David Finkel
David Finkel at the 2013 Texas Book Festival.
David Finkel at the 2013 Texas Book Festival.
BornDavid Louis Finkel
October 28, 1955
OccupationReporter, writer
EducationUniversity of Florida
Notable awardsMacArthur Fellow
Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting

David Louis Finkel (born October 28, 1955) is an American journalist. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 2006 as a staff writer at The Washington Post.[1][2] As of January 2017, he was national enterprise editor at the Post.[3] He has also worked for the Post's foreign staff division. He wrote The Good Soldiers and Thank You for Your Service. He is a 2012 MacArthur Fellow.[4]

Work

Finkel's book The Good Soldiers describes several months he spent in 2007 as an embedded reporter with 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment of the 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, also known as the "2-16 Rangers", as they worked to stabilize a portion of Baghdad.[5]

The logs of Chelsea Manning's IM chats with Adrian Lamo state that David Finkel was given the Collateral Murder video but did not release it.[6] David Finkel has never publicly disclosed whether he had the video or not. In a washingtonpost.com webchat, he said, "I based the account in my book The Good Soldiers on multiple sources, all unclassified. Without going into details, I'll say the best source of information was being there [in Iraq]."[7] At a February 2013 pretrial hearing, Manning stated that Finkel "was quoting, I feel in verbatim, the audio communications of the aerial weapons team crew." She said, however, that she was "aghast" at Finkel's portrayal of the incident. "Reading his account," she explained, "one would believe the engagement was somehow justified as 'payback' for an earlier attack that led to the death of a soldier."[8]

Awards

Education

Finkel earned a Bachelor's degree in broadcasting from the University of Florida in 1977.[12]

Personal life

He lives in the Washington, D.C., area.[13]

References

  1. ^ a b "The 2006 Pulitzer Prize Winners: Explanatory Reporting". The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 2013-11-01. With short biography and reprints of 3 works (December 2005 Washington Post articles).
  2. ^ "Nieman Narrative Digest". Archived from the original on September 5, 2006.((cite web)): CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  3. ^ "Chico Harlan, Jessica Contrera join National Enterprise team". January 12, 2017.
  4. ^ "2012 MacArthur Foundation 'Genius Grant' Winners". AP. Archived from the original on October 2, 2012. Retrieved July 25, 2017.((cite web)): CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  5. ^ "Book Discussion on The Good Soldiers". C-SPAN. 5 October 2009. Retrieved 26 April 2015. David Finkel talked about his book The Good Soldiers (Farrar, Straus and Giroux; September 15, 2009). In his book he recounts the fifteen months he spent with Army Battalion 2-16, part of the U.S. forces that carried out the surge in 2007-2008. Battalion 2-16 was charged with securing part of Baghdad. Mr. Finkel read passages from his book and talked about his experiences with the soldiers in Iraq. He talked about how their tour of duty changed the soldiers and their evaluations of the success of the surge. He also responded to questions from members of the audience.
  6. ^ Poulsen, Kevin; Zetter, Kim (10 June 2010). "'I Can't Believe What I'm Confessing to You': The Wikileaks Chats". Wired.
  7. ^ Finkel, David (6 April 2010). "Video shows death of 2 Reuters employees in Baghdad attack". The Washington Post.
  8. ^ "Bradley Manning's statements during his trial". The Guardian. London. 1 March 2013.
  9. ^ "The Cornelius Ryan Award 2009". opcofamerica.org. April 22, 2010. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
  10. ^ "Announcing the National Book Critics Awards Finalists for Publishing Year 2013". National Book Critics Circle. January 14, 2014. Archived from the original on January 15, 2014. Retrieved January 14, 2014.
  11. ^ "Erikson Prize for Excellence in Mental Health Media - Austen Riggs Center". Archived from the original on 2018-07-20. Retrieved 2015-09-12.
  12. ^ "David Finkel". UF College of Journalism and Communications. Retrieved 2023-02-15.
  13. ^ http://www.pritzkermilitary.org/whats_on/pritzker-military-presents/david-finkel-thank-you-your-service/ Promotional announcement for Finkel's 2013 appearance at the Pitzker Military Library

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