Neil A. Lewis is an American journalist and author. He served as a correspondent at ''
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 ...
'' for over 20 years.
As a journalist, his work has appeared in a variety of magazines, including ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'', ''
Washington Monthly
''Washington Monthly'' is a bimonthly, nonprofit magazine of United States politics and government that is based in Washington, D.C. The magazine is known for its annual ranking of American colleges and universities, which serves as an alternat ...
'', ''
The New York Times Book Review
''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...
'', and ''
The New Republic
''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hum ...
''.
In 1995, he co-authored the book ''Betrayal: The Story of Aldrich Ames, an American Spy'', along with
Tim Weiner and
David Johnston.
The book tells the story of
Aldrich Ames
Aldrich Hazen "Rick" Ames (; born May 26, 1941) is a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer turned KGB double agent, who was convicted of espionage in 1994. He is serving a life sentence, without the possibility of parole, in the Federa ...
, a former
counterintelligence officer and analyst for the
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...
, who was convicted of
spying
Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangibl ...
for the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
and
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
.
Personal background
Lewis is a native New Yorker and a graduate of the Bronx High School for Science. He holds degrees from
Union College
Union College is a private liberal arts college in Schenectady, New York. Founded in 1795, it was the first institution of higher learning chartered by the New York State Board of Regents, and second in the state of New York, after Columbia Co ...
and
Yale Law School
Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by ''U ...
.
He is married to Washington DC council member
Mary Cheh
Mary M. Cheh (born 1950) is an American Democratic politician from Washington, D.C. In November 2006, she won a seat on the Council of the District of Columbia representing Ward 3.
Background and family
Mary Cheh was born in Elizabeth, New Jer ...
.
Professional background
In the early 1980s, Lewis worked for the
Reuters
Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world.
The agency was estab ...
news agency in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
,
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, and
Johannesburg
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...
. He served as Reuters' White House correspondent and their senior correspondent in South Africa.
In 1985, he joined the ''New York Times'', serving as a news correspondent. He covered a variety of topics, including American presidential campaigns, the
U.S. Justice Department, and Apartheid-era South Africa. He also covered Supreme Court nominations, as well as issues surrounding the detention of "enemy combatants" at
Guantanamo Bay. He retired from his work with the ''Times'' in 2009.
After leaving the ''Times'', Lewis began teaching media law at
Duke Law School.
[
He spent spring 2011, serving as a recipient of the Horace W. Goldsmith Fellowship Award at the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy 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 higher le ...
's Kennedy School of Government.
, Lewis has continued to serve as a contract writer for the ''New York Times''.[ Beginning in December 2011, he became Executive Director of a non-partisan Task Force on Detainee Treatment under the auspices of The Constitution Project. The Task Force, which includes retired former generals, diplomats, judges, and members of Congress, is planning to produce a report on U.S. treatment of detainees since 9/11.
]
Published works
;Articles
Recent and archived news articles by Neil A. Lewis of The New York Times
September 25, 2012
* Lewis, Neil
''New York Times'', January 1, 2005
* Lewis, Neil
''New York Times'', August 9, 2003
* Lewis, Neil
''New York Times'', November 30, 2004
* Lewis, Neil
''New York Times'', July 13, 2009
;Books
* Johnston, David; Lewis, Neil A.; and Weiner, Tim. ''Betrayal: The Story of Aldrich Ames, an American Spy'', New York: Random House
Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...
, 1995,
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Neil
American male journalists
The New York Times writers
Duke University School of Law faculty
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)