Jane Mayer
Encyclopedia
Jane Mayer is an American
investigative journalist
who has been a staff writer for The New Yorker
magazine since 1995. In recent years, she has written extensive articles for that publication on Dick Cheney
, the bin Laden family
, Alaska
governor
Sarah Palin
, the Koch family
, the television series 24
and the US government's controversial policy of extraordinary rendition
.
and a 1977 graduate of Yale University, where she was a campus stringer
for Time
magazine. She continued her studies at Oxford University.
, then joined The Wall Street Journal
in 1982, where she worked for 12 years, during which time she was named the newspaper's first female White House
correspondent
, and subsequently senior writer and front page editor. She also served as a war correspondent
and foreign correspondent
for the Journal, where she reported on bombing of the American barracks in Beirut
, the Persian Gulf War
, the fall of the Berlin Wall
, and the last days of Communism
in the former Soviet Union
. She was nominated twice by the Journal for the Pulitzer Prize
for feature-writing.
Mayer has also contributed to the New York Review of Books, The Washington Post
, The Los Angeles Times and the liberal American Prospect and co-authored two previous books—Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas (1994) (written with Jill Abramson
), a study of the nomination and appointment of Clarence Thomas
to the US Supreme Court, and Landslide: The Unmaking of the President, 1984–1988 (1989) (written with Doyle McManus
), an account of Ronald Reagan
's second term in the White House
. Strange Justice served as the basis for the Showtime television movie
of the same name, starring Delroy Lindo
, Mandy Patinkin
and Regina Taylor
.
Of the portrait painted by co-authors Abramson and Mayer of Supreme Court
Justice Clarence Thomas
in Strange Justice, Time said: "Its portrait of Thomas as an id suffering in the role of a Republican superego is more detailed and convincing than anything that has appeared so far." Of Landslide, New York Times Washington correspondent Steven V. Roberts
, reviewing the book in The Times, said "this is clearly a reporter's book, full of rich anecdote and telling detail.... I am impressed with the amount of inside information collected here."
Mayer is currently a staff writer for The New Yorker, and works from the magazine's Washington bureau. The granddaughter of Pulitzer Prize
-winning historian Allan Nevins
, and great-great-granddaughter of Emanuel Lehman, a founder of the now-defunct eponymous banking house
, Mayer is married to William B. Hamilton, an editor at The Washington Post
. They have one daughter, Kate.
(2008), addresses the origins, legal justifications, and possible war crimes liability, of the use of interrogation techniques to break down detainees' resistance and the subsequent deaths of detainees under such interrogation as applied by the CIA. The book was a finalist for the National Book Awards. Her previous book Strange Justice was also a finalist for the National Book Award for nonfiction in 1994. Both books were also finalists for the National Book Critics Circle Award
.
In its review of The Dark Side, the New York Times noted that the book is "the most vivid and comprehensive account we have so far of how a government founded on checks and balances and respect for individual rights could have been turned against those ideals." The Times subsequently named The Dark Side one of its notable books of the year.
"Her achievement," wrote reviewer Andrew J. Bacevich in The Washington Post of Mayer's book, "lies less in bringing new revelations to light than in weaving into a comprehensive narrative a story revealed elsewhere in bits and pieces." The volume, wrote Bacevich, a Boston University
professor, "is a very fine book."
In a story the previous day, Post reporter Joby Warrick reported that Mayer's book revealed that a Central Intelligence Agency
analyst warned the Bush
administration that "up to a third of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay may have been imprisoned by mistake," but that the administration ignored the warning and insisted that all were enemy combatants.
In a story appearing the same day in The New York Times, reporter Scott Shane revealed that Mayer's book disclosed that Red Cross officials had concluded in a secret report the previous year that "the Central Intelligence Agency's interrogation methods for high-level Qaeda prisoners constituted torture and could make the Bush administration officials who approved them guilty of war crimes."
Said Mayer of her work on the book: "I see myself more as a reporter than as an advocate."
show on CBS
. She was also a guest on the Bill Moyers Journal show on PBS
in 2008, and appeared as a guest on PBS
Tavis Smiley
show on August 7, 2008, to discuss her book The Dark Side, which had just made the New York Times bestseller list. She appeared as a guest on the Comedy Central
's Colbert Report on August 12, 2008.
On January 26, 2009, author Mayer was interviewed at Yale Law School
's Law and Media lecture series by Distinguished Journalist in Residence Linda Greenhouse
and Truman Capote Fellow in Creative Writing Emily Bazelon
. In October 2008, Mayer participated in a panel discussion of journalists at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism
at Harvard University
devoted to the media's coverage of the Iraq War. That same month Mayer participated as a panelist in a discussion of the same subject at the Newseum
in Washington, D.C.
