Wikipedia

Bob Drogin

Bob Drogin(29 March 1952) is an American journalist and author. He worked for theLos Angeles Times,for nearly four decades. Drogin began his career with theTimesas a national correspondent, based in New York, traveling to nearly every state in the United States. He spent eight years as a foreign correspondent, and as bureau chief inManilaandJohannesburg,before returning to the U.S. He covered intelligence and national security in the Washington bureau, from 1998 until retiring in November 2020.[1][2]

Bob Drogin
Born(1952-03-29)March 29, 1952(age 72)
EducationB.A., Oberlin College, M.J., Columbia School of Journalism
Occupation(s)Journalist, author
Notable credit(s)Pulitzer Prize for Public Service,Cornelius Ryan Award
TitleDeputy bureau chief,Los Angeles Times,retired

During his college years, he traveled throughoutAsiaand worked withUNICEFas aShansirepresentative, ofOberlin College.He has a bachelor's degree in Asian Studies and received his master's degree in journalism fromColumbia University.

Drogin has won a number of awards during his career, including thePulitzer Prize for Public Service,and two prizes for his book, "Curveball: Spies, Lies, and the Con Man Who Caused a War," a story of theIraqi informant,who was a key source of false claims aboutSaddam Hussein'sWeapons of Mass Destruction(WMD).

Background and education

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Drogin is a graduate ofOberlin College,class of '73, with a degree inAsian Studies.Halfway into his sophomore year, he traveled toJapan,to study for a semester as a participant in "the Experiment in International living,"a family stay program. After the semester was finished, he spent time in a Zen monastery inKyoto,for a short period, and then traveled in Japan.[3][4]

Following his time in Japan, Drogin spent a year traveling throughoutAsia,spending time in Laos; Cambodia; Thailand; Malaysia; Indonesia; Burma; Nepal; India; Pakistan; Iran, and Turkey. Following his travels, Drogin visitedEurope,and then returned to the U.S., and after finishing at Oberlin, he applied toColumbia Graduate School of Journalism,Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies,and as an applicant for aOberlin Shansifellowship.[3]

Drogin was accepted for the fellowship, and returned toIndonesia,for two years, working forUNICEF,as a Shansi representative. Drogin lived inJakarta,supporting himself on the income from the fellowship and the pay from UNICEF. After receiving training and studying the language, he traveled often, as part of the nutritional division. Upon completion of his two-year commitment, he returned to the U.S., where he was accepted into Columbia, and graduated with amaster's degree in journalism.[3][5]

Career

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As a student atOberlin College,Drogin worked for a year as the managing editor of the school newspaper, theReview.During the winter session of his senior year, he worked as an intern at theLorain Journal.He spent January covering the police, and during the rest of the year, he worked weekend nights, 3-midnight, as a "cop reporter."[3]

After graduating fromColumbia,he worked as a freelance photographer for a New York agency,Magnum Photos,where he covered a presidential election, prizefights and other events for various magazines. Drogin, decided he did not want to work as a photographer, so he took a job withThe Charlotte Observer,where he remained for2+1⁄2years.[3]

After leaving theObserver,he returned toCambodiawith UNICEF, and served for six-months as the deputy director for Relief on the Cambodian border. This was during the time ofKilling fields of Khmer.[3]

After returning to the U.S., Drogin worked for two years atThe Philadelphia Inquirer,and was awarded the 1981 Pulitzer prize, for his previous work atThe Charlotte Observer.[6]In 1983, he left to joinLos Angeles Times.[3]

Drogin began his work atThe Los Angeles Timesas a national correspondent based in New York City.[1]He traveled to nearly every state and covered the 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns. He subsequently moved overseas as a foreign correspondent, serving for eight years, as bureau chief inManilaandJohannesburg.He reported onNelson Mandela's election as president of South Africa,thegenocide in Rwanda,theGulf War,and other news from countries in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. He returned to Washington, in 1998, working as the Deputy Bureau Chief until retiring in November 2020.[3][1][2]

He is the author of the 2007 book,Curveball: Spies, Lies, and the Con Man Who Caused a War,which describes the role of theCurveball,the Iraqi informant who was a key source for false claims thatSaddam Husseinhadweapons of mass destruction.[7]in 2007, Drogin was awarded the Cornelius Ryan Award, by theOverseas Press Club of America,for best non-fiction book on international affairs, and the Investigative Reporters and Editors book prize, forCurveball.[8][9]

Awards and recognition

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Drogin has won or shared numerous journalism prizes, includingRobert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards,and aGeorge Polk Award.[2]Some of the awards are listed below.

