Kay & Britt Rice Lecture Series - 11/13/2007
Thomas M. DeFrank
Thomas M. DeFrank, an award-winning veteran political
journalist and author, has been covering presidents, the White House, and Washington politics
since the administration of Lyndon Johnson. As Washington bureau chief for the New York
Daily News, he directs coverage of the nation’s capital for one of the
country’s largest metropolitan daily newspapers.
Mr. DeFrank was Newsweek’s
senior White House correspondent for a quarter century and also served as
deputy chief of the magazine’s Washington
bureau for twelve years. He is second only to the legendary Helen Thomas in
terms of longevity on the White House beat. He is the coauthor of the 1996
bestseller Bare Knuckles and Back Rooms, The Politics of Diplomacy, and Quest
for the Presidency 1992, and is a frequent guest on public affairs television
programs, including Hardball with Chris Matthews, Larry King Live, Charlie Rose,
CNN Inside Politics, and C-SPAN.
Mr. DeFrank’s newly published book, Write It
When I’m Gone, covers a series of private interviews with President Gerald Ford
conducted over the course of sixteen years. Mr. DeFrank is a graduate of Texas A&M
University and is a
former editor of The Battalion. He lives in Washington, D.C.
