Mark Halperin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mark E. Halperin (born January 11, 1965), is a political analyst for Time magazine, Time.com and ABC News. He is also an editor at large for Time and produces The Page for time.com at http://thepage.time.com
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Personal
Halperin was born into a Jewish family in Bethesda, Maryland, where he attended Walt Whitman High School. After learning the Japanese language for two years there, he spent the summer of 1982 living with a family in Japan in care of Youth for Understanding. After graduating Whitman in 1983, he earned an A.B. degree from Harvard University in 1987. He and brothers David and Gary are the sons of Morton Halperin and Ina Young.
Career
In 1988, Halperin started out as a desk assistant for ABC News and a researcher for World News Tonight. He then worked in the investigative unit of World News Tonight and as a general assignment reporter in Washington. In 1992, he worked full-time as an off-air producer covering Bill Clinton. In 1994, Halperin became a producer with ABC's Special Events unit in New York and later an editorial producer.
In 1997, he was named the Political Director for ABC News. As director, Halperin appeared frequently as a correspondent and political analyst for ABC News television and radio programs. He also founded and edited The Note, which appears daily on ABCNews.com. In October of 2006, Halperin, along with John F. Harris, released their book, The Way to Win: Clinton, Bush, Rove, and How to Take the White House in 2008.
In March 2007, Halperin stepped down from Political Director to become a political analyst for ABC News. It was announced that Halperin's deputy and NY1 Alum David Chalian would replace him as Political Director for ABC News. On May 1, 2007, Halperin was named as a political analyst for Time Magazine and as an editor at large.
Controversies
In October 2004, in the midst of the U.S. presidential election, Halperin sent a memo to ABC News staff -- made public by Matt Drudge-- directing them not to "reflexively and artificially hold both sides 'equally' accountable." [1] He justified this stance by claiming that both John Kerry and George W. Bush used "distortion" in their campaign, but that Kerry's distortions were not "central to his efforts to win." This was interpreted by many conservatives as an instruction to favor Kerry in ABC News coverage [2], while others felt it was an accurate assessment of the campaign at that point. [3]
Since the release of a 2008 book by George W. Bush's press secretary Scott McClellan, some feel that this is evidence Halperin's assessment was accurate instead of biased. Scott McClellan claims that he lied to the media, and describes having felt contempt for reporters who so easily believed his lies, and were cowed by the fear that if they exposed the lies, they would be accused of "liberal bias".[1]
In October, 2006, Halperin appeared on several conservative talk shows to claim that "Old Media" organizations like ABC News favor Democrats. [4] He told conservative commentator Sean Hannity that the last two weeks before the November 2006 midterm elections provided ABC News with "a chance... to prove to conservatives that we understand their grievances." [5]
Bibliography
- Mark Halperin and John F. Harris, The Way to Win: Taking the White House in 2008, Random House, October 2006, ISBN 1400064473
External links
References
- ^ Scott McClellan, What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception, PublicAffairs, 2008, ISBN 978-1586485566.
