Maureen Dowd (born January 14, 1952) is a Washington D.C.-based
columnistA columnist is a journalist who writes for publication in a series, creating copy that can sometimes be strongly opinionated. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs on the Internet....
for
The New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded in 1851 and published in New York City. The largest metropolitan newspaper in the United States, "The Gray Lady"—named for its staid appearance and style—is regarded as a national newspaper of record...
. She has worked for the
Times since 1983, when she joined as a metropolitan
reporterA reporter is a type of journalist who researches and presents information in certain types of mass media.Reporters gather their information in a variety of ways, including tips, press releases, sources and witnessing events. They perform research through interviews, public records, and other...
. In 1999, she was awarded a
Pulitzer PrizeThe Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by Hungarian-American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City....
for her series of columns on the
Monica Lewinsky scandalThe Lewinsky scandal was a political sex scandal emerging from a sexual relationship between United States President Bill Clinton and a 22-year-old White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. The news of this extra-marital affair and the resulting investigation eventually led to the impeachment of...
.
Dowd was born in Washington, D.C., the youngest of five children, where her father (who was born in
County ClareCounty Clare commonly referred to as simply Clare, is a county of Ireland and part of the wider province of Munster. Clare is one of the 26 counties within the Republic of Ireland and it provides a basis for local government, in the form of its own constituency within the Dáil Éireann...
in
IrelandIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
) worked as a Washington D.C. police inspector.
Career
In 1973, Dowd received a
B.A.Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences or both....
in
EnglishEnglish studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language , English linguistics English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language (including literatures from the U.K., U.S.,...
from
Catholic UniversityThe Catholic University of America , located in Northeast Washington, D.C., is the national university of the Roman Catholic Church and the only higher education institution founded by U.S. Roman Catholic bishops...
in Washington, D.C. She began her career in 1974 as an editorial assistant for the
Washington StarThe 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...
where she later became a sports columnist, metropolitan reporter, and feature writer. When the newspaper closed in 1981, she went to work at
Time. In 1983, she joined
The New York Times, initially as a metropolitan reporter. She began serving as correspondent in
The Times Washington bureau in 1986. In 1991, Dowd received a Breakthrough Award from
Columbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private university in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. Columbia's main campus lies in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, in New York City...
. In 1992, she was a
Pulitzer PrizeThe Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by Hungarian-American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City....
finalist for national reporting, and in 1994 she won a Matrix Award from New York Women in Communications.
Dowd became a columnist on
The New York Times Op-Ed page in 1995; she replaced
Anna QuindlenAnna Marie Quindlen is an American author, journalist and opinion columnist whose New York Times column, Public and Private, won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1992. She began her journalism career in 1974 as a reporter with The New York Post...
, who left to become a full-time novelist. Dowd was named a Woman of the Year by
GlamourGlamour is a women's magazine published by Condé Nast Publications. Glamour is a very successful magazine. Founded in 1939 in the United States, it was originally called Glamour of Hollywood....
magazine in 1996, and won the 1999
Pulitzer PrizeThe Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by Hungarian-American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City....
for distinguished commentary. She won The Damon Runyon Award for outstanding contributions to journalism in 2000, and became the first Mary Alice Davis Lectureship speaker (sponsored by the School of Journalism and the Center for American History) at
The University of Texas at AustinThe University of Texas at Austin is a public research university located in Austin, Texas, United States, and is the flagship institution of The University of Texas System. The main campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol...
in 2005. She refers to her New York Times colleague,
Tom FriedmanThomas Lauren Friedman is an American journalist, columnist and multi Pulitzer Prize winning author. He is an op-ed contributor to The New York Times, whose column appears twice weekly. He has written extensively on foreign affairs including global trade, the Middle East and environmental issues...
as her "office husband" or "Mr. Solar."
Writing style
Dowd's columns are distinguished by an acerbic, often polemical writing style. Her columns often display a critical and irreverent attitude towards powerful figures such as former
PresidentThe President of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States and is the highest political official in the United States by influence and recognition...
George W. BushGeorge Walker Bush was the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 and the 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000....
, former President
Bill ClintonWilliam Jefferson "Bill" Clinton was the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He was the third-youngest president; only Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy were younger when entering office...
, and
Pope Benedict XVIPope Benedict XVI is the 265th and reigning Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the head of the Catholic Church and, as such, Sovereign of the Vatican City State...
. Dowd sometimes refers to Bush as "W.", and former Vice President
Dick CheneyRichard Bruce "Dick" Cheney served as the 46th Vice President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 in the administration of George W. Bush....
as "Big Time." She has called President
George H. W. BushGeorge Herbert Walker Bush was the 41st President of the United States . He was also Ronald Reagan's Vice President , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence....
, whom she covered as
Times White House Correspondent, "41"; she also frequently refers to
Iranian PresidentThe President of Iran is the highest popularly elected official in the Islamic Republic of Iran, but is subordinate to the Supreme Leader. According to the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran the president is responsible for the "functions of the executive", such as signing treaties,...
