Biography

A keen observer of the inner workings of Washington, D.C. for more than three decades, Tom Rosenstiel is one of the country’s most recognized thinkers on the intersection of media and politics and the future of journalism.

He is a Professor of the Practice and the Eleanor Merrill Scholar on the Future of Journalism at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism. He is also a Senior Fellow at NORC at the University of Chicago, the research institute whose work includes AP-NORC survey research for the Associated Press.

Watch Tom's TEDxAtlanta Talk on the Future of Journalism

He is the author of 12 books, including four novels. In addition to The Next Journalism, his non-fiction works includes The Elements of Journalism (written with his friend and former New York Times bureau chief Bill Kovach). Elements has been translated into more than 25 languages worldwide and hailed as “the most important book on the relationship of journalism and democracy published in the last fifty years” (Poynter), and one of the five “essential books” on journalism (Wall Street Journal).

Prior to joining the faculty at Maryland, Tom was for nine years the executive executive director of the American Press Institute, a think tank on making news sustainable.

Before API, Tom founded and for 16 years directed the Project for Excellence in Journalism, one of the five founding projects of the Pew Research Center.

In his career as a journalist, press critic and media researcher, Tom has written about politics, campaigns, Congress, culture, technology, journalism, media and ethics and has lectured and consulted on journalism extensively in the United States and overseas. He was press critic at the Los Angeles Times for a decade, a Washington correspondent for The Times, a commentator on media for MSNBC, and chief congressional correspondent for Newsweek. He began his career as a reporter for Jack Anderson’s Washington Merry Go ‘Round in Washington. He also worked at the Peninsula Times Tribune and the Country Almanac in his hometown in Woodside, California. He also worked as a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

In addition to his nonfiction work, Tom is the author of four novels. His first, Shining City, explored the intricate world of Supreme Court nominations and stars political operatives Peter Rena and Randi Brooks. It was an NPR Book of the Year. The series continued with the Washington Post bestseller The Good Lie, Oppo, and The Days to Come.

The heroes in the Rena and Brooks series are Republican ex-soldier Peter Rena and Democratic attorney and former Senate aide Randi Brooks. Virtually the last bipartisan consultants in Washington, they are blunt, savvy, and inclined to tell clients they cannot “fix” problems—only end them. The best way to do that, they add, is to tell the truth and then apologize. Someone might have told you reality is just perception you manufacture, they will say. But that is a lie. Facts have a habit of living forever, like diamonds.
Tom chose to make consultants his heroes rather than journalists because political novels are forward looking. Unlike murder mysteries, which solve crimes that have already happened, the mystery in politics novels is typically a dangerous plan that has been set in motion and must be stopped. What’s more, the true story is usually never fully made public. Journalists are not in the business of keeping things secret; they don’t usually know things until after they’ve happened; and they rarely know the whole story.

The Next Journalism
The Next Journalism
The Days to Come
The Days to Come
The Elements of Journalism
The Elements of Journalism
Oppo
Oppo
No results found.