Frederick Samuel Hiatt (April 30, 1955 – December 6, 2021) was an American journalist. He was the
editorial page
An editorial, or leading article (UK) or leader (UK) is an article written by the senior editorial people or publisher of a newspaper, magazine, or any other written document, often unsigned. Australian and major United States newspapers, such ...
editor of ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'', where he oversaw the newspaper's opinion pages and wrote editorials and a biweekly column.
He was part of the ''Post'' team that won the 2022
Pulitzer Prize in Public Service.
Early and personal life
Hiatt was born in Washington, D.C.,
the son of
Howard Hiatt, a medical researcher,
and Doris Bieringer, a librarian who co-founded a reference publication for high school libraries.
Both of his parents came from
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
families. Hiatt grew up in
Brookline, Massachusetts, after his father was named dean of the
Harvard School of Public Health
The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is the public health school of Harvard University, located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. The school grew out of the Harvard- MIT School for Health Officers, the nation's firs ...
.
Many relatives of his paternal grandfather were killed during
the Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...
. His maternal grandfather, Walter H. Bieringer, served as president of the
United Service for New Americans The United Service for New Americans (USNA) was an aid organization founded in 1946 to help Jewish refugees from Europe, survivors from the camps and the war who often were the sole survivors from their families. The organization was the result of t ...
which helped to resettle European Jews in the United States after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
,
and served as vice-president of the Associated Jewish Philanthropies of Boston and as a member of a presidential committee which advised the
Truman Administration
Harry S. Truman's tenure as the 33rd president of the United States began on April 12, 1945, upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and ended on January 20, 1953. He had been vice president for only days. A Democrat from Missouri, he ran ...
on displaced persons before being named Head of Massachusetts Commission on Refugees in 1957.
He graduated from
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
in 1977, where he wrote at least 22 articles for ''
The Harvard Crimson
''The Harvard Crimson'' is the student newspaper of Harvard University and was founded in 1873. Run entirely by Harvard College undergraduates, it served for many years as the only daily newspaper in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Beginning in the f ...
''.
Hiatt was married to ''Washington Post'' editor and writer Margaret "Pooh" Shapiro from 1984 until his death;
the couple lived in Chevy Chase, Maryland, and had three children.
Death
Hiatt had a history of heart disease.[ On November 24, 2021, he was hospitalized after going into ]cardiac arrest
Cardiac arrest is when the heart suddenly and unexpectedly stops beating. It is a medical emergency that, without immediate medical intervention, will result in sudden cardiac death within minutes. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and poss ...
in New York City, where he was visiting his daughter. He never regained consciousness and died on December 6, at the age of 66.
Career
Reporter
Hiatt first reported for ''The Atlanta Journal
''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the only major daily newspaper in the metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia. It is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the result of the merger between ...
'' and ''The Washington Star
''The Washington Star'', previously known as the ''Washington Star-News'' and the Washington ''Evening Star'', was a daily afternoon newspaper published in Washington, D.C., between 1852 and 1981. The Sunday edition was known as the ''Sunday Sta ...
''. When the latter ceased publication in 1981, Hiatt was hired by ''The Washington Post''. At the ''Post'', Hiatt initially reported on government, politics, development and other topics in Fairfax County
Fairfax County, officially the County of Fairfax, is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia. It is part of Northern Virginia and borders both the city of Alexandria, Virginia, Alexandria and ...
and statewide in Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
. Later, after joining the newspaper's national staff, he focused on military and national security affairs. From 1987 to 1990, he and his wife served as co-bureau chiefs of the ''Post''s Tokyo bureau. Following this, from 1991 to 1995, the couple served as correspondents and co-bureau chiefs in Moscow.[
]
Editorial page editor
In 1996, Hiatt joined ''The Post''s editorial board. In 1999 Hiatt was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for what the prize committee called "his elegantly-written editorials urging America's continued commitment to international human rights issues." In 2000, following the death of long-time editor Meg Greenfield
Mary Ellen Greenfield (December 27, 1930 – May 13, 1999), known as Meg Greenfield, was an American editorial writer who worked for the ''Washington Post'' and ''Newsweek''. She was also a Washington, D.C. insider, known for her wit. Greenfield ...
and a short interim editorship under Stephen S. Rosenfeld, Hiatt was named editorial page
An editorial, or leading article (UK) or leader (UK) is an article written by the senior editorial people or publisher of a newspaper, magazine, or any other written document, often unsigned. Australian and major United States newspapers, such ...
editor.