  • 1981 Winner, The Pulitzer Prize in Public Service, staff of theCharlotte Observer,for its series: "Brown Lung A Case of Deadly Neglect"[6]
  • 1997–98 John S. Knight Fellow at Stanford University[10]
  • 2001 Winner, Hal Boyle Award, Overseas Press Club, staff of theLos Angeles Times,for "Inside Al Qaeda"[11]
  • 2002 Finalist,Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting,with Josh Meyer, Craig Pyes, William C. Rempel, and Sebastian Rotella, for "Revealing Terrorism,"Los Angeles Times[12]
  • 2006 Media Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford[13]
  • 2007 Winner,Overseas Press Club of America,Cornelius Ryan Award,for best non-fiction book on international affairs,Curveball: Spies, Lies, and the Con Man Who Caused a War[8]
  • 2007 Winner,Investigative Reporters and Editorsbook prize forCurveball: Spies, Lies, and the Con Man Who Caused a War[9]

Selected works

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Articles

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  • "Fads, Fashion and Foolery for 1994, Tower of Babble: One if the many unanswered questions about South Africa's transition to black majority rule after the first democratic elections next April 27 is fairly basic: How will people communicate?"Los Angeles Times,January 4, 1994.[14]
  • "Jakarta Dispatch: Riady's Bank Shot,"The New Republic,August 11, 1997.[15]
  • "The Vanishing–What happened to Saddam's weapons of mass destruction? Iraqi scientists offer an explanation,"The New Republic,July 21, 2003.[16]
  • "Friendly Fire–The White House cites the Kay report as proof that Saddam Hussein had an active WMD program that threatened the United States and the World. The truth is exactly the reverse: The Kay report demolishes President Bush's prewar WMD claims. And David Kay seems to know it."The New Republic,October 27, 2003.[17]
  • "Determining the Reliability of a Key CIA Source," Neiman Foundation at Harvard University, Neiman reports, 62, no. 1, 2008.[18]

Books

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  • "False records cited: alarms still ring loud at 3 Mile Island," co-authored with Robert A. Rosenblatt,National Emergency Training Center,1984.[19]
  • "Mad Dash for a Share of Billions in Ravaged Kuwaiti City, Businessmen Scramble for Reconstruction Contracts. Some Bring Sleeping Bags: For One Executive, the Dress Code is Still Coat, Tie and Tasseled Loafers," in conjunction with the Los Angeles Times (firm),Los Angeles Times,1991.[20]
  • "Curveball: Spies, Lies, and the Con Man Who Caused a War," Random House, 2007.[7]

References

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  1. ^abc"Bob Drogin".Los Angeles Times.Retrieved2021-01-04.
  2. ^abc"MEDIA ADVISORY | Stanford News Release".news.stanford.edu.2006-05-05.Retrieved2021-01-05.
  3. ^abcdefghCombe, Liv."Off the Cuff with Bob Drogin".The Oberlin Review.Retrieved2021-01-04.
  4. ^"Oberlin Alumni in Journalism".Oberlin College and Conservatory.2019-12-17.Retrieved2021-01-04.
  5. ^"Student Newspapers at the Five Colleges of Ohio, Current Reps".ohio5.contentdm.oclc.org.p. 7.Archivedfrom the original on 2021-05-16.Retrieved2021-01-04.
  6. ^abThe Pulitzer Prizes - Public Service
  7. ^abDrogin, Bob (2007).Curveball: spies, lies, and the con man who caused a war.New York: Random House.ISBN978-1-4000-6583-7.OCLC123350135.
  8. ^ab"The Cornelius Ryan Award 2007".OPC.Retrieved2021-01-04.
  9. ^ab"The IRE Journal"(PDF).ire.org.May–June 2008. p. 7.RetrievedJanuary 4,2021.
  10. ^"Twelve named Knight Journalism Fellows".news.stanford.edu.Retrieved2021-01-04.
  11. ^"2001 OPC Award Winners".OPC.2002-04-22.Retrieved2021-01-05.
  12. ^"Shorenstein announces 6 finalists for Goldsmith".Harvard Gazette.2002-02-28.Retrieved2021-01-05.
  13. ^"Search".Hoover Institution.Retrieved2021-01-05.
  14. ^Drogin, Bob (1994-01-04)."Fads, Fashion and Foolery for 1994".Los Angeles Times.Archivedfrom the original on 2021-01-07.Retrieved2021-01-05.
  15. ^Drogin, Bob (1997)."JAKARTA DISPATCH: RIADY'S BANK SHOT".The New Republic.p. 11.ISSN0028-6583.OCLC92032068.
  16. ^Drogin, Bob (2003)."The Vanishing - What happened to Saddam's weapons of mass destruction? Iraqi scientists offer an explanation".The New Republic.p. 20.ISSN0028-6583.OCLC99028868.
  17. ^Drogin, Bob (2003)."Friendly Fire - The White House cites the Kay report as proof that Saddam Hussein had an active WMD program that threatened the United States and the world. The truth is exactly the reverse: The Kay report demolishes President Bush's prewar WMD claims. And David Kay seems to know it".The New Republic.p. 23.ISSN0028-6583.OCLC97684857.
  18. ^Drogin, Bob (2008)."Determining the Reliability of a Key CIA Source".Nieman Reports.62(1): 12.ISSN0028-9817.OCLC226015454.
  19. ^Drogin, Bob; Rosenblatt, Robert A (1984).False records cited: alarms still ring loud at 3 Mile Island.Emmitsburg, MD: National Emergency Training Center.OCLC503395733.
  20. ^Drogin, Bob; Los Angeles Times (Firm) (1991).Mad Dash For A Share Of Billions In Ravaged Kuwait City, Businessmen Scramble For Reconstruction Contracts. Some Bring Sleeping Bags; For One Executive, the Dress Code Is Still Coat, Tie And Tasseled Loafers.Place of publication not identified: publisher not identified.OCLC41776657.
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