James Martin Rosen is an American journalist and former Pentagon correspondent for McClatchy. He has covered politics since the 1980s, and has received two National Press Club awards for his reporting in Washington D.C. In 2021 he was honored for general column writing by the Society of Professional Journalists.^[1] His columns have appeared in the New York Daily News, The News & Observer, the Miami Herald and the Tribune Content Agency. In 2017 and 2018, he received awards from the Military Reporters and Editors Association for his coverage of the Pentagon.^[2]

Background

James Rosen is a native of the Detroit area.^[3] He grew up in Oak Park, Michigan.^[4] He attended the University of California at Berkeley for his undergraduate degrees in Political Science and Russian Language, and later received his master's degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.^[5]

Positions

Rosen served as a Moscow correspondent for UPI, and upon his return to the U.S., he was a reporter for the New York Daily News and an assistant metro editor for the Raleigh News & Observer. Rosen's 1991 front-page New York Daily News article about Donald Trump having stopped a mugging was circulated and commented upon during Donald Trump's 2016 US Presidential campaign.^[6] Rosen later became a news strategist, a congressional reporter for McClatchy Newspapers and a frequent contributor to Tribune News Service, before becoming a Pentagon correspondent for McClatchy^[5] and Washington correspondent for the Miami Herald. He has also served as a political expert for C-SPAN,^[7] NPR,^[8] and CBS.^[9]

Reporting

During his time as a UPI reporter Rosen covered the collapse of Soviet rule.^[10] Later, he began to cover American politics, including the interactions and friction between Senator Jesse Helms and President Bill Clinton.^[11][12] His 1994 article quoting Helms saying Clinton would need a bodyguard if he came to North Carolina prompted congressional hearings and a Secret Service investigation.^[13] Rosen's 1996 article about Rep. Fred Heineman claiming he was middle class prompted ridicule in Congress with posters displayed in the House of Representatives. The comment was used in TV political ads against Heineman and were attributed to causing his re-election defeat.^[14]

In 1998 Rosen received the Robin Goldstein Award for Washington Regional Reporting from the National Press Club and the National Press Foundation. The award citation described his work during the 1990s as including, “tobacco legislation and … insightful profiles, including a critical view of the plight of black family farmers in North Carolina and a heart-felt tribute column to his own father — all of which showed a keen insight into how Washington-based stories affect the readers back home.”^[15]

In 2000 he received the McClatchy President's Award for his coverage of the 2000 Presidential recount in Florida.^[5] He continued to write stories for McClatchy, often with a focus on a Carolinian perspective.^[16] His stories have included coverage of stimulus funds,^[17] Carolinian politicians like Jim DeMint,^[18] and both the Obama^[19] and the Trump administrations.^[20] In 2012 Rosen received the National Press Club Award for Regional Reporting^[21][22] in Washington D.C.^[23] In 2017 Rosen received the James Crawley Award from The Military Reporters and Editors Association for his 2015–16 coverage of the common military target of both the Russian and American militaries (Syria) and the place in history of these parallel efforts.^[24] In 2018 Rosen received the Joe Galloway Award from The Military Reporters and Editors Association for his investigative project documenting how elements of the Saudi government evaded responsibility for their role in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. The project also reported 9/11 families' anger over the U.S. government's role in protecting the Saudis.^[25]

Books

In 2016 Rosen co-authored the novel High Hand^[9] under a collective pseudonym “Curtis J. James,” a mash-up of his name and those of the two other authors.^[5] The New York Times said the work grasped “the complex craft of espionage,” and used it to create “an enthralling work of fiction that is high-voltage from the opening scene.”^[3] A second edition of the book was published in 2018.

References