Eugene Robinson (journalist)

Eugene H. Robinson
Born	1955 Orangeburg, South Carolina, USA
Education	University of Michigan
Occupation	Journalist
Notable credit(s)	The Washington Post San Francisco Chronicle

Eugene Harold Robinson (born 1955, Orangeburg, South Carolina) is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper columnist and the former assistant managing editor of The Washington Post. His columns are syndicated by The Washington Post Writers Group, and he is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists.

Robinson is a board member of the IWMF (International Women's Media Foundation).

Biography

Early years

Robinson attended Orangeburg Wilkinson High School in the town where he was born and, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the University of Michigan, where he wrote for The Michigan Daily school newspaper.

Career

In 1976, he began his journalism career at the San Francisco Chronicle; his assignments included the trial of publishing heiress Patty Hearst. He joined The Washington Post in 1980. Working his way up through the ranks, he was first a city-hall reporter at the paper. He then became the assistant city editor; a foreign correspondent in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and London, England; and, most recently, the assistant managing editor of the paper's style section. He began writing columns for the opinion page of the paper in 2005, also writes a twice-a-week column on politics and culture, and conducts a weekly online conversation with readers.

Robinson appears frequently as a political analyst on MSNBC cable-TV network's programs such as Morning Joe, The Rachel Maddow Show, Hardball with Chris Matthews, and Countdown with Keith Olbermann (now disconinued on MSNBC). And he is often a panelist on public affairs program Meet the Press.

Robinson was awarded the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in recognition of his columns that focused on the first African-American candidate, Barack Obama who eventually won, during the 2008 presidential campaign.

Personal life

He lives with wife Avis and two sons in Arlington, Virginia.

Criticism

In January 2012 on MSNBC, Robinson, in criticizing presidential candidate, Rick Santorum, brought up the death of Santorum's child, Gabriel, who died two hours after birth in 1996. Robinson said of Santorum, "He's not a little weird, he's really weird, and some of his positions that he has taken are just so weird that I think that some Republicans are off-put. Not everybody is not going to be down, for example, with the story of how he and his wife handled the stillborn child. It was a body that they took home to kind of sleep with it, introduce it to the rest of the family. It's a very weird story."

Robinson was heavily criticized for the comment^{[citation needed]}. Journalist Peter Wehner in Commentary criticized the "casual cruelty of Eugene Robinson".

Bibliography

• Robinson, Eugene (1999). Coal to Cream: A Black Man's Journey Beyond Color to an Affirmation of Race. New York: Free Press. ISBN 0684857227. 
• Robinson, Eugene (2004). Last Dance in Havana: The Final Days of Fidel and the Start of the New Cuban Revolution. New York: Free Press. ISBN 0743246225. 
• Robinson, Eugene (2010). Disintegration: The Splintering of Black America. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 0385526547. 

External links

• Biography at Washington Post Writers Group
• The Washington Post columns archive
• Booknotes interview with Robinson on Coal to Cream: A Black Man's Journey Beyond Color to an Affirmation of Race, November 7, 1999.