His reporting has been praised as "riveting." ABC News calls him "excellent,
well-connected and influential," and "legendary." The American Journalism
Review has rated him "one of the unsung stars of Washington journalism." The
New York Times ranked him as one of the country's best political ghostwriters.
And President Gerald R. Ford called him "one of the finest journalists I have
ever known. Everyone I know feels the same way: you are fair, trustworthy and
professional."
One of Washington's most respected President-watchers, Tom DeFrank is a veteran
political journalist and bestselling author. As Washington bureau chief of the
New York Daily News since 1996, he directs coverage of the nation's capital for
the country's third-largest metropolitan daily newspaper.
In 2007 he was honored by the White House Correspondents' Association for "his
exclusive reporting as well as his ability to pack lively analysis into compact
spaces."
In 2006 DeFrank won the Gerald R. Ford Prize for distinguished reporting on the
Presidency. In announcing the award, the judges noted: "His coverage of the
White House demonstrated a particularly keen perception of relationships among
principals and how these relationships influenced official policy. His
articles were consistently accurate, balanced in judgment, and usually ahead of
his competitors."
The 2008 Presidential campaign is the eleventh he has covered in 39 years as a
Washington reporter. He has also covered the resignation of one President, the
impeachment of a second, and was an eyewitness to two assassination attempts
against a third.
He was the last reporter to interview President Ford (May 2006) and the last to
visit him (November 14, 2006). He's the author of "Write it When I'm Gone," a
book on 30 years of private conversations with the 38th President that was
published in November 2007. It was a New York Times bestseller.
DeFrank was Newsweek's senior White House correspondent for a quarter century
and also served as deputy chief of the magazine's Washington bureau for twelve
years. Assigned to the White House beat since 1970,
DeFrank has covered seven Presidents: Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush,
Clinton and Bush. He is second only to Helen Thomas in terms of longevity on
the White House beat and still spends most of his time reporting on the White
House. He has had 22 interviews with President George W. Bush, whom he has
covered since 1987.
He's the author of "Write it When I'm Gone: Remarkable Off-the-Record
Conversations with Gerald R. Ford," published in November 2007. It was a New
York Times and Washington Post bestseller.
DeFrank is the co-author of "Bare Knuckles and Back Rooms," the 1996
best-selling memoir of controversial Republican political consultant Ed
Rollins. He also co-authored "The Politics of Diplomacy," the memoirs of
former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, and "Quest for the Presidency
1992," Newsweek's critically-acclaimed, behind-the-scenes look at the
Clinton-Bush election, published in 1994.
DeFrank has appeared on several public affairs television programs,
including Meet the Press, Face the Nation, Hardball with Chris Matthews, Larry
King Live, The Charlie Rose Show, The Beltway Boys, Washington Week in Review,
Fox News,Inside Politics and C-SPAN.
He has been a student of the Presidency since 1968, when he took his first
Presidential trip with Lyndon Johnson as a Newsweek intern. He traveled
extensively with Richard Nixon from 1970 to 1972 and was assigned to cover Vice
President Gerald Ford in the fall of 1973. A few
months before Nixon's resignation, he was reassigned to the White House and
remained when Ford became President in August 1974. He was an eyewitness to
both assassination attempts against Ford in 1975.
He has covered 16 United States - Russian summits beginning with the historic
1974 Ford-Brezhnev meeting at Vladivostok. He has traveled to all 50 states
and 48 countries as a White House reporter and is a former president of the
White House Correspondents' Association.
DeFrank has reported on congressional and military affairs, and in 1973 covered
the return of U.S. prisoners of war from Vietnam at Clark Air Base in the
Philippines. He also reported extensively on the Persian Gulf War, traveling
to Saudi Arabia with President Bush in November 1990 and Secretary of Defense
Dick Cheney and General Colin Powell in December 1990.
He is the only newsmagazine correspondent to win both of the White House
Correspondents' Association awards for distinguished Presidential reporting. He
has also shared in several other reporting awards, including the Overseas Press
Club's award for his reporting of the 1987
Reagan-Gorbachev summit and Newsweek's National Magazine Award for the 1992
Presidential campaign.
DeFrank was on active duty at the Pentagon from 1968 to 1970 as a public
affairs officer. Before joining Newsweek, he was a reporter for the Fort Worth
Star-Telegram, Bryan (Texas) Daily Eagle and Minneapolis Star.
A native of Arlington, Texas, DeFrank is a 1967 high honors graduate of Texas
A&M University, where he edited the campus newspaper, and has a master's degree
from the University of Minnesota.
