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Matt Bai

From Alfawiki
Matt Bai
Born (1968-09-09) September 9, 1968 (age 58)
Occupation(s)Journalist, author, screenwriter
Years active1990s–present
Known forPolitical columnist for The Washington Post; former national political columnist at Yahoo! News; chief political correspondent for The New York Times Magazine
Notable workThe Argument, All the Truth Is Out: The Week Politics Went Tabloid

Matt Bai (; born September 9, 1968) is a distinguished American journalist, author, and screenwriter. He currently contributes as a political columnist for the Washington Post. Between 2014 and 2019, Bai held the position of national political columnist at Yahoo! News. On July 25, 2019, he announced on Twitter his departure from Yahoo! News to dedicate more time to screenwriting.

Before his tenure at Yahoo!, Bai served for over ten years as the chief political correspondent for the New York Times Magazine, where he covered three presidential election cycles and produced numerous columns for the Times. Among his prominent cover articles are the 2008 piece "Is Obama the End of Black Politics?" and a 2004 profile titled "Kerry's Undeclared War," focusing on John Kerry. His writings have been selected for inclusion in two editions of The Best American Political Writing.

Bai earned his undergraduate degree from Tufts University's College of Arts and Sciences and completed graduate studies at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, where he was awarded the Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship. In 2014, he made cameo appearances portraying himself in two episodes of the second season of House of Cards.

Journalism career

Bai began his professional journey as a speechwriter for the U.S. Committee for UNICEF, crafting speeches for prominent figures such as Audrey Hepburn, and gained international reporting experience in Liberia and Iraq.

Prior to joining the New York Times Magazine, he worked as a city desk reporter at the Boston Globe and served as a national correspondent for Newsweek. In 2001, Bai was a fellow at the Harvard Institute of Politics within the Harvard Kennedy School, where he led a seminar focused on the future landscape of political journalism. Additionally, he held fellowships at both the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and the University of Chicago Institute of Politics.

During his time with the New York Times Magazine, Bai authored significant cover stories examining topics such as John McCain's wartime ideology and Barack Obama's efforts to appeal to white male voters, including his influential essay "Is Obama the End of Black Politics?". Throughout the 2008 primary season, he maintained an online blog titled The Primary Argument hosted on The New York Times website. Bai also contributed a personal narrative about his Japanese American in-laws to the anthology I Married My Mother-in-Law, published by Riverhead Books in 2006.

In a 2007 interview, Bai expressed that novelists who explore themes of urban decline had a greater impact on his political writing than conventional political commentators, mentioning authors such as Philip Roth, Richard Russo, and Richard Ford.

Books

Bai's debut publication, The Argument (2007), explores the figures and dynamics behind America's emerging progressive movement. It stood out as the sole political title recognized as a New York Times Notable Book that year.

His follow-up work, All the Truth Is Out: The Week Politics Went Tabloid (2014, Alfred A. Knopf), delves into the 1987 media controversy surrounding candidate Gary Hart. Blending elements of history, personal reflection, and cultural analysis, the book provides a keen critique of political reporting. Bai appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and NPR's Fresh Air to discuss this title. Critics lauded it as "a mini classic of political journalism" (The New York Times) and "superb" (The New Yorker).

Movies and television

Bai collaborated with screenwriter Jay Carson and director Jason Reitman on the screenplay adaptation of All the Truth Is Out, resulting in the film The Front Runner. Featuring performances by Hugh Jackman, Vera Farmiga, and J. K. Simmons, filming wrapped in Georgia in November 2017, with the release following in November 2018. Another screenplay by Bai and Carson, focused on a significant class action lawsuit against Chevron in Ecuador, appeared on Hollywood's Black List in 2016. Additionally, Bai made appearances as himself in two episodes of Netflix's House of Cards in 2014, connected to a plotline involving an article he was authoring for a magazine.

Further reading

  • American Prospect, 1 September 2007, "Ready to Rumble," p. 37.
  • Booklist, 1 September 2007, Vanessa Bush, review of The Argument: Billionaires, Bloggers, and the Battle to Remake Democratic Politics, p. 24.
  • Book World, 23 September 2007, "The New Democrats," p. 4.
  • Commentary, October 2007, Dan DiSalvo, review of The Argument.
  • Mother Jones, 1 September 2007, Josh Harkinson, review of The Argument.
  • New York Times Book Review, August–September 2007, Michiko Kakutani and Nick Gillespie reviews of The Argument.
  • Publishers Weekly, 20 December 2004, announcement of Matt Bai's book deal at Holt.
  • Talk of the Nation, 20 August 2007, "Democratic Party Lacks Message, Author Says."
  • Weekend Edition Sunday, 20 January 2008, "Can Democrats Recapture the South?"

External links

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