Christopher Drew is an American investigative reporter who worked for The New York Times for 22 years, serving as assistant editor for the newspaper's investigative unit. Drew has also served on the faculties at university schools of journalism, teaching investigative journalism. He has written on the U.S. Navy SEALS' role in Afghanistan, on submarine espionage, on presidential campaigning, and other topics, receiving an award for the reporting. Drew's book "Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage" about Cold War submarine warfare was a best selling non-fiction book for approximately a year.[1][2]
Christopher Drew | |
|---|---|
| Born | New Orleans, Louisiana |
| Nationality | United States |
| Alma mater | Tulane University |
| Occupation(s) | Investigative journalist Book author University professor |
| Employer(s) | The New York Times Louisiana State University |
| Spouse | Annette Lawrence Drew |
| Awards | George Polk Award White House Correspondents Award |
Career
editEarly in his career, Drew worked as an investigative reporter for the New Orleans States-Item and then later for the New Orleans Times-Picayune after the merger of the two newspapers. He then served as investigative journalist for the Chicago Tribune, before moving to The New York Times in 1995. His tenure with The New York Times was then for 22 years. For various projects, Drew worked closely with journalist Dean Baquet who was also from New Orleans.[3]
Drew was a recipient of a George Polk Award in 2016 for reporting on the activities of SEAL Team 6 as they relate to the killing of an Afghan citizen in 2012. According to journalist James Barron, Drew and his collaborators "wrote that SEAL teams had carried out thousands of dangerous raids but 'also spurred recurring concerns about excessive killing and civilian deaths.'" He shared the award with journalists Nicholas Kulish, Mark Mazzetti, Matthew Rosenberg, Serge F. Kovaleski, Sean D. Naylor and John Ismay.[4] In this investigation, Drew spent two years in Afghanistan with two co-authors investigating the role of the U.S. Navy SEALS.[5][6]
Drew reported from Washington D.C. for ten years, twice winning White House Correspondents' Association awards for national reportage.[7] He covered presidential candidate Barack Obama in 2008.[8]
His book Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage, published by PublicAffairs, and co-authored with Sherry Sontag and with Annette Lawrence Drew, won an Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) certificate award in 1998. The Chicago Tribune team used Freedom of Information Act requests and examined formerly secret and dangerous submarine military actions.[9] The book also won the Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt Prize in Naval History prize for the best book on American naval history published in 1998. The Blind Man's Bluff was a best seller for almost a year. The History Channel based a two-hour documentary on it. Drew has given opinion and information on national security issues on many of the major television news shows and in documentaries for PBS and the Discovery Channel.[7]
In 1996, he covered the Odwalla E. coli outbreak, finding that the Odwalla firm had relaxed its quality standards for incoming fruit and curbed the authority of its own safety program[10]
For the Chicago Tribune, he wrote a series of articles in 1988 on the topic of "Cutting Corners in the Slaughterhouse".[11]
Academia
editWhile working as an investigative reporter in New York, Drew also served as an adjunct professor of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, a position he held for ten years. In 2017, Drew left The New York Times to become a professor at the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University (LSU).[3]
At LSU, Drew is a professional-in-residence and holds the Fred Jones Greer Jr. Endowed Chair professorship in the School of Journalism. In that role, Drew continues his work in investigative journalism by leading the school's efforts on reporting on the activities of the Louisiana state legislature and also working on cold cases related to unsolved Civil Rights-era crimes.[12][3]
Personal life and education
edit| External media | |
|---|---|
| Media links about Christopher Drew | |
| Images | |
 Photograph of Drew, from Louisiana State University | |
| Audio | |
 Interview with Drew about the Hurricane Katrina aftermath, on NPR's Fresh Air. | |
| Video | |
 Drew in the History Channel documentary based on the book "Blind Man's Bluff" |
Drew was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, to which he later returned to report on the Hurricane Katrina aftermath. He graduated from Jesuit High School. In college, Drew majored in English, graduating from Tulane University.[12]
Drew is married to political scientist Annette Lawrence Drew who served as a researcher for the book "Blind Man's Bluff".[7][13]
Books
edit- Sontag, Sherry; Drew, Christopher; Drew, Annette Lawrence. Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage. Harper Collins Publishers, 1998, ISBN 1891620088.
- Ballard, Robert D.; Drew, Christopher. Into the Deep: A Memoir from the Man Who Found Titanic. National Geographic, 2021, ISBN 1426220995.
References
edit- ^ "Christopher Drew". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 January 2024.
- ^ "Blind Man's Bluff: American Submarine Espionage (aka SOSUS)". coldwarhistory.org. Southeastern Pennsylvania Cold War Historical Society. Retrieved 30 January 2024.
- ^ a b c O'Donoghue, Julia (July 25, 2017). "New York Times Reporter, a New Orleans Native, Hired at LSU Journalism School". The Times-Picayune / Morning Advocate. Retrieved 5 February 2024.
- ^ James Barron (February 14, 2016). "New York Times Journalists Among Winners of 2015 Polk Awards". The New York Times.
- ^ Matthew Rosenberg (December 17, 2015). "Reporting in a War Zone: Inside the Navy SEALs Story". The New York Times.
- ^ Roisin Davis (December 21, 2015). "Truthdiggers of the Week: Those Who Uncovered Navy SEAL Abuse of Prisoners in Afghanistan". TruthDig.
- ^ a b c "Christopher Drew". Archived from the original on 2016-03-06.
- ^ Katia Bachko (July 23, 2008). "Talking Shop: Chris Drew: New York Times reporter on covering Obama off the trail". Columbia Journalism Review.
- ^ "1998 IRE Awards". Investigative Reporters and Editors. Retrieved August 6, 2015.
- ^ Christopher Drew and Pam Belluck (January 4, 1988). "Deadly Bacteria a New Threat To Fruit and Produce in U.S." The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-08-11.
- ^ David L. Protess, ed. (1991). The Journalism of Outrage: Investigative Reporting and Agenda Building in America. The Guilford Press. p. 40. ISBN 9780898625912.
- ^ a b "New York Times Reporter Chris Drew '74 Joins Faculty at LSU Journalism School". jesuitnola.org. Jesuit High School of New Orleans. Retrieved 2 February 2024.
- ^ "Annette L. Drew". harpercollins.com. Harper Collins Publishers. Retrieved 30 January 2024.