Howard Fineman

An award-winning writer, Fineman also is an NBC News analyst, contributing reports to the network and its cable affiliate MSNBC. He appeared frequently on Hardball with Chris Matthews, The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, and The Rachel Maddow Show. The author of scores of Newsweek cover stories, Fineman's work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The New Republic. His "Living Politics" column was posted weekly on Newsweek.com. Fineman authored his first book, The Thirteen American Arguments: Enduring Debates That Define and Inspire Our Country, in 2008.

Fineman has focused in recent years on the rise and times of George W. Bush. A Newsweek cover story in November 2001 featured the president's first extensive post-9/11 interview. Fineman's other awards include a "Page One" from the Headliners Club of New York, a "Silver Gavel" from the American Bar Association, and a "Deadline Club" from the Society of Professional Journalists.

In an extended dissection of the operation of pack journalism during the 1988 presidential campaign, author/journalist Richard Ben Cramer identifies a Fineman profile piece in Newsweek as the tipping point at which unattributed rumors and whispered speculation about the private life of Democratic candidate Gary Hart were made public and effectively legitimated. Fineman, Cramer writes, posed to a 1984 Hart campaign aide a series of leading, uncorroborated assertions about Hart's fidelity, finally prompting the aide to say, "Yuh, well, you know ... he'll always be in jeopardy ... if he can't keep his pants on." The aide later complained that the comment was off the record and, in any event, based solely on speculation, but Fineman bootstrapped the quote into publication with the unattributed lead-in "many political observers expect the rumors to emerge as a campaign issue." The subsequent, unprecedented media focus on the personal life of Hart, who to that point was the clear frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, resulted in Hart's decision to drop his candidacy.

Fineman reports for NBC, and has appeared on most major public affairs shows. He was a panelist on PBS's Washington Week in Review from 1983 to 1995, and on CNN's Capital Gang from 1995 to 1998.

He began his journalism career at The Louisville Courier-Journal, covering the environment, the coal industry and state politics before joining the newspaper's Washington bureau in 1978. He moved to Newsweek in 1980, was named Chief Political Correspondent in 1984, Deputy Washington Bureau Chief in 1993 and Senior Editor in 1995. He has become a regular guest on Tony Kornheiser's podcast (The Tony Kornheiser Show) offering political insight to Tony as well as Pittsburgh sports updates. Tony refers to him as "The Intergalactic Editor of the Huffington Post".

Fineman was raised in a Jewish family in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, the son of Jean (née Lederman) and Charles Fineman, both teachers. Fineman attended Colfax Elementary and Taylor Allderdice High School, graduating in 1966. The family belonged to the Tree of Life – Or L'Simcha Congregation, where Fineman celebrated his bar mitzvah. Fineman holds a B.A. from Colgate University, where he was Phi Beta Kappa and a member of Beta Theta Pi, an M.S. in journalism from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and a J.D. from the University of Louisville School of Law. His legal education also included a year at the Georgetown University Law Center. He was also a recipient of both the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship and the Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship for study in Europe, Russia and the Middle East.

Howard David Fineman (born November 17, 1948) is an American journalist. He previously was the global editorial director of the AOL Huffington Post Media Group. Prior to his move to Huffington Post, he was Newsweek's chief political correspondent, senior editor and deputy Washington bureau Chief.