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John Fisher Burns

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This article is about the journalist. For other people with the same name, seeJohn Burns (disambiguation).

John Fisher Burns
Born(1944-10-04)4 October 1944(age 79)
Nottingham,England
Spouses
Jane Peque Gnat
​
​
(m.1972;div.1989)​
Jane Scott-Long
​
(m.1991)​

John Fisher Burns(born 4 October 1944) is a British journalist, and the winner of twoPulitzer Prizes.He was the Londonbureau chiefforThe New York Times,where he covered international issues until March 2015. Burns also frequently appears onPBS.He has been called "the dean of American foreign correspondents."[1]

Life and career[edit]

From 1998 to 1999, he was a visiting fellow atKing's College, Cambridge,studyingIslamic historyand culture.[2] He also speaks French and German. His father was a South African who served in theRoyal Air Force.[3]

In the early 1970s, Burns wrote forThe Globe and Mailof Canada, as a local and later parliamentary reporter. During this stint, Burns completed amaster'sin political science atMcGill University.He was sent to China in 1971 to be one of a few Western journalists in China during theCultural Revolution,after a confusion that led to his brief ban from the precincts of theParliament of Canadaby the Commons Speaker.[4]Burns joinedThe New York Timesin 1975, reporting, at first, for the paper's metropolitan section, and has written ever since for the newspaper in various capacities.

He has been assigned to and headed several of theTimesforeign bureaus. He and fellowTimesjournalistsJohn DarntonandMichael T. Kaufmanwon the 1978George Polk Awardfor foreign reporting for coverage ofAfrica.Burns was theTimesbureau chief inMoscowfrom 1981 to 1984. In 1986, while chief of theTimesBeijingbureau, Burns was incarcerated on suspicion ofespionageby the Chinese government. Charges were dropped after an investigation, but Burns was subsequently expelled from the country.[5]

Burns was awarded the 1993Pulitzer Prize for International Reportingciting "his courageous and thorough coverage of the destruction ofSarajevoand the barbarous killings in the war inBosnia-Herzegovina".[6]

In the early to mid-1990s, Burns headed the New York Times' bureau inNew Delhi,with responsibility for theIndian Subcontinentand adjoining regions, fromAfghanistantoBurma.He and his family resided in New Delhi though Burns was frequently on the road, travelling regularly to Kabul, Islamabad, Dhaka, Colombo and Kathmandu. He actively covered events in Afghanistan, which led to his second Pulitzer in 1997, this time "For his courageous and insightful coverage of the harrowing regime imposed onAfghanistanby theTaliban".[7]Burns was based inBaghdadduring the lead up to theIraq warin 2003 and has written extensively on the war and the subsequent occupation. In July 2007, Burns succeededAlan Cowellas bureau chief inLondon.On 30 September 2007, Burns received theElijah Parish Lovejoy Awardas well as an honoraryDoctor of Lawsdegree fromColby College.[8]

In an October 2008 interview with the Russian Ambassador to Afghanistan,Zamir Kabulov,Burns accused Kabulov of being a KGB operative.[9]

Burns is a frequent contributor toPBS,including a number of appearances on theCharlie Rose showandThe NewsHour with Jim Lehrerviasatellitefrom Afghanistan and Iraq. In a January 2009 interview,Michael Baronecalled Burns "one of the great foreign correspondents of our time".[10]In an August 2010 interview with Charlie Rose,Christopher Hitchens,while recounting a tour of Sarajevo guided by Burns in which they were fired upon, called Burns "the greatest war correspondent of our time".[11]

On 26 March 2015, The New York Times announced that an article about the burial ofRichard IIIwould conclude Burns's career at theNew York Times.[12]

Personal life[edit]

Burns married Jane Peque Gnat in 1972. The couple divorced in 1989. In 1991, Burns married Jane Scott-Long, who manages theNew York TimesBaghdadbureau. Burns has two children from his first marriage, Jamie and Emily, and one stepchild, Toby, from his second marriage.[13]

References[edit]

  1. ^Samuels, David(3 December 2010)"The Shameful Attacks on Julian Assange",The Atlantic
  2. ^John F. Burns's BiographyArchived20 February 2011 at theWayback MachineAccessed 15 October 2009
  3. ^"John F Burns: How a Brit came to star at 'The New York Times'".Retrieved11 May2015.
  4. ^"Memories from Past Correspondents"Archived13 May 2017 at theWayback MachineThe Globe and Mail,3 October 2009; accessed 15 October 2009
  5. ^"REPORTER CHINA EXPELLED DENIES CHARGE".New York Times.24 July 1986.
  6. ^Official list of Pulitzer winners from 1993Pulitzer website. Accessed 6 May 2009
  7. ^The 1997 Pulitzer Prize Winners;accessed 15 October 2009
  8. ^"John F. Burns Address".Colby College.
  9. ^"An Old Afghanistan Hand Offers Lessons of the Past",New York Times(19 October 2008); accessed 6 May 2009
  10. ^Michael BaroneArchived18 April 2008 at theWayback Machine.Uncommon Knowledge.Hoover Institution.Filmed 14 January 2008.
  11. ^Author Christopher HitchensArchived15 January 2013 at theWayback Machine.Charlie Rose.13 August 2010.
  12. ^NYT Staff (26 March 2014)"John F. Burns, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist, Ends Acclaimed Run",The New York Times
  13. ^Elizabeth A. Brennan and Elizabeth C. Clarage (1999).Who's who of Pulitzer Prize Winners.p.353.ISBN9781573561112.

External links[edit]

Interviews
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