''The Post''s editorial board prior to Hiatt's appointment was described by then-editor Meg Greenfield as collectively having "the sensibility of 1950s liberals," by which she meant that it was generally conservative on foreign policy and national defense and generally liberal on social issues.
Under Hiatt's editorship, the ''Post'' added many new columnists of varying ideologies, including Eugene Robinson
Eugene Keefe Robinson (born May 28, 1963) is a former American football safety who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 16 seasons. He spent the majority of his career with the Seattle Seahawks, who signed him as an undrafted free age ...
and Kathleen Parker
Kathleen Parker is a columnist for ''The Washington Post''. Parker is a consulting faculty member at the Buckley School of Public Speaking, a popular guest on cable and network news programs and a regular guest on NBC's ''Meet the Press'', and p ...
(both of whom won Pulitzer Prizes for their ''Post'' work),[ ]Anne Applebaum
Anne Elizabeth Applebaum (born July 25, 1964) is an American journalist and historian. She has written extensively about the history of Communism and the development of civil society in Central and Eastern Europe.
She has worked at ''The Econ ...
, Michael Gerson
Michael John Gerson (May 15, 1964 – November 17, 2022) was an American journalist and speechwriter. He was a neoconservative op-ed columnist for ''The Washington Post'', a Policy Fellow with One Campaign, a visiting fellow with the Center for ...
, Ruth Marcus and Harold Meyerson
Harold Meyerson (born 1950) is an American journalist, opinion columnist and socialist. In 2009 ''The Atlantic Monthly'' named him one of "the most influential commentators in the nation" as part of their list "The Atlantic 50."
Early life and ...
. Hiatt also intensified the online presence of ''The Washington Post''s opinions sections with the addition of bloggers such as Greg Sargent, Jennifer Rubin, Alexandra Petri
Alexandra Attkisson Petri (, born March 15, 1988) is an American humorist and newspaper columnist. In 2010, she became the youngest person to have a column in ''The Washington Post''. Petri runs the ComPost blog on the paper's website, on which ...
, and Jonathan Capehart.
During this time ''The Post'' also assumed traditionally conservative positions on several major issues: economically, it defended a Republican initiative to allow Social Security personal retirement accounts, and advocated for several free trade
Free trade is a trade policy that does not restrict imports or exports. It can also be understood as the free market idea applied to international trade. In government, free trade is predominantly advocated by political parties that hold econ ...
agreements. On environmental issues, ''The Post'' supported the controversial Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline, and Hiatt himself came under fire for refusing to hold ''Post'' columnist George F. Will accountable for misrepresenting scientific evidence in a column in which Will attacked the veracity of global warming. The column drew criticism from several other ''Post'' columnists, ''The Post''s scientific reporters, and ''The Post''s ombudsman, as well as from environmental scientists and climatologists.
Several media commentators expressed the view that ''The Post''s editorial position under Hiatt moved towards a neoconservative
Neoconservatism is a political movement that began in the United States during the 1960s among liberal hawks who became disenchanted with the increasingly pacifist foreign policy of the Democratic Party and with the growing New Left and count ...
position on foreign policy issues. It supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including 26 ...
; according to PBS journalist Bill Moyers
Bill Moyers (born Billy Don Moyers, June 5, 1934) is an American journalist and political commentator. Under the Johnson administration he served from 1965 to 1967 as the eleventh White House Press Secretary. He was a director of the Counci ...
, the paper published 27 editorials in favor of the war in the six months preceding the invasion. Human rights attorney Scott Horton in a blog post for '' Harper's Magazine'', writes that Hiatt presided over a "clear trend" towards neoconservative columnists. Jamison Foser, a senior fellow at the progressive media watchdog group Media Matters for America
Media Matters for America (MMfA) is a politically left-leaning 501(c)(3), nonprofit organization and media watchdog group. MMfA was founded in 2004 by journalist and political activist David Brock as a counterweight to the conservative Media ...
, said that ''The Post''s editorial stance under Hiatt is now neoconservative on foreign affairs and is no longer liberal on many domestic issues. News anchor and political commentator Chris Matthews stated on his program ''Hardball
Hardball, in English, more specifically American English, generally refers to baseball (as opposed to its variant softball), especially when played very competitively. Metaphorically, it refers to uncompromising and ruthless methods or dealings, ...
