Patrick Tyler
Patrick Tyler | |
|---|---|
| Born | November 6, 1951(age72) |
| Alma mater | University of South Carolina |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Employer(s) | The New York Times(1990—2004) The Washington Post(1979–1990) |
Patrick E. Tyleris an author and formerly chief correspondent forThe New York Times.[1]He is the author of four books:Fortress Israel: The Inside Story of the Military Elite Who Run the Country -- and Why They Can't Make Peace,A World of Trouble: The White House and the Middle East from the Cold War to the War on Terror,A Great Wall: Six Presidents and China(a history ofChina–United States relationssince the1972 openingby PresidentRichard Nixon) andRunning Critical: The Silent War, Rickover and General Dynamics,a history of the United States nuclear submarine program under AdmiralHyman G. Rickover.
Early newspaper and television experience
[edit]Tyler studied physics at theUniversity of Texasin 1969–70 and transferred to journalism at theUniversity of South Carolina,graduating in 1974. He edited two weekly newspapers in South Carolina, worked as a reporter forThe Charlotte Newsand theSt. Petersburg Times,and then joinedThe Washington Postin 1979. He spent nearly a year hostingCongressional Outlook,a national public affairs television program on the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) that examined issues before Congress. The program was a joint venture betweenCongressional QuarterlyandWCET-Cincinnati.
Libel suit
[edit]While at thePost,he worked underBob Woodward,then Metropolitan Editor, and in his first year at the newspaper wrote a story critical ofWilliam P. Tavoulareas,then president of Mobil Oil Corp, which led to a $50-million libel suit against the newspaper. The story alleged that Tavoulareas and Mobil had not adequately disclosed under the related-party transaction rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission a series of transactions that enriched Tavoulareas' son, Peter, who was a young shipping clerk in London until the dealings of his firm with Mobil made him an overnight millionaire due to the exclusive, no-bid contracts Mobil granted the firm to manage ships under a Mobil-Saudi joint venture. The article suggested that Tavoulareas had been guilty of nepotism and failure to disclose the dealings with his son's firm to shareholders in installing his son as chairman.[2]Mobil suedThe Washington Postand secured a 2 million dollar verdict, which was overturned by the trial judge, who entered a judgment in favor ofThe Washington Postnotwithstanding the verdict.
The trial judge's verdict was later reversed by a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia, whose split (2–1) verdict against the newspaper led to an appeal to the full Court of Appeals. The Appellate Court ruled 7–1 in favor of thePost,citing the truthfulness of every major assertion in thePost'sarticle. ThePost'scase was argued by a team of lawyers underEdward Bennett Williams.The Appellate Court included thenAppellate CourtjudgesAntonin Scalia,Ruth Bader GinsburgandKenneth Starr.[3]Tyler later praised thePost,commenting "I had thought my career was over, and so their determination to take the case all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary was one of the most singular acts of editorial courage... that I had ever witnessed."[4]
Transition toThe New York Times
[edit]| External videos | |
|---|---|
 Booknotesinterview with Tyler onA Great Wall,October 31, 1999,C-SPAN |
In 1986, he published his first book,Running Critical,an exposé of the massive cost-overruns that afflicted the building of theLos Angelesclass nuclear attack submarine fleet. Tyler conducted extensive interviews with Admiral Rickover and other senior United States military officers, as well as executives ofGeneral Dynamics,owners ofElectric Boat Division.[5][6]
Tyler continued to write for thePostuntil 1990, when he left to joinThe New York Times.While at theTimeshe wrote his second book,A Great Wall: Six Presidents and China: An Investigative History,which received theLionel Gelber Prizein 2000.[7]He has served in various posts at theTimes,including as chief of the Beijing, Moscow, Baghdad and London news bureaus. He was promoted to chief correspondent in 2002 by then executive editor Howell Raines, and in 2003 he traveled to Kuwait to prepare and anchor the newspaper's coverage of the invasion of Iraq. After the fall of Saddam Hussein, he established theTimesbureau in Iraq. Tyler moved to London in 2004, where he served as bureau chief until he resigned from the newspaper in December of that year to write a diplomatic history of American policy in the Middle East. He signed a contract in 2005 with Farrar, Straus & Giroux to produceA World of Trouble.In 2008, he signed a second contract with the same New York publisher to produce a political biography of Israel's leadership class.[1]
References
[edit]- ^ab"The New York Times > Readers' Opinions > Correspondent Biography: Patrick E. Tyler".archive.nytimes.Retrieved2023-02-03.
- ^"Triple Reverse."[1]Time(March 23, 1987) Accessed on April 24, 2008
- ^Graves, Florence George (April 1998)."Starr Struck".American Journalism Review.Archived fromthe originalon 2012-02-11.Retrieved2008-04-15.
- ^Sherman, Scott (2002)."Donald Graham's Washington Post".Columbia Journalism Review.Archived fromthe originalon February 11, 2008.Retrieved2008-04-25.
- ^ Tyler, Patrick(1986).Running Critical.New York: Harper and Row.ISBN978-0-06-091441-7.
- ^Review of BooksMilitary Affairs.51,(2) (April 1987), pp. 102-103
- ^List of Gebler Prize Winners.https:// utoronto.ca/mcis/gelber/Winners.shtmlArchived2008-06-09 at theWayback MachineAccessed on April 25, 2008