.
Mayer was also interviewed on the C-SPAN
Book-TV show by Washington Post reporter Dana Priest on the subject of The Dark Side. The show aired on July 19, 2008.
Mayer has appeared on the Democracy Now!
show.
Mayer was a featured speaker, along with Dan Rather
, Marcy Wheeler
, and Victor Navasky
, for a September 2009 fundraiser for The Nation
magazine.
Award for Excellence in Journalism for her investigative reporter leading to her book The Dark Side. The Award, presented annually by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
, is given to reporters for "distinguished cumulative accomplishments." In presenting the award, Nicholas Lemann
, dean of the Journalism school and one of the nine members of the award committee, noted that Mayer and her fellow winner, Andrew C. Revkin, science reporter for The New York Times
, "set the gold standard for journalists, and we have benefitted tremendously from their dedication and hard work." She has also won the Ridenhour Book Prize
and the New York Public Library
’s Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism.
Mayer was a finalist in the National Magazine Awards for 2007 for her nonfiction piece in The New Yorker entitled The Black Sites, which was subsequently collected in The Best American Magazine Writing 2008, published by Columbia University Press
and edited by Jacob Weisberg
, then editor-in-chief of Slate
.
In 2008, Mayer was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship
in connection with her ongoing work on her third book, The Dark Side. In 2009 Mayer was awarded the Hillman Prize
and the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize
for The Dark Side.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
investigative 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...
who has been a staff writer for 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...
magazine since 1995. In recent years, she has written extensive articles for that publication on Dick Cheney
Dick Cheney
Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney served as the 46th Vice President of the United States , under George W. Bush....
, the bin Laden family
Bin Laden family
The bin Laden family , also spelled bin Ladin, is a wealthy family intimately connected with the innermost circles of the Saudi royal family. The family was thrown into media spotlight through the activities of one of its members, Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the 9/11 attacks...
, Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
governor
Governor
A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...
Sarah Palin
Sarah Palin
Sarah Louise Palin is an American politician, commentator and author. As the Republican Party nominee for Vice President in the 2008 presidential election, she was the first Alaskan on the national ticket of a major party and first Republican woman nominated for the vice-presidency.She was...
, the Koch family
Koch family
The Koch family of industrialists and businessmen is most notable for their control of Koch Industries, the second largest privately owned company in the United States. The family business was started by Fred C. Koch, who developed a new cracking method for the refinement of heavy oil into...
, the television series 24
24 (TV series)
24 is an American television series produced for the Fox Network and syndicated worldwide, starring Kiefer Sutherland as Counter Terrorist Unit agent Jack Bauer. Each 24-episode season covers 24 hours in the life of Bauer, using the real time method of narration...
and the US government's controversial policy of extraordinary rendition
Extraordinary rendition
Extraordinary rendition is the abduction and illegal transfer of a person from one nation to another. "Torture by proxy" is used by some critics to describe situations in which the United States and the United Kingdom have transferred suspected terrorists to other countries in order to torture the...
.
Education
Mayer is a 1973 graduate of FieldstonEthical Culture Fieldston School
The Ethical Culture Fieldston School, known as "Fieldston", is a private "independent" school in New York City and a member of the Ivy Preparatory School League. It has about 1600 students and a staff of 400 people , led by Dr. Damian J...
and a 1977 graduate of Yale University, where she was a campus stringer
Stringer (journalism)
In journalism, a stringer is a type of freelance journalist or photographer who contributes reports or photos to a news organization on an ongoing basis but is paid individually for each piece of published or broadcast work....
for Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine. She continued her studies at Oxford University.
Career
Mayer began her journalistic career in Vermont, writing for two small weekly papers, The Weathersfield Weekly and The Black River Tribune, then moving on to a daily paper, The Rutland Herald. She was a metropolitan reporter for the now-defunct Washington StarWashington Star
The Washington Star, previously known as the Washington Star-News and the Washington Evening Star, was a daily afternoon newspaper published in Washington, D.C. between 1852 and 1981. For most of that time, it was the city's newspaper of record, and the longtime home to columnist Mary McGrory and...
, then joined The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
in 1982, where she worked for 12 years, during which time she was named the newspaper's first female White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
correspondent
White House Press Corps
The White House Press Corps is the group of journalists or correspondents usually stationed at the White House in Washington, D.C. to cover the president of the United States, White House events and news briefings. Their offices are located in the West Wing....