'' that ''The Post'' is "not the liberal newspaper it was", but became a "neocon newspaper". Andrew Sullivan, a conservative political blogger for ''The Atlantic
''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
'' wrote, in response to the sacking of Dan Froomkin
Dan Froomkin is the editor of Press Watch, an independent website previously known as White House Watch. He is a former senior writer and Washington editor for ''The Intercept''. Prior to that, he was a writer and editor for ''The Huffington Post' ...
, "The way in which the WaPo has been coopted by the neocon right, especially in its editorial pages, is getting more and more disturbing." According to Fox News commentator James Pinkerton
James "Jim" P. Pinkerton (born March 11, 1958) is an American columnist, author, and political analyst.
Career
A graduate of Evanston Township High School (1975) and Stanford University (1980), he served on the White House staff under both Ronal ...
, the editorial page of ''The Post'' had transformed from a liberal voice into a top ally of the Bush administration in its efforts to invade Iraq: "Remember the days when the ''Washington Post'' was the enemy of the Republican administration in the White House? Those days are gone. Today, the neoconservative voice of the Post's editorial page is one of President Bush's most valuable allies."
The former op-ed editor for ''The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'', Tunku Varadarajan, now a fellow at the conservative Hoover Institution
The Hoover Institution (officially The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace; abbreviated as Hoover) is an American public policy think tank and research institution that promotes personal and economic liberty, free enterprise, an ...
, placed Hiatt fifth in his list of "The Left's Top 25 Journalists" for ''The Daily Beast
''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. It was founded in 2008.
It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief from 2018 to 2021. In a 20 ...
'' and third in the similar list he coauthored for ''Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...
'' magazine. Matthew Cooper, White House editor of '' National Journal'' magazine, writes that Hiatt "is a ''bete noir'' for many liberals because of, among other things, the paper's support of the Iraq War."
The ''National Journal'' reported in November 2014, that Hiatt had offered his resignation to Jeff Bezos
Jeffrey Preston Bezos ( ;; and Robinson (2010), p. 7. ''né'' Jorgensen; born January 12, 1964) is an American entrepreneur, media proprietor, investor, and commercial astronaut. He is the founder, executive chairman, and former preside ...
, the new owner of ''The Post'', but had been retained.[
An editorial Hiatt edited on the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot was part of the package that won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Public Service.] He died before he could receive the honor.
Speaker and moderator
Hiatt was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a foreign-policy think tank, and presided over events hosted by the organization.
In December 2009, Hiatt was a featured speaker at the Tokyo Foundation conference entitled "Japan after the Change: Perspectives of Western Opinion Leaders". In October 2010, he moderated a panel on US-Russia relations at the Center for American Progress
The Center for American Progress (CAP) is a public policy research and advocacy organization which presents a liberal viewpoint on economic and social issues. It has its headquarters in Washington, D.C.
The president and chief executive offic ...
, a progressive public policy think tank. In 2011, he was a featured speaker at the Aspen Ideas Festival, and a moderator of the "Asianomics" session of the World Knowledge Forum
The World Knowledge Forum (WKF, 세계지식포럼) is a non-profit entity, which aims to promote balanced global growth and prosperity through knowledge-sharing. The World Knowledge Forum "brings together global leaders to address the importanc ...
in Seoul, South Korea.
Novelist
Hiatt wrote ''The Secret Sun: A Novel of Japan'', which was published in 1992, as well as two books for children, ''If I Were Queen of the World'' (1997)[Fred Hiatt (1997)]
''If I Were Queen of the World''
Margaret K. McElderry Books: "If I were queen of the whole wide world, I'd have one hundred lollipops a day and never have to share. But sometimes I'd let my little brother have a lick or two." and ''Baby Talk'' (1999). In April 2013, his first novel for young adult audiences, ''Nine Days'', was published. It follows two fictional teenagers on a journey to free an imprisoned Chinese dissident; while the protagonists are fictional, the prisoner and his story are based in reality.[
]
References
External links
Fred Hiatt columns
, The Washington Post
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hiatt, Fred
1955 births
2021 deaths
20th-century American Jews
20th-century American journalists
20th-century American newspaper editors
20th-century American novelists
21st-century American Jews
21st-century American newspaper editors
21st-century American novelists
Editors of Washington, D.C., newspapers
Harvard University alumni
Jewish American journalists
Jewish American novelists
Journalists from Massachusetts
Journalists from Washington, D.C.
Neoconservatism
Novelists from Massachusetts
Novelists from Washington, D.C.
People from Brookline, Massachusetts
People from Chevy Chase, Maryland
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution people
The Washington Post people
The Washington Star people