Reston, James Barrett

▪ 1996

      ("SCOTTY"), U.S. journalist (b. Nov. 3, 1909, Clydebank, Scotland—d. Dec. 6, 1995, Washington, D.C.), was considered one of the nation's most influential journalists during his 50-year association with the New York Times. He broke a number of his era's most important stories and counted two Pulitzer Prizes among his honours. After Reston graduated (1932) from the University of Illinois, former Ohio governor James Cox, for whom he had caddied at the Dayton Country Club, gave him a job on the Springfield (Ohio) Daily News, a Cox newspaper. That was followed by positions as publicity director for the Cincinnati Reds baseball team and sportswriter for the Associated Press in New York City and London. In 1939 he joined the London bureau of the New York Times. Reston was transferred to Washington in 1941 and, except for a leave in 1942 to set up the London bureau of the Office of War Information and 13 months in New York City as executive editor (1968-69) of the Times, spent the rest of his life there. He served in such positions as national correspondent (1945-48), diplomatic correspondent (1948-53), and Washington bureau chief (1953-64) and wrote a nationally syndicated column from 1953 to 1987. Reston's first big scoop came when he discovered the proposals for the formation of the UN being discussed at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference (1944). His coverage won him his first Pulitzer Prize (1945). His second Pulitzer (1957) was awarded for his articles on the impact of Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower's illness on the functioning of the government. Other media issues in which Reston figured were the Bay of Pigs invasion (1961); the Cuban missile crisis (1962), coverage of which he helped delay in the interest of national security; and the secret Pentagon Papers (1971) on the Vietnam War, the publication of which he supported. Reston was also instrumental in recruiting and nurturing journalistic talent and in the creation (1970) of the first op-ed page in a U.S. newspaper. He retired in 1989 on his 80th birthday. Among his honours was the Medal of Liberty; he was also made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire and a chevalier of the French Legion of Honour. His memoirs, Deadline, appeared in 1991.

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