, and subsequently senior writer and front page editor. She also served as a war correspondent
War correspondent
A war correspondent is a journalist who covers stories firsthand from a war zone. In the 19th century they were also called Special Correspondents.-Methods:...
and foreign correspondent
Foreign correspondent
Foreign Correspondent may refer to:*Foreign correspondent *Foreign Correspondent , an Alfred Hitchcock film*Foreign Correspondent , an Australian current affairs programme...
for the Journal, where she reported on bombing of the American barracks in Beirut
Beirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
, the Persian Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
, the fall of the Berlin Wall
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin...
, and the last days of Communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
in the former Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. She was nominated twice by the Journal for the 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...
for feature-writing.
Mayer has also contributed to the New York Review of Books, 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...
, The Los Angeles Times and the liberal American Prospect and co-authored two previous books—Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas (1994) (written with Jill Abramson
Jill Abramson
Jill Ellen Abramson is the executive editor of The New York Times. Assuming the position in September 2011, she became the first woman in this role in the paper's 160-year history.-Early life and education:...
), a study of the nomination and appointment of Clarence Thomas
Clarence Thomas
Clarence Thomas is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Succeeding Thurgood Marshall, Thomas is the second African American to serve on the Court....
to the US Supreme Court, and Landslide: The Unmaking of the President, 1984–1988 (1989) (written with Doyle McManus
Doyle McManus
Doyle McManus is an American journalist, columnist , who appears often on Public Broadcasting Service's Washington Week.-Early life:...
), an account of Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
's second term in the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
. Strange Justice served as the basis for the Showtime television movie
Television movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
of the same name, starring Delroy Lindo
Delroy Lindo
Delroy George Lindo is an English actor and theatre director. Lindo has been nominated for the Tony and Screen Actors Guild awards and has won a Satellite Award...
, Mandy Patinkin
Mandy Patinkin
Mandel Bruce "Mandy" Patinkin is an award-winning American actor of stage and screen and a tenor vocalist. He is a noted interpreter of the musical works of Stephen Sondheim, and is best-known for his work in musical theatre, originating iconic roles such as Georges Seurat in Sunday in the Park...
and Regina Taylor
Regina Taylor
Regina Taylor is an American actress and playwright. She has won several awards throughout her career, including a Golden Globe Award and NAACP Image Award.-Biography:...
.
Of the portrait painted by co-authors Abramson and Mayer of Supreme Court
Supreme court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of many legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, instance court, judgment court, high court, or apex court...
Justice Clarence Thomas
Clarence Thomas
Clarence Thomas is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Succeeding Thurgood Marshall, Thomas is the second African American to serve on the Court....
in Strange Justice, Time said: "Its portrait of Thomas as an id suffering in the role of a Republican superego is more detailed and convincing than anything that has appeared so far." Of Landslide, New York Times Washington correspondent Steven V. Roberts
Steven V. Roberts
Steven V. Roberts is an American journalist, writer, political commentator.Roberts grew up in Bayonne, New Jersey and graduated from Bayonne High School. He attended Harvard where he served as editor of the student newspaper, The Harvard Crimson. After graduating with a B.A...
, reviewing the book in The Times, said "this is clearly a reporter's book, full of rich anecdote and telling detail.... I am impressed with the amount of inside information collected here."
Mayer is currently a staff writer for The New Yorker, and works from the magazine's Washington bureau. The granddaughter of 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...
-winning historian Allan Nevins
Allan Nevins
Allan Nevins was an American historian and journalist, renowned for his extensive work on the history of the Civil War and his biographies of such figures as President Grover Cleveland, Hamilton Fish, Henry Ford, and John D. Rockefeller.-Life:Born in Camp Point, Illinois, Nevins was educated at...
, and great-great-granddaughter of Emanuel Lehman, a founder of the now-defunct eponymous banking house
Lehman Brothers
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. was a global financial services firm. Before declaring bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth largest investment bank in the USA , doing business in investment banking, equity and fixed-income sales and trading Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (former NYSE ticker...
, Mayer is married to William B. Hamilton, an editor at 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...
. They have one daughter, Kate.
The Dark Side
Mayer's third and latest nonfiction book, The Dark SideThe Dark Side (book)
The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals is a non-fiction book written by Jane Mayer concerning the War on Terrorism, Islamic radicalism, and the "closed-doors domestic struggle over whether" U.S. President George W. Bush should have "limitless...
(2008), addresses the origins, legal justifications, and possible war crimes liability, of the use of interrogation techniques to break down detainees' resistance and the subsequent deaths of detainees under such interrogation as applied by the CIA. The book was a finalist for the National Book Awards. Her previous book Strange Justice was also a finalist for the National Book Award for nonfiction in 1994. Both books were also finalists for the National Book Critics Circle Award
National Book Critics Circle Award
The National Book Critics Circle Award is an annual award given by the National Book Critics Circle to promote the finest books and reviews published in English....
