Timothy L. O'Brien (born 1961) is an American journalist, author and television commentator.

Early life and education

Born in Illinois, O'Brien is a graduate of

Loyola Academy Loyola Academy is a private, co-educational college preparatory high school run by the USA Midwest Province of the Society of Jesus in Wilmette, Illinois, a northern suburb of Chicago, and in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago. It is a ...

and

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...

, where he studied literature. He has three master's degrees from

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 ...

, in history, journalism, and business.

Journalism career

O'Brien is the executive editor of

Bloomberg Opinion Bloomberg L.P. is an American privately-held financial, software, data, and media company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was co-founded by Michael Bloomberg in 1981, with Thomas Secunda, Duncan MacMillan, Charles Ze ...

, a platform that provides commentary about business, politics, and foreign affairs. O'Brien was a reporter for ''

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 ...

'' before becoming editor of the paper's Sunday Business section in 2006. He was previously the executive editor of ''

The Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers p ...

'' and has been a staff writer for ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'' and ''

Talk Talk may refer to: Communication * Communication, the encoding and decoding of exchanged messages between people * Conversation, interactive communication between two or more people * Lecture, an oral presentation intended to inform or instruct ...

''. O'Brien edited a multi-part series on wounded war veterans that won a

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 The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily ...

in 2012. He is also a recipient of a Loeb Award for Distinguished Business Journalism. He helped oversee a team of ''New York Times'' reporters that was a 2009

Pulitzer Prize for Public Service The Pulitzer Prize for Public Service is one of the fourteen American Pulitzer Prizes annually awarded for journalism. It recognizes a distinguished example of meritorious public service by a newspaper or news site through the use of its journali ...

finalist for its coverage of the 2008 financial crisis. O'Brien is also a contributing, on-air analyst with NBC/

MSNBC MSNBC is an American cable news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Launched on July 15, 1996, and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, the channel primarily broadcasts r ...

where he frequently appears to discuss politics and national affairs.

Books

O'Brien has written two nonfiction books: 1998's ''Bad Bet: The Inside Story of the Glamour, Glitz, and Danger of America's Gambling Industry'' () and 2005's '' TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald'' ().''TrumpNation'' is notable for its claim that celebrity real estate mogul

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 ...

was worth no more than

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

250 million. Trump, who claimed at the time to be a

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least 1,000,000,000, one billion units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. It is a sub-category of the concept of the ultr ...

and who has built a reputation upon his wealth, filed suit against O'Brien and

Warner Books Grand Central Publishing is a book publishing imprint of Hachette Book Group, originally established in 1970 as Warner Books when Kinney National Company acquired the New York City-based Paperback Library. When Time Warner sold their book publis ...

in 2006. In 2009, the suit was dismissed by a New Jersey judge.NY Daily News
/ref> Trump appealed, but the dismissal was upheld by an appeals court in 2011.
/ref> A novel by O'Brien, ''The Lincoln Conspiracy'' (), was published in 2012.

Political career

In 2019, O'Brien was hired as a senior adviser for strategy and policy for

Michael Bloomberg Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman and politician. He is the majority owner and co-founder of Bloomberg L.P., and was its CEO from 1981 to 2001 and again from 2014 to 2023. He served as the 108th mayo ...

Democratic Party primaries This is a list of Democratic Party presidential primaries. 1912 This was the first time that candidates were chosen through primaries. New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilson ran to become the nominee, and faced the opposition of Speaker of the Un ...

campaign in the

2020 United States presidential election United States presidential election, Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 3, 2020. The Democratic Party (United States), Democratic ticket of former vice president Joe Biden and California junior senator Kamala H ...

.Axios
/ref>

References

External links

Timothy L. O'Brien's website

Timothy L. O'Brien's columns in "Bloomberg Opinion"

1961 births Journalists from Illinois Living people The New York Times editors The New York Times journalists American male journalists Columbia Business School alumni Georgetown University alumni Loyola Academy alumni 20th-century American journalists MSNBC people American political commentators American political consultants {{US-journalist-1960s-stub