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Matt Bai (; born September 9, 1968) is an American journalist, author and screenwriter. He is a contributing columnist for the ''
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''. Between 2014 and 2019, he was the national political columnist for
Yahoo! News Yahoo News (stylized as Yahoo! News) is a news website that originated as an internet-based news aggregator by Yahoo. The site was created by Yahoo software engineer Brad Clawsie in August 1996. Articles originally came from news services such ...
. On 25 July 2019, via
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, Bai announced he was leaving Yahoo! News to "focus on screenwriting". For more than a decade prior to that, he was the chief political correspondent for the ''
New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. The magazin ...
'', where he covered three presidential campaigns, as well as a columnist for the ''Times''. His cover stories in the magazine include the 2008 cover essay "Is Obama the End of Black Politics?" and a 2004 profile of
John Kerry John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician, and diplomat who served as the 68th United States secretary of state from 2013 to 2017 in the Presidency of Barack Obama#Administration, administration of Barac ...
titled "Kerry's Undeclared War". His work was honored in two editions of ''The Best American Political Writing''. Bai is a graduate of the College of Arts and Sciences at
Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university in Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts, United States, with additional facilities in Boston and Grafton, as well as Talloires, France. Tufts also has several Doctor of Physical Therapy p ...
in Medford, MA, and Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism, where the faculty awarded him the Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship. In 2014, Bai had two brief appearances as himself in the second season of TV show '' House of Cards''.


Journalism career

He began his career as a speechwriter for the U.S. Committee for
UNICEF UNICEF ( ), originally the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, officially United Nations Children's Fund since 1953, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Development a ...
, writing for
Audrey Hepburn Audrey Kathleen Hepburn ( Ruston; 4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993) was a British actress. Recognised as a film and fashion icon, she was ranked by the American Film Institute as the third-greatest female screen legend from the Classical Holly ...
, among others, and his international coverage includes reporting from
Liberia Liberia, officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to Guinea–Liberia border, its north, Ivory Coast to Ivory Coast–Lib ...
and
Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...
. Before joining the staff of ''
New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. The magazin ...
'', Bai was city desk reporter for the ''
Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...
'' and a national correspondent for ''
Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...
'' magazine. In 2001, Bai was a fellow at
Harvard Institute of Politics The Institute of Politics (IOP) is an institute of Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University that was created to serve as a living memorial to President John F. Kennedy and to inspire Harvard undergraduates to consider careers in politics and ...
at
Harvard Kennedy School The John F. Kennedy School of Government, commonly referred to as Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), is the school of public policy of Harvard University, a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard Kennedy School offers master's de ...
at
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
, where he led a seminar on the next generation of political journalism. He has also been a fellow at the
Hoover Institution The Hoover Institution (officially The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace and formerly The Hoover Institute and Library on War, Revolution, and Peace) is an American public policy think tank which promotes personal and economic ...
at
Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
and the
University of Chicago Institute of Politics The Institute of Politics (IOP) is an extracurricular nonpartisan political institute associated with the College of the University of Chicago and the Harris School of Public Policy designed to inspire students to pursue careers in politics and ...
. Other work by Bai for the ''New York Times Magazine'' has included cover stories on
John McCain John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American statesman and United States Navy, naval officer who represented the Arizona, state of Arizona in United States Congress, Congress for over 35 years, first as ...
's philosophy about war and
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...
's strategy to win over white men, as well as a much-discussed cover essay, "Is Obama the End of Black Politics?". During the 2008 primaries, Bai wrote an online
blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...
, ''The Primary Argument'', on ''
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 ...
'' website. He also wrote a personal essay about his
Japanese American are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian Americans, Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 United States census, 2000 census, they have declined in ...
in-laws for the anthology, ''I Married My Mother-in-Law: And Other Tales of In-Laws We Can't Live With—and Can't Live Without'', published in 2006 by Riverhead Books. In a 2007 interview with the Progressive Book Club, Bai said his political work is more influenced by novelists writing about urban decline in America than by other political writers. "I think novelists have done a better job on the whole of describing the confusing moment we're in, in this post-industrial era", he said. "Writers like Philip Roth, Richard Russo (especially ''Empire Falls'' and ''Nobody's Fool'' and ''The Risk Pool''),
Richard Ford Richard Ford (born February 16, 1944) is an American novelist and short story author, and writer of a series of novels featuring the character Frank Bascombe. Ford's first collection of short stories, ''Rock Springs (short stories), Rock Springs ...
(especially ''The Sportswriter'')—they've really tapped into a deep confusion."


