Michael D. Shear is an American journalist who is a

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...

correspondent for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''. He previously worked at ''

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 was part of the Pulitzer Prize-winning team that covered the

Virginia Tech shooting The Virginia Tech shooting was a spree shooting that occurred on April 16, 2007, comprising two attacks on the campus of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States. Seung-Hui Cho, an u ...

in 2007. He regularly appears on

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and

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Early life and education

Raised in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

, Shear attended Homestead High School in

Cupertino, California Cupertino ( ) is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States, directly west of San Jose on the western edge of the Santa Clara Valley with portions extending into the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The population was 57,82 ...

. Shear received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Claremont McKenna College in 1990 and a master's in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School at

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 ...

Career

Shear's reporting career began in 1989, when he was a junior in college and interned at the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'' Washington bureau covering hearings on Capitol Hill and other high-profile stories, including the trial of

Oliver North Oliver Laurence North (born October 7, 1943) is an American political commentator, television host, military historian, author, and retired United States Marine Corps lieutenant colonel. A veteran of the Vietnam War, North was a National Secu ...

and the anniversary of cameras in Congress. After graduation, he worked briefly as a reporter for the ''

San Jose Mercury News ''The Mercury News'' (formerly ''San Jose Mercury News'', often locally known as ''The Merc'') is a morning daily newspaper published in San Jose, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is published by the Bay Area News Group, a subsidia ...

'' before returning to full-time education to pursue a degree in public policy. He returned to reporting by first writing for ''

The Tampa Tribune ''The Tampa Tribune'' was a daily newspaper published in Tampa, Florida. Along with the competing ''Tampa Bay Times'', the ''Tampa Tribune'' was one of two major newspapers published in the Tampa Bay area. The newspaper also published a ''St. Pe ...

'' before taking up a more permanent role as a metro reporter at ''The Washington Post'' in 1992. He was part of the team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2008 for coverage of the

Virginia Tech shootings The Virginia Tech shooting was a spree shooting that occurred on April 16, 2007, comprising two attacks on the campus of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States. Seung-Hui Cho, an ...

. In 2010, Shear moved to the Washington bureau of ''The New York Times'' as a political correspondent. He covered

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

's re-election campaign in 2012 and in 2013 returned to his role as a White House correspondent for the ''Times''. He covered the

2016 presidential election This national electoral calendar for 2016 lists the national/ federal elections held in 2016 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included. January *7 January: Kiri ...

. After the election, Shear reported on domestic policy and President Donald J. Trump. He also made regular appearances as a political commentator on radio and television. His book, ''Border Wars: Inside Trump's Assault on Immigration,'' co-written with Julie Hirschfield Davis, was published by

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest pu ...

in October 2019. In October 2020, Shear tested positive for COVID-19.

Personal life

Shear lives with his wife and two teenage children in Virginia.

References

External links

Michael D. Shear on Twitter
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Shear, Michael Claremont McKenna College alumni Harvard Kennedy School alumni Living people The Washington Post people The New York Times people 21st-century American journalists Year of birth missing (living people)