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'''Clifford D. May''' (born 1951)<ref name=n/> is the President of the [[Foundation for Defense of Democracies]], created immediately following the 9/11 attacks on the United States. In the decade during which he has lead the organization, FDD has become one of the nation’s most highly regarded policy institutes and a sought-after voice on a wide range of national security issues. Under Cliff’s direction, FDD has assembled a staff and advisory board of the most compelling scholars and experts whose ideas and research have helped shape important policies on terrorism, radical Islamism and democratization. |
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'''Clifford D. May''' (born 1951)<ref name=n/> is an [[United States|American]] journalist, editor, and political activist. He is the president of the [[Foundation for the Defense of Democracies]], a [[American conservative|conservative]] [[think tank|policy institute]] created shortly after the [[9/11 attacks]],<ref name=tavis>{{cite news|url=http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/archive/200404/20040423_may.html|publisher=[[The Tavis Smiley Show]]|date=April 23, 2004|accessdate=August 11, 2009|title=Clifford May}}</ref> and the Chairman of the Policy Committee department within the [[Committee on the Present Danger]]. He works as a [[columnist]], with his writings appearing in [[National Review Online]] and in ''[[The American Spectator]]'', for example, and as a [[talk show host]]. He has served as a [[reporter]], a [[foreign correspondent]], and a newspaper/magazine editor, working notably for ''[[Newsweek]]'' in the 1970s and for ''[[The New York Times]]'' in the 1980s.<ref name=fdd>[http://www.defenddemocracy.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=23706&Itemid=283 Clifford D. May]. [[Foundation for the Defense of Democracies]]: [http://www.defenddemocracy.org/ Main Website]. Accessed May 5, 2009.</ref> |
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He also is the chairman of the policy committee of the Committee on the Present Danger (CPD), an international, non-partisan organization based in Washington D.C. comprised of leading members of the national security community. The Daily Telegraph (U.K.) named May one of the "100 most influential conservatives in America" in its two most recent tallies. |
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May is also a member of the [[Council on Foreign Relations]], the [[Henry Jackson Society]], and the [[Project for the New American Century]].<ref name=n/> In October 2007, ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'' named May number 94 in its list of the '100 most influential conservatives in America', identifying him as a [[neo-conservative]] within the [[U.S. Republican Party|Republican Party]].<ref name=tele>{{cite news|title=The most influential US conservatives: 81-100|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1435460/The-most-influential-US-conservatives-81-100.html|date=29 October 2007|accessdate=21 July 2009|publisher=''[[The Daily Telegraph]]''}}</ref> |
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Mr. May has had a long and distinguished career in international relations, journalism, communications and politics. |
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A veteran news reporter, foreign correspondent and editor (at The New York Times and other publications), he has covered stories in more than two dozen countries, including Iran, Pakistan, Sudan, Ethiopia, China, Uzbekistan, Northern Ireland and Russia. He is a frequent guest on national and international television and radio news programs, providing analysis and participating in debates on national security issues. He writes a weekly column that is nationally distributed by Scripps Howard News Service and he is a regular contributor for National Review Online, Townhall.com, Pundicity.com, The American Spectator, Moment magazine and other publications. |
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In 2006 he was appointed an advisor to the Iraq Study Group (Baker-Hamilton Commission) of the United States Institute of Peace, an independent nonpartisan national institution established and funded by Congress. He also received a two-year appointment to the bipartisan Advisory Committee on Democracy Promotion, reporting to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. In 2009, the U.S. Department of State awarded him a "U.S. Speaker and Specialist Grant" for a series of speaking engagements and meetings (with government and religious leaders, academics and journalists) in Pakistan. Also in 2009, he was nominated by President George W. Bush to serve on the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the entity responsible for all US government and government sponsored, non-military, international broadcasting. |
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From 1997 to 2001, he served as the Director of Communications for the Republican National Committee. In that role, he was the Republican Party's staff spokesman, appearing frequently on national television and radio programs. In addition, he managed all RNC communications activities, including long-range strategic planning; press, radio and television services; online services; TV and radio coaching; speech writing; advertising and marketing; and he was editor of the official Republican magazine, Rising Tide. |