Mahmoud AhmadinejadMahmoud Ahmadinejad is the sixth and current President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the main political leader of the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran, a coalition of conservative political groups in the country.An engineer and teacher from a poor background, Ahmadinejad joined the...
as "I'm-a-Dinner-Jacket." Her columns have been described as letters to her mother, and in a
http://www.FreshDialogues.com interview, Dowd said, "she is in my head in the sense that I want to inform and amuse the reader."
Dowd often catalogs the popular culture influences of public figures she profiles as well; in a
Times video debate, she said of the
North Korean governmentThe North Korean Government is the executive branch of the state, according to the constitution. In practice, the highest decisions are made by the National Defence Commission of North Korea which is led by its Chairman Kim Jong-il. The government is confirmed by the Supreme People's Assembly . The...
: "...you could look at a movie like
Mean GirlsMean Girls is a 2004 American teen comedy film, directed by Mark Waters and starring Lindsay Lohan. Written by Tina Fey, the film features a supporting cast of Rachel McAdams, Amanda Seyfried, Lacey Chabert, and Lizzy Caplan. The film also features several Saturday Night Live cast members,...
and figure out the way these North Koreans are reacting; you know it's like high school girls with nuclear weapons—they just want some attention from us, you know?"
Al Gore
In the run-up to the 2000 presidential election, Dowd took a consistently hard position against Democratic candidate
Al GoreAlbert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. is an American environmental activist and former politician who served as the 45th Vice President of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. He is an author, businessperson, former U.S. Senator and former journalist...
. She wrote that "Al Gore is so feminized and diversified and
ecologicallyEcology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the interactions between organisms and the interactions of these organisms with their environment....
correct that he's practically
lactatingLactation describes the secretion of milk from the mammary glands, the process of providing that milk to the young, and the period of time that a mother lactates to feed her young. The process occurs in all female mammals, and in humans it is commonly referred to as breastfeeding or nursing...
." Joe Conason writes in
Salon.comSalon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online magazine, with content updated each weekday. American liberal politics is its major focus, but it covers a range of issues. Reviews and articles about music, books and films are also a prominent feature of the site....
that:
Media Matters for AmericaMedia Matters for America is a 501 non-profit organization founded in 2004 by journalist and author David Brock. Media Matters for America describes itself as "a web-based, not-for-profit, progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and...
criticized Dowd for her constant criticism of Gore and published a compilation of her previous takes on him. Yet in a Fresh Dialogues interview, she said, "I was just teasing him a little bit because he was so earnest and he could be a little righteous and self important. That’s not always the most effective way to communicate your ideas, even if the ideas themselves are right. I mean, certainly his ideas were right but he himself was - sometimes - a pompous messenger for them."
Criticism
Shortly after she won her Pulitzer, the free weekly alternative paper,
New York PressNew York Press is a free alternative weekly in New York City and is the main competitor to the Village Voice. It was founded in 1988, and was originally conceived and published as a conservative voice in a traditionally liberal New York...
printed an article that analyzed Dowd's columns and concluded that Dowd appears to do little reporting and tends to "dumb down" her subject matter by viewing it through the lens of pop culture. A 2002 article in
The Weekly StandardThe Weekly Standard is a American neoconservative opinion magazine published 48 times per year. It was founded by News Corporation and made its debut on September 18, 1995. Its current editors are founder William Kristol and Fred Barnes. The Weekly Standard produces The Daily Standard with...
, explored Dowd's alleged narcissism and tendency to reduce "political phenomena ... to caricatures of the personalities involved."
In 2003, Dowd was accused by
James TarantoJames Taranto is a Manhattan-based columnist for The Wall Street Journal and editor of its online editorial page, OpinionJournal.com. He is best known for his daily online column, entitled Best of the Web Today, in which he links to and comments on news stories and Web sites submitted by readers...
, of the
Wall Street Journal, of being intentionally misleading—inserting
ellipsesEllipsis is a mark or series of marks that usually indicate an intentional omission of a word or a phrase from the original text. An ellipsis can also be used to indicate a pause in speech, an unfinished thought, or, at the end of a sentence, a trailing off into silence...
, for instance, to change a quotation's intended meaning. This resulted in a new common word "dowdification" to accurately quote but only enough to change the original meaning of the statement.
