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James Risen

Three years after graduating from Medill’s graduate program, James Risen (MSJ78) joined the Detroit Free Press. He stayed at the paper, covering labor issues and the city’s auto industry, until 1984. For the next 14 years, Risen served as a Los Angeles Times correspondent. He was the bureau chief of Detroit from 1984 to 1990 and chief economic correspondent in the Washington bureau for the next 5 years. Risen followed this position as a national security and intelligence reporter at the Los Angeles Times.

In 1998, Risen joined the staff of The New York Times as an intelligence and national security reporter. He and fellow reporter Eric Lichtblau won the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting eight years later. The pair reported on domestic eavesdropping for The Times, spurring a debate on civil privacy.