.
In its review of The Dark Side, the New York Times noted that the book is "the most vivid and comprehensive account we have so far of how a government founded on checks and balances and respect for individual rights could have been turned against those ideals." The Times subsequently named The Dark Side one of its notable books of the year.
"Her achievement," wrote reviewer Andrew J. Bacevich in The Washington Post of Mayer's book, "lies less in bringing new revelations to light than in weaving into a comprehensive narrative a story revealed elsewhere in bits and pieces." The volume, wrote Bacevich, a Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
professor, "is a very fine book."
In a story the previous day, Post reporter Joby Warrick reported that Mayer's book revealed that a 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...
analyst warned the Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
administration that "up to a third of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay may have been imprisoned by mistake," but that the administration ignored the warning and insisted that all were enemy combatants.
In a story appearing the same day in The New York Times, reporter Scott Shane revealed that Mayer's book disclosed that Red Cross officials had concluded in a secret report the previous year that "the Central Intelligence Agency's interrogation methods for high-level Qaeda prisoners constituted torture and could make the Bush administration officials who approved them guilty of war crimes."
Said Mayer of her work on the book: "I see myself more as a reporter than as an advocate."
Appearances
Author Mayer has appeared as a guest on the Charlie Rose Show, as well as on the David LettermanDavid Letterman
David Michael Letterman is an American television host and comedian. He hosts the late night television talk show, Late Show with David Letterman, broadcast on CBS. Letterman has been a fixture on late night television since the 1982 debut of Late Night with David Letterman on NBC...
show on CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
. She was also a guest on the Bill Moyers Journal show on PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
in 2008, and appeared as a guest on PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
Tavis Smiley
Tavis Smiley
Tavis Smiley is a talk show host, author, liberal political commentator, entrepreneur, advocate and philanthropist. Smiley was born in Gulfport, Mississippi and grew up in Kokomo, Indiana. After attending Indiana University, he worked during the late 1980s as an aide to Tom Bradley, the mayor of...
show on August 7, 2008, to discuss her book The Dark Side, which had just made the New York Times bestseller list. She appeared as a guest on the Comedy Central
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....
's Colbert Report on August 12, 2008.
On January 26, 2009, author Mayer was interviewed at Yale Law School
Yale Law School
Yale Law School, or YLS, is the law school of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Established in 1824, it offers the J.D., LL.M., J.S.D. and M.S.L. degrees in law. It also hosts visiting scholars, visiting researchers and a number of legal research centers...
's Law and Media lecture series by Distinguished Journalist in Residence Linda Greenhouse
Linda Greenhouse
Linda Greenhouse is the Knight Distinguished Journalist in Residence and Joseph M. Goldstein Senior Fellow at Yale Law School...
and Truman Capote Fellow in Creative Writing Emily Bazelon
Emily Bazelon
Emily Bazelon is an American journalist, senior editor for online magazine Slate, and a senior research fellow at Yale Law School. Her work as a writer focuses on law, abortion, and family issues.-Journalism career:...
. In October 2008, Mayer participated in a panel discussion of journalists at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism
Nieman Foundation for Journalism
The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University is the primary journalism institution at Harvard. It was founded in 1938 as the result of a $1 million bequest by Agnes Wahl Nieman, the widow of Lucius W. Nieman, founder of The Milwaukee Journal...
at 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...
devoted to the media's coverage of the Iraq War. That same month Mayer participated as a panelist in a discussion of the same subject at the Newseum
Newseum
The Newseum is an interactive museum of news and journalism located at 555 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, D.C. The seven-level, museum features 15 theaters and 14 galleries. The Newseum's Berlin Wall Gallery includes the largest display of sections of the Berlin Wall outside of Germany...
in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
.
Mayer was also interviewed on the C-SPAN
C-SPAN
C-SPAN , an acronym for Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network, is an American cable television network that offers coverage of federal government proceedings and other public affairs programming via its three television channels , one radio station and a group of websites that provide streaming...
Book-TV show by Washington Post reporter Dana Priest on the subject of The Dark Side. The show aired on July 19, 2008.
Mayer has appeared on the Democracy Now!
Democracy Now!
Democracy Now! and its staff have received several journalism awards, including the Gracie Award from American Women in Radio & Television; the George Polk Award for its 1998 radio documentary Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship, on the Chevron Corporation and the deaths of...
show.
