Don Van Natta Jr. | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1964-07-22)July 22, 1964 (age 61) Ridgewood, New Jersey |
| Education | Boston University |
| Occupation(s) | Journalist, author, broadcaster |
| Notable credit(s) | "ESPN";The New York Times;The Miami Herald; "Wonder Girl: The Magnificent Sporting Life of Babe Didrikson Zaharias";Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton (withJeff Gerth);First Off the Tee: Presidential Hackers, Duffers and Cheaters from Taft to Bush |
| Spouse | Lizette Alvarez |
| Children | 2 daughters |
| Awards | Pulitzer Prize, Society of Professional Journalists’ “Fellow of the Society,”USGAHerbert Warren Wind Book Award |
Don Van Natta Jr. (born July 22, 1964) is an American journalist, writer and broadcaster. He is an investigative reporter forESPN, since January 2012, and the host and executive producer of “Backstory,” an ESPN docuseries. He previously worked for 16 years as an investigative correspondent atThe New York Times, where he was a member of two teams that wonPulitzer Prizes.
At theTimes, Van Natta was on a six-reporter team, led byJeff Gerth, that won the 1999Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for a series of stories about American corporations that sold satellite technology with military value toChina.[1] He was one of nine reporters awarded the 2002Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting, for work onAl Qaeda following theSeptember 11 attacks.[2]
Gerth and Van Natta wrote aninvestigative biography of SenatorHillary Rodham Clinton, entitled,Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton, published in June 2007 byLittle, Brown and Company.
Van Natta was born inRidgewood, New Jersey and graduated in 1982 fromDon Bosco Preparatory High School inRamsey, New Jersey.[3] He is a 1986 graduate ofBoston University, where he won the Scarlet Key, an award given to student leaders. At BU, he served for three semesters as the editor-in-chief ofThe Daily Free Press, an independent daily newspaper published by students. In 2000,Boston University's College of Communication presented Van Natta with its Distinguished Alumni Award. In 2005, Boston University honored Van Natta as one of its 22 alumni to have won thePulitzer Prize.
At theTimes, Van Natta was the first investigative correspondent in the newspaper's history to be posted overseas. He was based in the newspaper'sLondon,England bureau for nearly three years, from January 2003 until September 2005. While at theTimes, he has also covered theimpeachment of Bill Clinton, thedeadlocked 2000 election in Florida,campaign finance and the crash ofTWA Flight 800. Since September 11, 2001, Van Natta has covered terrorism and "extraordinary rendition," theCIA program that kidnaps terrorism suspects abroad and sends them to third countries, where they are often tortured. In October 2005, Van Natta was one of three reporters to write a 5,800-word article about former Times reporterJudith Miller's 85 days in jail for refusing to testify before a grand jury led by special counselPatrick Fitzgerald. The article focused in detail on the handling of her case by the Times publisher,Arthur Sulzberger Jr., and top editors at the Times, including executive editorBill Keller.
Prior to joining theTimes in July 1995, Van Natta worked for eight years atThe Miami Herald, where he was a member of a team of reporters awarded the1993 Pulitzer Prize forPublic Service for coverage ofHurricane Andrew in August 1992. Van Natta was sent byHerald editors to cover the eye of the storm in Florida City in southernDade County. He stayed in aComfort Inn, which was destroyed by the 165 m.p.h. winds, and he nearly lost his life. His first-person account of surviving the storm was part of the Herald's Pulitzer winning entry. While atThe Herald, he won numerous national, regional and state awards, including theAmerican Bar Association's Silver Gavel and the Investigative Reporters & Editors Gold Medal for an eight-part series called "Crime and No Punishment," which revealed Miami had the highest rate of crime but the lowest rate of punishment in America.
In April 2003, Van Natta published his first book,First Off the Tee: Presidential Hackers, Duffers and Cheaters from Taft to Bush (Public Affairs,ISBN 1-58648-008-1). The non-fiction book about Presidential golf was aNew York Times bestseller, and was also excerpted in the March 24, 2003 edition ofSports Illustrated, and was the cover story in the June 2003 edition of theObserver Sports Monthly in the United Kingdom.First Off the Tee was made into a documentary by theTimes Discovery Channel, a show that featured interviews withArnold Palmer andGary Player. And the book was also named a Notable Non-Fiction Book byThe New York Times and one of the best sports books of the year bySports Illustrated.
Van Natta's latest book,Wonder Girl: The Magnificent Sporting Life ofBabe Didrikson Zaharias, was published in 2011 byLittle, Brown. The book was not a bestseller, but in 2012 theUnited States Golf Association awarded "Wonder Girl" the "Herbert Warren Wind Book Award" as the top golf book published in 2011.
On September 5, 2010, The New York Times published the results of a 6-month investigation led by Van Natta into alleged malpractice at theNews of the World, a British newspaper owned byRupert Murdoch's News Corporation. TheNews of the World dismissed the allegations as unsubstantiated and said "the investigation was tainted by a vested interest in the outcome". They also accusedThe New York Times of flawed reporting and of being motivated by commercial rivalry. In a letter to the Times' Public Editor Arthur Brisbane,The News of the Worldcited seven breaches of The New York Times' ownethical guidelines on accuracy, use ofanonymous sources, bias, impartiality, honest treatment of competitors, reader benefit and conflict of interest. They also questioned the professional detachment of Van Natta, who they claimed had sent aTwitter message linking to a personal attack on News Corp owner Rupert Murdoch alongside a message which read: "The Last Great Newspaper War". In ablog post following publication of the News of the World story, media commentatorMichael Wolff characterised Van Natta as a Times's "enforcer" and "insider, loyalist and gun". In hiscolumn, Brisbane broadly supported the Times' reporting but conceded that it relied heavily on anonymous sources and that presentation of the story and gratuitous references to Murdoch could leave room for suspicions of a "hidden agenda".
Van Natta is played byJoseph May in the 2025 ITV drama about theNews International phone hacking scandal,The Hack.[4]
