Don Van Natta Jr. (born July 22, 1964) is an American journalist, writer and broadcaster. He is an investigative reporter for

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

, since January 2012, and the host and executive producer of “Backstory,” an ESPN docuseries. He previously worked for 16 years as an investigative correspondent at ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', where he was a member of two teams that won Pulitzer Prizes.

Life

At the ''Times'', Van Natta was on a six-reporter team, led by

Jeff Gerth Jeff Gerth is a former investigative reporter for ''The New York Times'' who has written lengthy, probing stories that drew both praise and criticism. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1999 for covering the transfer of American satellite-launch technolog ...

, that won the 1999

Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting This Pulitzer Prize has been awarded since 1942 for a distinguished example of reporting on national affairs in the United States. In its first six years (1942–1947), it was called the Pulitzer Prize for Telegraphic Reporting – National. Li ...

for a series of stories about American corporations that sold satellite technology with military value to China. He was one of nine reporters awarded the 2002

Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting The Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting has been presented since 1998, for a distinguished example of explanatory reporting that illuminates a significant and complex subject, demonstrating mastery of the subject, lucid writing and clear p ...

, for work on Al Qaeda following the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...

. Gerth and Van Natta wrote an investigative biography of Senator

Hillary Rodham Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States senat ...

, entitled, '' Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton'', published in June 2007 by

Little, Brown Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown (publisher), James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Ear ...

and Company. Van Natta was born in

Ridgewood, New Jersey Ridgewood is a village in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, its population was 24,958,Don Bosco Preparatory High School , motto_translation = To Increase in Knowledge and Grace , accreditation = Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools , rival = Bergen Catholic High SchoolSaint Joseph Regional High School , mascot = , ma ...

Ramsey, New Jersey Ramsey is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. It is a suburb of New York City, located northwest of Midtown Manhattan. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 14,473,"Don Van Natta Jr."

. Accessed November 17, 2017. "He was born in Ridgewood, NJ, in 1964 and graduated from Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, NJ and Boston University." He is a 1986 graduate of

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with ...

, where he won the Scarlet Key, an award given to student leaders. At BU, he served for three semesters as the editor-in-chief of ''

The Daily Free Press ''The Daily Free Press'' is the independent student newspaper at Boston University. It is a digital-first publication with daily online content and a monthly print edition on Thursday during the academic year. ''The Daily Free Press'' is staffed ...

'', an independent daily newspaper published by students. In 2000, Boston University's College of Communication presented Van Natta with its Distinguished Alumni Award. In 2005, Boston University honored Van Natta as one of its 22 alumni to have won the Pulitzer Prize. At the ''Times'', Van Natta was the first investigative correspondent in the newspaper's history to be posted overseas. He was based in the newspaper's

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

bureau for nearly three years, from January 2003 until September 2005. While at the ''Times'', he has also covered the

impeachment of Bill Clinton Bill Clinton, the 42nd president of the United States, was impeached by the United States House of Representatives of the 105th United States Congress on December 19, 1998, for "high crimes and misdemeanors". The House adopted two articles ...

, the deadlocked 2000 election in Florida,

campaign finance Campaign finance, also known as election finance or political donations, refers to the funds raised to promote candidates, political parties, or policy initiatives and referendums. Political parties, charitable organizations, and political a ...

and the crash of

TWA Flight 800 Trans World Airlines Flight 800 (TWA800) was a Boeing 747-100 that exploded and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near East Moriches, New York, on July 17, 1996, at about 8:31pm. EDT, 12 minutes after takeoff from John F. Kennedy Internationa ...

. Since September 11, 2001, Van Natta has covered terrorism and "

extraordinary rendition Extraordinary rendition is a euphemism for state-sponsored forcible abduction in another jurisdiction and transfer to a third state. The phrase usually refers to a United States-led program used during the War on Terror, which had the purpos ...

," the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

program that kidnaps terrorism suspects abroad and sends them to third countries, where they are often tortured. In October 2005, Van Natta was one of three reporters to write a 5,800-word article about former Times reporter

Judith Miller Judith Miller (born January 2, 1948) is an American journalist and commentator known for her coverage of Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) program both before and after the 2003 invasion, which was later discovered to have been based on ...

's 85 days in jail for refusing to testify before a grand jury led by special counsel

Patrick Fitzgerald Patrick J. Fitzgerald (born December 22, 1960) is an American lawyer and partner at the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom since October 2012. For more than a decade, until June 30, 2012, Fitzgerald was the United States Attorney ...

. The article focused in detail on the handling of her case by the Times publisher, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., and top editors at the Times, including executive editor

Bill Keller Bill Keller (born January 18, 1949) is an American journalist. He was the founding editor-in-chief of '' The Marshall Project'', a nonprofit that reports on criminal justice in the United States. Previously, he was a columnist for ''The New Yo ...

