Dean P. Baquet
(; born September 21, 1956
) is an American journalist. He served as executive editor of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' from May 2014 to June 2022.
Between 2011 and 2014 Baquet was managing editor under the previous executive editor
Jill Abramson. He is the first Black person to have led the newsroom.
A native of
New Orleans
New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...
, Baquet began his career in journalism there in the 1970s before moving to the ''
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...
'' in the 1980s. He joined ''The New York Times'' metro desk in 1990 and in 1995 became that paper's national editor, after having served as deputy metro editor. In 2000, he left to become managing editor, and later executive editor of the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
.'' He returned to ''The New York Times'' as Washington bureau chief in 2007, after he refused to implement management-desired newsroom budget cuts at the Los Angeles paper.
In 1988, Baquet shared a
Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Journalism, leading a team of reporters that included
William Gaines and
Ann Marie Lipinski at the ''Chicago Tribune,'' for "their detailed reporting on the self-interest and waste" that plagued the
Chicago City Council
The Chicago City Council is the legislative branch of the Law and government of Chicago, government of the Chicago, City of Chicago in Illinois. It consists of 50 alderpersons elected from 50 Wards of the United States, wards to serve four-year t ...
.
[
]
Early life and education
Baquet was raised Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
in Tremé, a working-class Creolè neighborhood in New Orleans
New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...
, Louisiana. He is the fourth of five sons of New Orleans restaurateur Edward Baquet.
Baquet graduated from St. Augustine High School in 1974. Baquet received a scholarship to study English at Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
, but dropped out shortly before graduation to pursue a career in journalism.
Baquet worked in New Orleans for almost a decade before leaving for the ''Chicago Tribune''.
Career
Baquet began his journalism career at the ''New Orleans States-Item'', which later merged with ''The Times-Picayune
''The Times-Picayune , The New Orleans Advocate'' (commonly called ''The Times-Picayune'' or the ''T-P'') is an American newspaper published in New Orleans, Louisiana. Ancestral publications of other names date back to January 25, 1837. The cu ...
''. After six years at the ''Times-Picayune'', he joined the ''Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...
'' in 1984, where he won the Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...
, before joining ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' in April 1990 as an investigative reporter on the Metro desk. In May 1992, he became the special projects editor for the business desk. In January 1994, he held the same title, but he operated out of the executive editor's office. In 1996, he became national editor.
In 2000, he joined the ''Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'' as managing editor, working as editor John Carroll's "right-hand man". Baquet became the top editor in 2005 after Carroll resigned amid clashes with the Tribune Company
Tribune Media Company, also known as Tribune Company, was an American multimedia conglomerate headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.
Through Tribune Broadcasting, Tribune Media was one of the largest television broadcasting companies, owning 39 ...
, which had acquired the ''Los Angeles Times'' from the Chandler family in 2000.[ He was the first Black person to serve as the newspaper's top editor.] Baquet was fired in 2006 after he publicly opposed plans to cut newsroom jobs.
Two months later, Baquet rejoined ''The New York Times'' as the Washington bureau chief.[Strupp, Joe]
"Baquet Joins ''New York Times'' as D.C. Bureau Chief"
, ''Editor and Publisher'', January 30, 2007. Retrieved February 16, 2007. He became managing editor in September 2011, serving under executive editor Jill Abramson, and was promoted to executive editor on May 14, 2014.[ Baquet has made hiring reporters and editors of color a priority, saying that his efforts to diversify the newsroom have been "intense and persistent".
Baquet, whom U.S. President ]Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...
has attacked by name, has spoken out against Trump's anti-press rhetoric, telling ''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'', "I think personal attacks on journalists, when he calls them names, I think he puts their lives at risk." Baquet was formerly on the board of directors of the Committee to Protect Journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in New York City, with correspondents around the world. CPJ promotes press freedom and defends the rights of journalists. The '' American Journalism ...
. In April 2022, ''The New York Times'' announced that Baquet would no longer be executive editor, and will be succeeded by Joseph Kahn. The company stated that it had plans for Baquet to lead a new venture and that he would remain at the paper, later announcing he would lead a fellowship program to train young journalists in local investigative journalism.
Notable stories
Baquet was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting Pulitzer may refer to:
*Joseph Pulitzer, a 19th century media magnate
*Pulitzer Prize, an annual U.S. journalism, literary, and music award
*Pulitzer (surname)
* Pulitzer, Inc., a U.S. newspaper chain
*Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, a non-pro ...
in 1988, in recognition of a six-month investigation that he conducted alongside ''Chicago Tribune'' reporters William C. Gaines and Ann Marie Lipinski documenting corruption and influence-peddling in the Chicago City Council in a seven-part series. Baquet was also a finalist for the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting, for stories that exposed "fraud and mismanagement" at the largest U.S. non-profit health insurer.
Between 1990 and 1995 he reported on different cases of corruption and money laundering.
As managing editor at the ''Los Angeles Times'', Baquet was involved in the newspaper's decision to publish, a few days before the 2003 California recall election, an article containing "a half-dozen credible allegations by women in the movie industry" that Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (born July30, 1947) is an Austrian and American actor, businessman, former politician, and former professional bodybuilder, known for his roles in high-profile action films. Governorship of Arnold Schwarzenegger, ...