Books

Bai's first book, ''The Argument'', published in August 2007, is an account of the "new progressive movement" in America and the people who built it. ''The Argument'' was the only political book to be named a ''
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 ...
'' Notable Book for 2007. His second book, ''All the Truth Is Out: The Week Politics Went Tabloid'', was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 2014. It revisits the 1987 media scandalization of then-candidate Gary Hart. Part history, part memoir and part cultural critique, the book was seen as a sharp critique of his own industry. Bai discussed this aspect of the book on ''The Daily Show with Jon Stewart'' and on NPR's ''Fresh Air'', among other venues. Reviewing ''All the Truth Is Out'' in ''The New York Times'', Jack Shafer called it "a mini classic of political journalism". ''The New Yorker'' media critic, Ken Auletta, wrote, "Bai's superb book provokes many questions, and I gulped it down in a single sitting".


Movies and television

Bai co-wrote the screenplay for '' The Front Runner'', the cinematic version of ''All the Truth Is Out'', along with the screenwriter Jay Carson and the film's director
Jason Reitman Jason R. Reitman (; born October 19, 1977) is a Canadian–American filmmaker. He is best known for directing the films ''Thank You for Smoking'' (2005), ''Juno (film), Juno'' (2007), ''Up in the Air (2009 film), Up in the Air'' (2009), ''Young ...
. Starring Hugh Jackman, Vera Farmiga and J. K. Simmons, ''The Front Runner'' completed filming in Georgia in November 2017 and was released in November 2018. Another screenplay written by Bai and Carson, which tells the story of a massive class action suit against Chevron in Ecuador, was listed in the Hollywood Black List survey in 2016. Bai has also written for television, and in 2014, he played himself in two episodes of the Netflix series '' House of Cards'', as part of a season-long storyline involving a magazine story he was writing in the show.


Notes


Further reading

* American Prospect, 1 September 2007, "Ready to Rumble," p. 37. *
Booklist ''Booklist'' is a publication of the American Library Association that provides critical reviews of books and audiovisual materials for all ages. ''Booklist''s primary audience consists of libraries, educators, and booksellers. The magazine is ...
, 1 September 2007, Vanessa Bush, review of The Argument: Billionaires, Bloggers, and the Battle to Remake Democratic Politics, p. 24. *Book World, 23 September 2007, "The New Democrats," p. 4. * Commentary, October 2007, Dan DiSalvo, review of The Argument. * * Mother Jones, 1 September 2007, Josh Harkinson, review of The Argument. *
New York Times Book Review ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...
, 28 August 2007, Michiko Kakutani, review of The Argument; 2 September 2007, Nick Gillespie, review of The Argument. *
Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...
, 20 December 2004, "Also at Holt, Vanessa Mobley Signed New York Times Magazine Political Writer Matt Bai for a Book about the Search by the Democrats for a New Approach in the Wake of Their Election Defeat," p. 10. * Talk of the Nation, 20 August 2007, "Democratic Party Lacks Message, Author Says." * * Weekend Edition Sunday, 20 January 2008, "Can Democrats Recapture the South?"


External links

*
''The Primary Argument''
Bai's ''New York Times'' blog *
Bai answers questions about the media and politics
at The Big Think
Matt Bai's book talk
at
Politics & Prose Politics and Prose (sometimes stylized as Politics & Prose or abbreviated as P&P) is an independent bookstore whose main location is in Chevy Chase (Washington, D.C.), Chevy Chase, Washington, D.C., on Connecticut Avenue. They have two other l ...
in Washington, podcast,
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bai, Matt 1968 births Living people People from Trumbull, Connecticut Mass media people from Bethesda, Maryland Tufts University alumni Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism alumni UNICEF goodwill ambassadors The Boston Globe people Harvard Kennedy School staff Newsweek people The New York Times journalists Yahoo! News American speechwriters American male screenwriters American political writers American male non-fiction writers Screenwriters from New York (state) Screenwriters from Connecticut Screenwriters from Maryland UNICEF UNICEF people