Hedrick Smith

Author, Reporter, & Producer

Hedrick Smith, a Pulitzer Prize-winning former New York Times reporter and editor and Emmy award-winning producer/correspondent, has established himself over the past 50 years as one of America’s premier journalists. His current best-seller, Who Stole the American Dream? is a stunning account of how we have become Two Americas. As a sequel, Mr. Smith has created reclaimtheamericandream.org, an informational website on reform issues and strategies. In 26 years with The New York Times, Smith served in Saigon, Cairo, Paris, the American South and as bureau chief in Moscow and Washington. In 1971, he was a member of the Pulitzer Prize-winning team for the Pentagon Papers series and in 1974, he won the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting from Russia and Eastern Europe. His subsequent book, The Russians, was a No.1 American best-seller translated into 16 languages. Smith’s next book, The Power Game: How Washington Works, was bedside reading for President Clinton. Many members of Congress used it as a political bible. He has written three other best-sellers. For PBS, Hedrick Smith has created 26 prime-time specials and mini-series since 1989 on such varied topics as “Inside the Terror Network,” “Is Wal-Mart Good for America?” “The Wall Street Fix,” “Inside Gorbachev’s USSR,” “Can You Afford to Retire?” and “Rediscovering Dave Brubeck.” He has won television’s top awards including two Emmys, two national public service awards from sigma Delta Chi, and two Dupont-Columbia Gold batons for the best public affairs programs on U.S. television in 1991 and in 2002.