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==Career== |
==Career== |
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===Early career=== |
===Early career=== |
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May earned a |
May earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York in 1973.[1] He then earned Masters Degrees from both Columbia University's School of Public and International Affairs and its School of Journalism. In addition, he holds a certificate in Russian language and literature from Leningrad University. May worked as an associate editor of Newsweek from 1975 to 1978.[1] He then became a foreign correspondent for Hearst newspapers and he worked with for CBS Radio News and Bill Moyers' Journal on PBS as well.[3] After that, he served as senior editor of Geo Magazine. |
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May then spent about a decade with |
May then spent about a decade with The New York Times serving as an editor of The New York Times Magazine, [5] a reporter in New York and in Washington, and as a foreign correspondent. He opened the Times' West Africa bureau and worked as its chief.[3] He also served as an He then moved to Denver, Colorado to be associate editor of the Rocky Mountain News. He started writing a weekly political and social criticism column that was distributed nationally by Scripps Howard News Service. He also hosted two weekly television programs (one local, one national) and a talk radio show around this time. |
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===Later career=== |
===Later career=== |
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May served as the Director of Communications for the |
May served as the Director of Communications for the Republican National Committee from 1997 to 2001.[3] In this position, he oversaw activities such as strategic planning, press, radio, television, online services, speech writing, and advertising. He also was the editor of Rising Tide, the official Republican Party magazine. |
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He also was Vice Chairman of the [[Republican Jewish Coalition]].<ref name="rjc"/> |
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After leaving the RNC, he became a director in the Washington, D.C. office of BSMG Worldwide, a public affairs and public relations company. In 2006, he was appointed an adviser to the |
After leaving the RNC, he became a managing director in the Washington, D.C. office of BSMG Worldwide, a public affairs and public relations company. He left to establish the Foundation for Defense of Democracies just after 9/11/01. In 2006, he was appointed an adviser to the Iraq Study Group.[5] He strongly dissented from the recommendations that the group came to, and he then worked with various groups to oppose the policies.[6] On July 11, 2008, May was nominated by President George W. Bush to be a member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors for a term expiring August 13, 2009. "In this very challenging period of history, it is vital that the United States communicates with audiences abroad clearly and creatively,” May said, “I will be honored and privileged if I can assist with this mission.” |
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==Views and opinions== |
==Views and opinions== |
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===Issue positions=== |
===Issue positions=== |
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May |
May was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations while at The New York Times. He is affiliated with the Henry Jackson Society. a In October 2007, The Daily Telegraph named May number 94 in its list of the '100 most influential conservatives in America'. The paper labeled him "an outspoken proponent of the need to achieve victory in Iraq and the broader war against Muslim extremism". |
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May supports the use of ' |
May supports the use of 'enhanced interrogation techniques', other than waterboarding, against those captured by the United States in what he calls the War on Terror so long as they are used as a "last resort" against known terrorists in order to save innocent lives. He views such “stress and duress” techniques as fundamentally different from 'torture'. He also opposes regarding those captured as either criminal defendants or prisoners of war. On April 23, 2009, May appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart discussing the subject of torture, and he and Stewart engaged in a rather heated yet cordial debate on the subject. Jacob Gershman of New York Magazine later highlighted the exchange as one of the clearest discussions about the issue in the news media. |
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May supported the |
May supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq as well as the 2007 "surge" strategy in the country. In March 2008, he wrote for National Review Online, "[w]hat one can not say is that regime change in Iraq was unjustified: Not if you know Saddam’s record, his clearly stated intentions, and his ties to international terrorists - including, as a new Pentagon report reveals, a group headed by Ayman al-Zawahiri, now al Qaeda’s second-in-command." In an April 2004 interview with Tavis Smiley, who alleged that Bush had decided to invade Iraq before the 9/11 attacks and manipulated intelligence on weapons of mass destruction, May argued that Bush had been continuing the policy of the Clinton-era Iraq Liberation Act and that Bush had pushed the CIA for accurate information. |
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He also told |
He also told Smiley, "I'm rooting for the guy in the White House, personally, 'cause I do think he has done a good job". In the aftermath of the American re-deployment in Iraq during July 2009, he wrote for The Washington Times, "[t]he news is not that American combat troops withdrew from Iraqi cities. The news is that American combat troops withdrew from Iraqi cities in victory -- rather than in defeat." |
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===Disputes and debates=== |
===Disputes and debates=== |
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During the beginning of the |
During the beginning of the CIA leak scandal, May wrote in September 2003 that an ex-administration official had told him that Valerie Plame was a CIA agent, and May stated that the fact was an open secret widely known across Washington, D.C. He also remarked that he chose not to mention this in his own writings since he considered this to be irrelevant to anything else. David Corn, writing for The Nation in March 2007 in the aftermath of the scandal, disputed May's assertions, and he quoted Plame as saying that only a handful of people knew about her covert status. Corn then called upon May, along with other conservative commentators such as Jonah Goldberg who had made similar statements, to apologize. |
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On the October 15, 2007 edition of |
On the October 15, 2007 edition of Tucker on MSNBC, May agreed with host Tucker Carlson's allegation that Hillary Clinton had unfairly used her gender to garner support in her Presidential campaign. May then jokingly referred to Clinton as setting herself up as a “Vagino-American.” The comment was highlighted by Media Matters for America. In September 2007, Media Matters for America criticized May for making numerous public appearances in support of the Bush administration without mentioning his relationship with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's Advisory Committee on Democracy Promotion (though both Republicans and Democrats were appointed members) or the fact that the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies had received State Department monetary grants. |
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After |
After Rush Limbaugh compared Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler in August 2009, Salon writer Glenn Greenwald stated on his blog that May had called Limbaugh's commentary "wrong, outrageous and damaging". May wrote at National Review Online shortly afterward that Greenwald had "[p]redictably" and "dishonorably" misrepresented the statement that he had e-mailed to Greenwald, which he said had criticized specious Nazi comparisons by Limbaugh, Moveon.org, and Nancy Pelosi. |
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On December 31, 2009, May |
On December 31, 2009, May jokingly countered proposals to released terrorists from Guantanamo Bay saying they might be released to Yemen, where "missiles to strike the baggage-claim area" could follow. Greenwald attacked May for the remarks. May responded by saying that that Greenwald was "humorless". He stressed that he had intended to highlight the logical disconnect between someone both supporting the extrajudicial killing of suspected militants and opposing the holding of suspected militants without trial at Guantanamo Bay at the same time. |
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== See also == |
== See also == |
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Revision as of 21:08, 26 June 2012
Clifford D. May | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1951 |
| Occupation(s) | Journalist, Columnist, editor, Political activist |
| Notable credit | Foundation for the Defense of Democracies |
Clifford D. May (born 1951)[1] is the President of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, created immediately following the 9/11 attacks on the United States. In the decade during which he has lead the organization, FDD has become one of the nation’s most highly regarded policy institutes and a sought-after voice on a wide range of national security issues. Under Cliff’s direction, FDD has assembled a staff and advisory board of the most compelling scholars and experts whose ideas and research have helped shape important policies on terrorism, radical Islamism and democratization.
He also is the chairman of the policy committee of the Committee on the Present Danger (CPD), an international, non-partisan organization based in Washington D.C. comprised of leading members of the national security community. The Daily Telegraph (U.K.) named May one of the "100 most influential conservatives in America" in its two most recent tallies.
Mr. May has had a long and distinguished career in international relations, journalism, communications and politics.
