2018 Kristof traveled again to the Central African Republic accompanied by Tyler Pager, the former editor of The Daily Northwestern and the winner of that year's contest. The co-director of Columbia University's Human Rights Institute, Sarah Knuckey, described Kristof's reporting of the Central African Republic resulting from this trip as "shallow" and "reckless".[106]
Personal life[edit]
Kristof married Sheryl WuDunn, a third-generation Chinese American, in 1988.[107] They have three children. In 2018, Kristof and his wife began converting his family's cherry orchard in Yamhill, Oregon, to a cider apple orchard and vineyard. [108]
In 2020, Westchester Magazine described Kristof and his wife, Sheryl WuDunn, as "Scarsdale residents."[109] According to public records viewable on Zillow, Kristof and WuDunn began renting their home in Scarsdale in August, 2021, and sold their home in September of the following year.[110] In 2022, Kristof told the Willamette Week that "[t]he plan is to continue to base myself on the farm here in Yamhill, but spend a week every month or two in New York," as part of his obligations as a columnist for The New York Times.[111]