Join the DC Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists on Wednesday, Feb. 26, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. for a visit to the DC offices of the New York Times at 1627 I St. NW, Suite 700, Washington, DC. (Accessible via the Farragut METRO). Bring a brown bag lunch, and the Times will supply soft drinks. Reservations are requested since space is limited. Contact Kait Lavinder at 301-204-5251 or at kaitlavinder@gmail.com to reserve a spot.
Host for the program will be Elizabeth Bumiller, deputy bureau chief of the DC bureau of the NY Times. A graduate of Northwestern University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, Bumiller joined the Washington Post in 1979, with reporting stints in Washington, DC, New Delhi, Tokyo and New York before joining the NY Times in 1995. She started her White House beat assignment on Sept. 10, 2001, and covered the tragic events of the next day. She stayed on that beat until 2007, when she took leave to write a biography of US Secretary of State Condolezza Rice. During that period, she was a scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center and a Transatlantic Fellow at the German Marshall Fund. She returned to the Times in October 2007.
Bumiller was born in Aalborg, Denmark, to a Danish mother and American father and came to the USA when she was 3 years old. The family later moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. She began writing about politics for her high school and college papers. Bumiller is described by a former boss and DC bureau chief as someone whose reporting abilities make her a standout: “She is a terrific, fearless reporter with a great instinct for good stories and writes with flair. She’s assertive and in her reporting and stirs up a lot of good stories.” She is married to Steve Weisman, also a former White House correspondent, who reported for the Times from India and Japan and is now editorial director and public policy fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, DC. They have two grown children.
Join us for what promises to be an interesting lunch time look at the Washington operations of the paper that boasts about “all the news that’s fit to print,” with Bumiller providing an ‘insider” perspective.