Timothy L. O'Brien (born 1961) is an American journalist, author and television commentator.

Early life and education

Born in Illinois, O'Brien is a graduate of

Loyola Academy Loyola Academy is a private, Catholic, co-educational college preparatory high school run by the USA Midwest Province of the Society of Jesus in Wilmette, Illinois, a northern suburb of Chicago, and in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago ...

and

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

, where he studied literature. He has three master's degrees from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, in history, journalism, and business.

Journalism career

O'Brien is the executive editor of

Bloomberg Opinion Bloomberg L.P. is a privately held financial, software, data, and media company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was co-founded by Michael Bloomberg in 1981, with Thomas Secunda, Duncan MacMillan, Charles Zegar, and a ...

, a platform that provides commentary about business, politics, and foreign affairs. O'Brien was a reporter 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 ...

'' before becoming editor of the paper's Sunday Business section in 2006. He was previously the executive editor of ''

The Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...

'' and has been a staff writer 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 ...

'' and ''

Talk Talk may refer to: Communication * Communication, the encoding and decoding of exchanged messages between people * Conversation, interactive communication between two or more people * Lecture, an oral presentation intended to inform or instruct ...

''. O'Brien edited a multi-part series on wounded war veterans that won a

Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting This Pulitzer Prize has been awarded since 1942 for a distinguished example of reporting on national affairs in the United States. In its first six years (1942–1947), it was called the Pulitzer Prize for Telegraphic Reporting – National. Li ...

in 2012. He is also a recipient of a Loeb Award for Distinguished Business Journalism. He helped oversee a team of ''New York Times'' reporters that was a 2009

Pulitzer Prize for Public Service The Pulitzer Prize for Public Service is one of the fourteen American Pulitzer Prizes annually awarded for journalism. It recognizes a distinguished example of meritorious public service by a newspaper or news site through the use of its journalis ...

finalist for its coverage of the 2008 financial crisis. O'Brien is also a contributing, on-air analyst with NBC/

MSNBC MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and political ...

where he frequently appears to discuss politics and national affairs.

Books

O'Brien has written two nonfiction books: 1998's ''Bad Bet: The Inside Story of the Glamour, Glitz, and Danger of America's Gambling Industry'' () and 2005's '' TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald'' ().''TrumpNation'' is notable for its claim that celebrity

real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...

mogul

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

was worth no more than

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

250 million. Trump, who claimed at the time to be a

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The American busin ...

and who has built a reputation upon his wealth, filed suit against O'Brien and

Warner Books Grand Central Publishing is a book publishing imprint of Hachette Book Group, originally established in 1970 as Warner Books when Warner Communications acquired the Paperback Library. When Time Warner sold their book publishing business to Hachett ...

in 2006. In 2009, the suit was dismissed by a New Jersey judge.NY Daily News
/ref> Trump appealed, but the dismissal was upheld by an appeals court in 2011.
/ref> A novel by O'Brien, ''The Lincoln Conspiracy'' (), was published in 2012.

Political career

In 2019, O'Brien was hired as a senior adviser for strategy and policy for

Michael Bloomberg Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman, politician, philanthropist, and author. He is the majority owner, co-founder and CEO of Bloomberg L.P. He was Mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013, and was a ca ...

's Democratic Party primaries campaign in the

2020 United States presidential election The 2020 United States presidential election was the 59th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 3, 2020. The Democratic ticket of former vice president Joe Biden and the junior U.S. senator from California Kamala Ha ...

.Axios
/ref>

References

External links

Timothy L. O'Brien's website

Timothy L. O'Brien's columns in "Bloomberg Opinion"

1961 births Living people The New York Times editors The New York Times writers American male journalists Columbia Business School alumni Georgetown University alumni 20th-century American journalists MSNBC people American political commentators American political consultants {{US-journalist-1960s-stub