She has repeatedly been criticized by Bob Somerby of
The Daily HowlerThe Daily Howler is an American political blog written by Bob Somerby. It was perhaps the first major political blog, started in 1998. The style is by turns earnest and sarcastic. Somerby criticizes what he considers the media's frequently biased or lazy coverage...
for trivializing and making baseless accusations about Democratic politicians. For example, on January 31, 2007, the
Howler criticized her for trivializing the campaigns of female politicians, and in particular that of Hillary Clinton. In 2007, Dowd was accused by
National JournalNational Journal is an American weekly magazine that reports on the current political environment and emerging political and policy trends. National Journal was first published in 1969 and is now part of National Journal Group, a division of Atlantic Media Company. It was purchased by David G....
writer
Jonathan RauchJonathan Charles Rauch is an American author, journalist and activist. After graduating from Yale University, Rauch worked at the Winston-Salem Journal in North Carolina, for the National Journal magazine, and later for The Economist magazine and as a freelance writer.Currently a senior writer and...
as being a "villain of journalism" in an interview with the magazine
ReasonReason is a libertarian monthly magazine from the Reason Foundation. The magazine has a circulation of around 60,000 and has twice been named one of the "50 best magazines" by the Chicago Tribune.- History :...
; Rauch added that his criticism was not personal and that he considered Dowd "very good at what she does."
Clark HoytClark Hoyt is an American journalist who is currently the public editor of the New York Times, serving as the 'readers representative'. He is the newspaper's third public editor, or ombudsman, after Daniel Okrent and Byron Calame. His two-year term began on May 14, 2007.Hoyt is a member of the The...
, the
public editorThe job of the public editor is to supervise the implementation of proper journalism ethics at a newspaper, and to identify and examine critical errors or omissions, and to act as a liaison to the public. They do this primarily through a regular feature on a newspaper's editorial page. The position...
of
The New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded in 1851 and published in New York City. The largest metropolitan newspaper in the United States, "The Gray Lady"—named for its staid appearance and style—is regarded as a national newspaper of record...
, admitted: "I think, by assailing Clinton in gender-heavy terms in column after column, [Dowd] went over the top this election season." Fellow Times op-ed columnist and former editorial page editor
Gail CollinsGail Collins was the Editorial Page Editor of The New York Times from 2001 to January 1, 2007. She was the first female Editorial Page Editor at the Times. Prior to editing the Editorial Page, Collins was an editorial board member and an op-ed columnist...
came to Dowd's defense in a subsequent public letter to Hoyt.
Film critic
David DenbyDavid Denby is an American journalist, best-known as film critic for The New Yorker magazine.-Background and education:Denby grew up in New York City. He received a B.A...
devotes an entire chapter to Dowd in his 2009 book
Snark, and identifies her as one of the foremost practitioners of "snark" (sarcasm, snide remarks). He writes: "[S]he has not - as far as I can tell - a single political idea in her head. Not one...She writes as if personality, appearance, and attitude were the only things that mattered. For her, politics is a stupid, despair-inducing entertainment, a tale told by an idiot signifying vanity. Despite all her larks and inventions, she's essentially sour and without hope."
Plagiarism controversy
Talking Points MemoTalking Points Memo is a web-based political journalism organization created and run by Josh Marshall. It debuted on November 12, 2000. It covers a wide range of topics including U.S. foreign policy, domestic politics and domestic policy. By 2007, TPM received an average 400,000 page views every...
blogA blog is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order...
ger "thejoshuablog" found a paragraph in Dowd's May 17, 2009
Times column that was extremely similar to one in a May 14 blog post by
TPM editor
Josh MarshallJoshua Micah Marshall is an American Polk Award-winning journalist who founded Talking Points Memo, which The New York Times Magazine called "one of the most popular and most respected sites" in the blogosphere...
, and accused her of
plagiarismPlagiarism, as defined in the 1995 Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary, is the "use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work." Within academia, plagiarism by students, professors, or researchers is considered...
. Dowd, already known for finding similarities between an August 1987 speech by
Joe BidenJoseph Robinette "Joe" Biden, Jr. , is the 47th and current Vice President of the United States under the administration of President Barack Obama. He was a United States Senator from Delaware from January 3, 1973 until his resignation on January 15, 2009, following his election to the Vice...
and an earlier one by British politician
Neil KinnockNeil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock of Bedwellty is a Welsh Labour politician, who was a Member of Parliament from 1970 to 1995, and was the Leader of the Opposition from 1983 to 1992, when he resigned after being defeated in the 1992 general election...
, said that the virtually identical paragraph was simply "a line" told to her by a friend, and that she had never read the blog. She left unclear whether the "line" came from a verbal or written exchange with the anonymous friend, and did not explain how the paragraph wound up copied with the exception of two words in the original blog post. Since then, Dowd's column has been updated with a
correctionA correction in newspaper is usually the posting of the notice of a typographical error or mistake that appeared in a past issue of a newspaper. Usually, a correction notice appears in its own column....
that references Marshall and notes the lack of proper
attributionIn journalism, a source is a person, publication, or other record or document that gives information.-Overview:Examples of sources include official records, publications or broadcasts, officials in government or business, organizations or corporations, witnesses of crime, accidents or other events,...
in the original piece. Later, Clark Hoyt also criticized Dowd, saying "readers have a right to expect that even if an opinion columnist like Dowd tosses around ideas with a friend, her column will be her own words. If the words are not hers, she must give credit."
External links