Mayer was a featured speaker, along with Dan Rather
Dan Rather
Daniel Irvin "Dan" Rather, Jr. is an American journalist and the former news anchor for the CBS Evening News. He is now managing editor and anchor of the television news magazine Dan Rather Reports on the cable channel HDNet. Rather was anchor of the CBS Evening News for 24 years, from March 9,...
, Marcy Wheeler
Marcy Wheeler
Marcy Wheeler is an American blogger who wrote in The Next Hurrah prior to contributing primarily to Jane Hamsher's FireDogLake , between early December 2007 and July 2011....
, and Victor Navasky
Victor Navasky
Victor Saul Navasky is a professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He was editor of The Nation from 1978 until 1995, and its publisher and editorial director 1995 to 2005. In November 2005 he became the publisher emeritus...
, for a September 2009 fundraiser for The Nation
The Nation
The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
magazine.
Awards and honors
Mayer was awarded the 2008 John ChancellorJohn Chancellor
John William Chancellor was a well-known American journalist who spent most of his career with NBC News...
Award for Excellence in Journalism for her investigative reporter leading to her book The Dark Side. The Award, presented annually by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is one of Columbia's graduate and professional schools. It offers three degree programs: Master of Science in journalism , Master of Arts in journalism and a Ph.D. in communications...
, is given to reporters for "distinguished cumulative accomplishments." In presenting the award, Nicholas Lemann
Nicholas Lemann
Nicholas Berthelot Lemann is dean and Henry R. Luce professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City.Lemann is from New Orleans and he graduated from Harvard University in 1976, but has never attended a school of journalism. He is a journalist, editor, and author...
, dean of the Journalism school and one of the nine members of the award committee, noted that Mayer and her fellow winner, Andrew C. Revkin, science reporter 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...
, "set the gold standard for journalists, and we have benefitted tremendously from their dedication and hard work." She has also won the Ridenhour Book Prize
The Ridenhour Prizes
The Ridenhour Prizes comprise awards in three categories given annually in recognition of those "who persevere in acts of truth-telling that protect the public interest, promote social justice or illuminate a more just vision of society." The awards are presented by The Nation Institute and The...
and the New York Public Library
New York Public Library
The New York Public Library is the largest public library in North America and is one of the United States' most significant research libraries...
’s Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism.
Mayer was a finalist in the National Magazine Awards for 2007 for her nonfiction piece in The New Yorker entitled The Black Sites, which was subsequently collected in The Best American Magazine Writing 2008, published by Columbia University Press
Columbia University Press
Columbia University Press is a university press based in New York City, and affiliated with Columbia University. It is currently directed by James D. Jordan and publishes titles in the humanities and sciences, including the fields of literary and cultural studies, history, social work, sociology,...
and edited by Jacob Weisberg
Jacob Weisberg
Jacob Weisberg is an American political journalist, serving as editor-in-chief of Slate Group, a division of The Washington Post Company. Weisberg is also a Newsweek columnist. He served as the editor of Slate magazine for six years, until stepping down in June 2008...
, then editor-in-chief of Slate
Slate (magazine)
Slate is a US-based English language online current affairs and culture magazine created in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. On 21 December 2004 it was purchased by the Washington Post Company...
.
In 2008, Mayer was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
in connection with her ongoing work on her third book, The Dark Side. In 2009 Mayer was awarded the Hillman Prize
The Hillman Prize
The Hillman Prize is a journalism award given out annually by the Sidney Hillman Foundation, named for the noted American labor leader. It is given to "journalists, writers and public figures who pursue social justice and public policy for the common good." Murray Kempton was the first recipient,...
and the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize
J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize
The J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize is an annual award in the amount of $10,000 given to a book that exemplifies, "literary grace, a commitment to serious research and social concern.” The prize is given by the Nieman Foundation and by the Columbia University School of Journalism. The prize is named...
for The Dark Side.
External links
- "Clarence Thomas's Revenge" (American Prospect, July 30, 2001)
- "Contract Sport: What did the Vice-President do for Halliburton?" The New Yorker, February 16/23, 2004)
- "Outsourcing Torture: The secret history of America’s 'extraordinary rendition'" program (The New Yorker, February 14, 2005)
- Interview about Outsourcing Torture on Democracy Now, February 17, 2005 (video, audio, and print transcript)
- Hour-long interview about The Dark Side on Democracy Now, July 18, 2008 (video, audio, and print transcript)
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D13TSc4nTCIInterview on Authors@Google YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
, August 8, 2008] - Hour-long interview on Conversations with History with Harry Kreisler
- Jane Mayer archive from The New York Review of Books
- The Hard Cases, Jane Mayer, The New Yorker, February 23, 2009