, a front-runner in the election, had sexually harassed them.[Michael Schudson, "The Multiple Political Roles of American Journalism" in ''Media Nation: The Political History of News in Modern America'' (eds. Bruce J. Schulman & Julian E. Zelizer) (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017), pp. 196-97.] The newspaper debated whether to withhold publication until after the election, ultimately deciding not to do so. In 2006, Brian Ross and Vic Walter of ABC News ABC News most commonly refers to:
* ABC News (Australia), a national news service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
* ABC News (United States), a news-gathering and broadcasting division of the American Broadcasting Company
ABC News may a ...
reported that Baquet and ''Los Angeles Times'' managing editor Douglas Frantz had made the decision to kill a planned ''Times'' story about NSA warrantless surveillance of Americans, acceding to a request made to them by the Director of National Intelligence
The director of national intelligence (DNI) is a Cabinet of the United States#Current Cabinet and Cabinet-rank officials, cabinet-level Federal government of the United States, United States government intelligence and security official. The p ...
John Negroponte
John Dimitri Negroponte (; born July 21, 1939) is an American diplomat. In 2018, he was a James R. Schlesinger Distinguished Professor at the Miller Center for Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. He is a former J.B. and Maurice C. Shapi ...
and Director of the NSA Michael Hayden. Baquet confirmed that he had spoken with Negroponte and Hayden, but said that "government pressure played no role in my decision not to run the story", and that he and Frantz had determined that "we did not have a story, that we could not figure out what was going on" based on highly technical documents submitted by a whistleblower. Baquet's decision was criticized by Glenn Greenwald
Glenn Edward Greenwald (born March 6, 1967) is an American journalist, author, and former lawyer.
In 1996, Greenwald founded a law firm concentrating on First Amendment to the United States Constitution, First Amendment litigation. He began blo ...
, who said that Baquet had "a really disturbing history of practicing this form of journalism that is incredibly subservient to the American national security state."
In the aftermath of the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Baquet explained to NPR that some mainstream media
In journalism, mainstream media (MSM) is a term and abbreviation used to refer collectively to the various large Mass media, mass news media that influence many people and both reflect and shape prevailing currents of thought.Noam Chomsky, Choms ...
outlets were too secular for their own good. He said: Baquet later characterized an article in which ''The'' ''New York Times''' public editor questioned whether the ''Times'' prior coverage of President Trump's possible Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
ties had been unnecessarily and overly cautious as a "bad column" that comes to a "fairly ridiculous conclusion". In an interview after the Mueller report came in, Baquet said: "We wrote a lot about Russia, and I have no regrets. It’s not our job to determine whether or not there was illegality."
In 2019, ''The New York Times'' published the headline "Trump Urges Unity Vs. Racism", referring to Trump's speech on the 2019 El Paso shooting and the 2019 Dayton shooting. Baquet called it a "bad headline" but defended the ''Times coverage of Trump. The next month, ''The New York Times'' published personal details about the whistleblower at the center of the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump
The inquiry process which preceded the first impeachment of Donald Trump, 45th president of the United States, was initiated by then- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on September 24, 2019, after a whistleblower alleged that Donald Trump may ...
, a decision which Baquet defended.
Personal life
In September 1986, Baquet married writer Dylan Landis. They live in Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, or simply the Village, is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to the north, Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the s ...
. He is Catholic.
Awards and honors
In 1988, Baquet earned the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting Pulitzer may refer to:
*Joseph Pulitzer, a 19th century media magnate
*Pulitzer Prize, an annual U.S. journalism, literary, and music award
*Pulitzer (surname)
* Pulitzer, Inc., a U.S. newspaper chain
*Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, a non-pro ...
for coverage of corruption in the Chicago City Council, as well as the Peter Lisagor Award for investigative reporting.
He received the ''Chicago Tribune'' William H. Jones Award for Investigative Reporting in 1987, 1988, and 1989. He received an honorary degree from Loyola University New Orleans
Loyola University New Orleans is a Private university, private Jesuit university in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Originally established as Loyola College in 1904, the institution was chartered as a university in 1912. It bears the nam ...
in 2013, was a guest speaker at Columbia College Class Day in 2016, and received the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP) is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that provides pro bono legal services and resources to and on behalf of journalists. The organization pursues litigation, offers direct ...
Freedom of the Press Award in 2018.
In 2019, Baquet received the Larry Foster Award for Integrity in Public Communication at the Arthur W. Page Center Awards, the Norman C. Francis Leadership Institute National Leadership Award for Excellence, and was named one of the "35 most powerful people in New York media" by ''The Hollywood Reporter
''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...
''. He received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Xavier University of Louisiana
Xavier University of Louisiana (XULA) is a Private university, private Historically black colleges and universities, historically black Roman Catholic, Catholic university in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is the only Catholic Historically black c ...
in 2020.
In 2022, Baquet was honored by Syracuse University
Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...
's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications with the ''Fred Dressler Leadership Award'' at the Mirror Awards ceremony in New York City.
See also
* New Yorkers in journalism
New York City has been called the Media in New York City, media capital of the world. Many journalists work in Manhattan, reporting about international, American, sports journalism, sports, business journalism, business, entertainment journalism ...
* The New York Times controversies
* She Said (film)
References
External links
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baquet, Dean
1956 births
Living people
20th-century African-American people
20th-century Roman Catholics
21st-century African-American writers
21st-century American newspaper editors
21st-century Roman Catholics
African-American Catholics
American Roman Catholic writers
African-American journalists
Columbia College (New York) alumni
Journalists from New Orleans
Louisiana Creole people
Los Angeles Times people
The New York Times masthead editors
Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting winners
St. Augustine High School (New Orleans) alumni
Writers from New Orleans
Baquet family