A veteran news reporter, foreign correspondent and editor (at The New York Times and other publications), he has covered stories in more than two dozen countries, including Iran, Pakistan, Sudan, Ethiopia, China, Uzbekistan, Northern Ireland and Russia. He is a frequent guest on national and international television and radio news programs, providing analysis and participating in debates on national security issues. He writes a weekly column that is nationally distributed by Scripps Howard News Service and he is a regular contributor for National Review Online, Townhall.com, Pundicity.com, The American Spectator, Moment magazine and other publications.
In 2006 he was appointed an advisor to the Iraq Study Group (Baker-Hamilton Commission) of the United States Institute of Peace, an independent nonpartisan national institution established and funded by Congress. He also received a two-year appointment to the bipartisan Advisory Committee on Democracy Promotion, reporting to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. In 2009, the U.S. Department of State awarded him a "U.S. Speaker and Specialist Grant" for a series of speaking engagements and meetings (with government and religious leaders, academics and journalists) in Pakistan. Also in 2009, he was nominated by President George W. Bush to serve on the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the entity responsible for all US government and government sponsored, non-military, international broadcasting.
From 1997 to 2001, he served as the Director of Communications for the Republican National Committee. In that role, he was the Republican Party's staff spokesman, appearing frequently on national television and radio programs. In addition, he managed all RNC communications activities, including long-range strategic planning; press, radio and television services; online services; TV and radio coaching; speech writing; advertising and marketing; and he was editor of the official Republican magazine, Rising Tide.
Career
Early career
May earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York in 1973.[1] He then earned Masters Degrees from both Columbia University's School of Public and International Affairs and its School of Journalism. In addition, he holds a certificate in Russian language and literature from Leningrad University. May worked as an associate editor of Newsweek from 1975 to 1978.[1] He then became a foreign correspondent for Hearst newspapers and he worked with for CBS Radio News and Bill Moyers' Journal on PBS as well.[3] After that, he served as senior editor of Geo Magazine.
May then spent about a decade with The New York Times serving as an editor of The New York Times Magazine, [5] a reporter in New York and in Washington, and as a foreign correspondent. He opened the Times' West Africa bureau and worked as its chief.[3] He also served as an He then moved to Denver, Colorado to be associate editor of the Rocky Mountain News. He started writing a weekly political and social criticism column that was distributed nationally by Scripps Howard News Service. He also hosted two weekly television programs (one local, one national) and a talk radio show around this time.
Later career
May served as the Director of Communications for the Republican National Committee from 1997 to 2001.[3] In this position, he oversaw activities such as strategic planning, press, radio, television, online services, speech writing, and advertising. He also was the editor of Rising Tide, the official Republican Party magazine.
After leaving the RNC, he became a managing director in the Washington, D.C. office of BSMG Worldwide, a public affairs and public relations company. He left to establish the Foundation for Defense of Democracies just after 9/11/01. In 2006, he was appointed an adviser to the Iraq Study Group.[5] He strongly dissented from the recommendations that the group came to, and he then worked with various groups to oppose the policies.[6] On July 11, 2008, May was nominated by President George W. Bush to be a member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors for a term expiring August 13, 2009. "In this very challenging period of history, it is vital that the United States communicates with audiences abroad clearly and creatively,” May said, “I will be honored and privileged if I can assist with this mission.”
Views and opinions
Issue positions
May was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations while at The New York Times. He is affiliated with the Henry Jackson Society. a In October 2007, The Daily Telegraph named May number 94 in its list of the '100 most influential conservatives in America'. The paper labeled him "an outspoken proponent of the need to achieve victory in Iraq and the broader war against Muslim extremism".
May supports the use of 'enhanced interrogation techniques', other than waterboarding, against those captured by the United States in what he calls the War on Terror so long as they are used as a "last resort" against known terrorists in order to save innocent lives. He views such “stress and duress” techniques as fundamentally different from 'torture'. He also opposes regarding those captured as either criminal defendants or prisoners of war. On April 23, 2009, May appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart discussing the subject of torture, and he and Stewart engaged in a rather heated yet cordial debate on the subject. Jacob Gershman of New York Magazine later highlighted the exchange as one of the clearest discussions about the issue in the news media.
May supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq as well as the 2007 "surge" strategy in the country. In March 2008, he wrote for National Review Online, "[w]hat one can not say is that regime change in Iraq was unjustified: Not if you know Saddam’s record, his clearly stated intentions, and his ties to international terrorists - including, as a new Pentagon report reveals, a group headed by Ayman al-Zawahiri, now al Qaeda’s second-in-command." In an April 2004 interview with Tavis Smiley, who alleged that Bush had decided to invade Iraq before the 9/11 attacks and manipulated intelligence on weapons of mass destruction, May argued that Bush had been continuing the policy of the Clinton-era Iraq Liberation Act and that Bush had pushed the CIA for accurate information.
He also told Smiley, "I'm rooting for the guy in the White House, personally, 'cause I do think he has done a good job". In the aftermath of the American re-deployment in Iraq during July 2009, he wrote for The Washington Times, "[t]he news is not that American combat troops withdrew from Iraqi cities. The news is that American combat troops withdrew from Iraqi cities in victory -- rather than in defeat."
Disputes and debates
During the beginning of the CIA leak scandal, May wrote in September 2003 that an ex-administration official had told him that Valerie Plame was a CIA agent, and May stated that the fact was an open secret widely known across Washington, D.C. He also remarked that he chose not to mention this in his own writings since he considered this to be irrelevant to anything else. David Corn, writing for The Nation in March 2007 in the aftermath of the scandal, disputed May's assertions, and he quoted Plame as saying that only a handful of people knew about her covert status. Corn then called upon May, along with other conservative commentators such as Jonah Goldberg who had made similar statements, to apologize.
On the October 15, 2007 edition of Tucker on MSNBC, May agreed with host Tucker Carlson's allegation that Hillary Clinton had unfairly used her gender to garner support in her Presidential campaign. May then jokingly referred to Clinton as setting herself up as a “Vagino-American.” The comment was highlighted by Media Matters for America. In September 2007, Media Matters for America criticized May for making numerous public appearances in support of the Bush administration without mentioning his relationship with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's Advisory Committee on Democracy Promotion (though both Republicans and Democrats were appointed members) or the fact that the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies had received State Department monetary grants.
After Rush Limbaugh compared Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler in August 2009, Salon writer Glenn Greenwald stated on his blog that May had called Limbaugh's commentary "wrong, outrageous and damaging". May wrote at National Review Online shortly afterward that Greenwald had "[p]redictably" and "dishonorably" misrepresented the statement that he had e-mailed to Greenwald, which he said had criticized specious Nazi comparisons by Limbaugh, Moveon.org, and Nancy Pelosi.
On December 31, 2009, May jokingly countered proposals to released terrorists from Guantanamo Bay saying they might be released to Yemen, where "missiles to strike the baggage-claim area" could follow. Greenwald attacked May for the remarks. May responded by saying that that Greenwald was "humorless". He stressed that he had intended to highlight the logical disconnect between someone both supporting the extrajudicial killing of suspected militants and opposing the holding of suspected militants without trial at Guantanamo Bay at the same time.
See also
- Foundation for the Defense of Democracies
- Members of the Council on Foreign Relations
- Republican Jewish Coalition
- Supporters of the Henry Jackson Society
- People associated with the Project for the New American Century
References
External links
- Clifford May's official website, with a full archive and mailing list
- Archive of May's columns at National Review Online
- "The Resurrection of the Committee on the Present Danger". By Laura Rozen. AlterNet. Posted August 25, 2004.
- 1951 births
- Living people
- American Jews
- American activists
- American chief executives
- American columnists
- American democracy activists
- American foreign policy writers
- American magazine editors
- American political consultants
- American political pundits
- American political writers
- Columbia University alumni
- Council on Foreign Relations
- New Right (United States)
- The New York Times editors
- The New York Times writers
- Newsweek people
- Sarah Lawrence College alumni