Maureen Dowd

[Jurriaan Bendien <bendien@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Maureen Dowd was born on January 14, 1952 in Washington DC and did a BA
degree in English literature from Catholic University (Washington, DC.) in
1973. She was a winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize, just for distinguished
commentary. The committee particularly cited her columns about the
impeachment of Bill Clinton after his affair with Monica Lewinsky. Her
ascerbic wit and withering attacks on Clinton and his accusers, made her a
national media celeb overnight. She served as correspondent in the paper's
Washington bureau since 1986. Dowd was previously nominated for a Pulitzer
in 1992, for national reporting.

Maureen's first job was at the pool-and-tennis club at the Washington
Hilton. She got her start in journalism taking dictation and phone messages
at the Washington Star in 1974, as editorial assistant.  She didn't do
either of these tasks very well, but, editor Jim Bellows spotted it, and
influenced her, to become reporter in 1976. Then Maureen became sports
columnist, metropolitan reporter and feature writer. Bellows was one of the
"pioneers of new journalism", which included anecdotes and other feature
elements in news stories.

Maureen is "tough and independent and willing to do what she must in a man's
world," said a friend of hers in an interview with Christopher Hitchens of
Vanity Fair. Dowd began to shine, and was considered one of the Star's best
reporters by the time the paper folded in 1981.

After that, Maureen worked at Time magazine for two years. Then Dowd landed
a job at The New York Times as part of the metropolitan staff. In less than
a year, she was covering national news, and on July 18, 1984, her story
about the personal relationship between Walter Mondale and Geraldine
Ferraro, starred on the front page of The New York Times.  She moved from
the Metro desk, back to Washington in 1986. Ever since then, she's been
something of a""golden" girl. She became columnist for the paper's editorial
Op-Ed page in 1995.

She covered 4 presidential campaigns, and served as White House
correspondent. She became the fourth woman in the history of the New York
Times to be given her own opinion editorial olumn. She also wrote a column,
"On Washington," for The New York Times Magazine. Maureen joined The New
York Times as a metropolitan reporter in 1983.  Dowd manages privacy rather
well.  "Ms. Dowd does not speak to the press," her assistant said to New
York magazine media columnist Michael Wolff in 1999.

Dowd's internal circle over the years involved Times executive editor Howell
Raines, Leon Wieseltier of the New Republic, Times reporter Alessandra
Stanley, The West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin, actor Michael Douglas (in his
pre-Catherine Zeta-Jones days, at least), and pundit Michael Kinsley.
Esquire featured her as one of its "Women We Love" in the early '90s. One
critic commented "It is surprising to find that Maureen Dowd is apparently
the only editorialist at a major newspaper in the country with the basic
courage to print the words 'imperialism' and 'oil' in her columns."

It is alleged, that she is uninterested in investigative pieces or scoops.
Her work focuses mainly on people, rather than Washington events, and she
uses a humorous/sarcastic style to display the personalities of her subject.
This personal writing style was imitated in the mid-nineteen eighties, when
the other White House reporters "began to add more colourful details to
their stories" (Current Biography Yearbook, 110).

"Maureen Dowd's great talent is to find drama in the political process" and
to provide a fresh outlook in the traditionalist NYT and her "favorite
stories are the ones that will make people laugh, a slice of human nature"
(Current Biography Yearbook, 110).

In Washington, however, where everyone was a politician, Dowd' bite isn't
always liked. Her critics claim her work really lacks a substance, and
prevents real issues from being examined. Dowd has guts to tell it as it
is - to express what everyone else is thinking of, but won't actually dare
to say because they wouldn't know how to do it.

Maureen wrote: "Women I know in New York and Washington debate whether to
order Israeli vs. Marine Corps gas masks, and half-hour lightweight gas
masks vs. $400 eight-hour gas masks, baby gas masks and pet gas masks, with
the same meticulous attention they gave to ordering no-foam-no-fat-no-whip
lattes in more innocent days. They share information on which pharmacies
still have Cipro, Zithromax and Doxycycline, all antibiotics that can be
used for anthrax, the way they once traded tips on designer shoe bargains.
They talk more now about real botulism than its trendy cosmetic derivative
Botox. They are toting around flats and sneakers in case they have to run,
and stocking up on canned tuna, salmon and oysters, batteries and bottled
water" -http://www.marconews.com/01/09/perspective/d665006a.htm

For a male American critique of Dowd (for what it is worth) see:
http://mensnewsdaily.com/archive/c-e/chapin/2004/chapin011504.htm

These are danger days
What sort of day is this?
These are troubled times
D'ya know what time it is?

There it goes again
Another gear being slipped
I must be near the sea
A single cod n' chips
A cup of tea for three
An' 6 including v.a.t.
Around the rugged rocks
A round trip there and back
The helter-skelter's free
(Don't tell mad Charlie that)
I'd send a bloody card
But he'd want a bloody snap.

I'd stay at home today
But the world said
Go man go
Everybody said
Go man go
The local postman said
Go man go
Do-do, oy, oy vey.

I feel so down, so low, too tired to think
I feel so low, oh no, well what do you think?
My feet slow down, ah so well, I can't lift my head
A fevered brow, ho no, think I'll stay here in bed

Thunder over Tokyo
Pressure on my eyes
Hi-fi on their heads
While they tidy the tides
Dear Aunti Fifi
You should see this place
They'd grow a cushion on your back,
And a flu mask on your face
I'd stay at home today
but the world said
Go man go
In Japanese, they said:
"Hayacho cho wazza woko" ?
I heard someone say
Go man go
So we went
Do do oy oy vey.

- Bob Geldof, Go man Go, from the Boomtown Rats album "Mondo Bongo"

Jurriaan