More on NYT changes

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

John Schwartz to Join National
Suzanne Daley and David Firestone write:



Reporters here are sometimes described as adventurous when they write  
for other sections.

And then there's John Schwartz.

In his career here, he has experienced zero-gravity twice, flown a  
jetpack, ridden in a prototype of a lunar truck, driven a car shaped  
like a cupcake, gone down into the sewers of Albuquerque, ridden out a  
hurricane in New Orleans in the Corps of Engineers bunker, gotten  
zapped with one million volts of electricity by a giant Tesla coil  
while wearing a metal suit, and drunk water made from recycled urine  
and sweat. And he has done it all with an effusive combination of  
serious science and learned mirth that has made his byline a cult  
favorite among readers and assignment editors around the paper.

Now, we're proud to announce, John will undertake the greatest  
adventure of them all: working for the National Desk as the paper's  
national legal correspondent.

There are, in fact, many flavors of Schwartz. Those who have only  
known John in his incarnation as the paper's own Tom Swift may not be  
aware that he is also a lawyer (JD '84 from UT), who wrote extensively  
about legal issues during his time at the Washington Post. He covered  
the dozens of suits brought by states against the tobacco industry,  
and profiled the law firms that work for big tobacco. He was also  
there for the early days of cyberlaw, writing about the evolution of  
First Amendment law on the Internet and the Communications Decency Act.

That makes him the perfect candidate to replace the nearly  
irreplacable Adam Liptak in covering the law and alternating with Adam  
in writing the weekly Sidebar column. John will continue the paper's  
franchise coverage of courts and legal issues around the nation, from  
gay marriage to capital punishment to the latest thinking about  
executive power. His deep understanding of science and the online  
world will help us expand our legal coverage into those areas,  
especially as we integrate more closely with the web. And he will do  
so with his trademark clarity and cleverness.

As you can see from the accompanying photo, he was elated to get the  
job, and we feel the same way.

Suzanne Daley and David Firestone





On Dec 11, 2008, at 4:08 PM, David Farber wrote:

> JOHN MARKOFF TO JOIN SCIENCE
>
> [Announcement from The New York Times:]
>
> John Markoff, whose trailblazing work for The Times is a virtual  
> history of the computer age, is taking an exciting new assignment.  
> John is switching from Business Day to Science, where he will write  
> widely and deeply about the impact of computer science in every  
> modern endeavor.
>
> One of the more alarming areas John will explore -- you don't even  
> want to know -- is cyberwarfare and cybersecurity. He will cover,  
> too, advances in computational science that are transforming the  
> pursuit of other kinds of science. And he will peer into the future  
> of computing to tell us how our everyday lives may change.
>
> Another important part of his portfolio will be national science and  
> technology policy, as the Obama administration gears up for a new  
> era of government investment in research and development. To the  
> extent that this push is tied to hopes for economic recovery and  
> American competitiveness, John will often find himself in the thick  
> of the news. ...
>
>
> For more than three decades John has been the pre-eminent chronicler  
> of Silicon Valley, having started as a defense and technology writer  
> for Pacific News Service in 1977. He joined The Times in 1988, and  
> has since been regaling and informing readers about this fascinating  
> and increasingly important part of our world. ... And he was the  
> first to write about the ever-evolving World Wide Web.
>
>
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