. Prior to joining the ''Times'' in July 1995, Van Natta worked for eight years at ''

The Miami Herald The ''Miami Herald'' is an American daily newspaper owned by the McClatchy Company and headquartered in Doral, Florida, a city in western Miami-Dade County and the Miami metropolitan area, several miles west of Downtown Miami.1993 Pulitzer Prize for

Public Service A public service is any service intended to address specific needs pertaining to the aggregate members of a community. Public services are available to people within a government jurisdiction as provided directly through public sector agencies ...

for coverage of Hurricane Andrew in August 1992. Van Natta was sent by ''Herald'' editors to cover the eye of the storm in Florida City in southern Dade County. He stayed in a

Comfort Inn Comfort (or being comfortable'')'' is a sense of physical or psychological ease, often characterized as a lack of hardship. Persons who are lacking in comfort are uncomfortable, or experiencing discomfort. A degree of psychological comfort c ...

, which was destroyed by the 165 m.p.h. winds, and he nearly lost his life. His first-person account of surviving the storm was part of the Herald's Pulitzer winning entry. While at ''The Herald'', he won numerous national, regional and state awards, including the

American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of aca ...

's Silver Gavel and the Investigative Reporters & Editors Gold Medal for an eight-part series called "Crime and No Punishment," which revealed Miami had the highest rate of crime but the lowest rate of punishment in America. In April 2003, Van Natta published his first book, ''First Off the Tee: Presidential Hackers, Duffers and Cheaters from Taft to Bush'' (Public Affairs, ). The non-fiction book about Presidential golf was a ''New York Times'' bestseller, and was also excerpted in the March 24, 2003 edition of ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twi ...

'', and was the cover story in the June 2003 edition of the ''Observer Sports Monthly'' in the United Kingdom. ''First Off the Tee'' was made into a documentary by the Times Discovery Channel, a show that featured interviews with

Arnold Palmer Arnold Daniel Palmer (September 10, 1929 – September 25, 2016) was an American professional golfer who is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most charismatic players in the sport's history. Dating back to 1955, he won numerous ev ...

and

Gary Player Gary James Player DMS, OIG (born 1 November 1935) is a South African retired professional golfer who is widely considered to be one of the greatest golfers of all time. During his career, Player won nine major championships on the regular tou ...

. And the book was also named a Notable Non-Fiction Book by ''The New York Times'' and one of the best sports books of the year by ''

''. Van Natta's latest book, ''Wonder Girl: The Magnificent Sporting Life of

Babe Didrikson Zaharias Mildred Ella "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias (; Didrikson; June 26, 1911 – September 27, 1956) was an American athlete who excelled in golf, basketball, baseball and track and field. She won two gold medals in track and field at the 1932 Summer O ...

'', was published in 2011 by

. The book was not a bestseller, but in 2012 the

United States Golf Association The United States Golf Association (USGA) is the United States national association of golf courses, clubs and facilities and the governing body of golf for the U.S. and Mexico. Together with The R&A, the USGA produces and interprets the rules ...

awarded "Wonder Girl" the "

Herbert Warren Wind Herbert Warren Wind (August 11, 1916 – May 30, 2005) was an American sportswriter noted for his writings on golf. Early years Born in Brockton, Massachusetts, Wind began golf at age seven at the Thorny Lea Golf Club in Brockton, and played w ...

Book Award" as the top golf book published in 2011. On September 5, 2010, The New York Times published the results of a 6-month investigation led by Van Natta into alleged malpractice at the ''News of the World'', a British newspaper owned by

Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...

's News Corporation. The ''News of the World'' dismissed the allegations as unsubstantiated and said "the investigation was tainted by a vested interest in the outcome". They also accused ''The New York Times'' of flawed reporting and of being motivated by commercial rivalry. In a letter to the Times' Public Editor Arthur Brisbane, ''The News of the World'
cited seven breaches
of The New York Times' ow

on accuracy, use of

anonymous sources In journalism, a source is a person, publication, or knowledge other record or document that gives timely information. Outside journalism, sources are sometimes known as "news sources". Examples of sources include but are not limited to officia ...

, bias, impartiality, honest treatment of competitors, reader benefit and conflict of interest. They also questioned the professional detachment of Van Natta, who they claimed had sent a

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

message linking to a personal attack on News Corp owner Rupert Murdoch alongside a message which read: "The Last Great Newspaper War". In
blog post
following publication of the News of the World story, media commentator Michael Wolff characterised Van Natta as a Times's "enforcer" and "insider, loyalist and gun". In hi
column
Brisbane broadly supported the Times' reporting but conceded that it relied heavily on anonymous sources and that presentation of the story and gratuitous references to Murdoch could leave room for suspicions of a "hidden agenda".

Personal

Don Van Natta lives in

Coral Gables, Florida Coral Gables, officially City of Coral Gables, is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The city is located southwest of Downtown Miami. As of the 2020 U.S. census, it had a population of 49,248. Coral Gables is known globally as home to the ...

with his wife, Lizette Alvarez, a ''New York Times'' correspondent, and their two daughters. He is a frequent player of Dominoes in South Florida, and frequently plays with Billy Gil of ESPN Radio Miami, and has a rivalry with Dan Lebatard and Stugotz amongst others.

References

External links

Column archive
at ''

'' * * * * * https://web.archive.org/web/20071127062022/http://media.collegepublisher.com/media/paper87/stills/46n3jtdx.jpg * {{DEFAULTSORT:Van Natta, Don Jr. 1964 births American male journalists American non-fiction writers Don Bosco Preparatory High School alumni The New York Times writers Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism winners Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting winners Boston University College of Communication alumni People from Ridgewood, New Jersey People from Glen Ridge, New Jersey Living people