Frank Rich - biography

Frank Rich (born June 2, 1949 in Washington, D.C.) is a columnist for The New York Times who focuses on American politics and popular culture. His column ran on the front page of the Sunday arts and leisure section from 2003 to 2005; it now appears in the expanded Sunday Week in Review section.

From 1980 to 1993, Rich was the Times' chief theater critic. He was sometimes known as "the Butcher of Broadway," not only for the perceived frequency and acerbity of his negative reviews, but also for the supposed influence that those reviews carried in determining whether or not a producer would close a show. But Rich wasn't always negative; he enthusiastically championed what were then new and diverse voices in American playwriting like August Wilson, David Henry Hwang, Tony Kushner and Scott McPherson. Additionally, he lobbied for much of the work done during his tenure by established dramatists like John Guare and Stephen Sondheim.

His reviews have been collected in a book, Hot Seat: Theater Criticism for The New York Times, 1980-1993 (ISBN 0-679-45300-8), published in 1998. One of the running themes in the book is Rich's attempt to disprove the perceived power of his position as the Times' Chief Drama Critic. As an addendum to the anthology, Rich provides statistics demonstrating a dozen or more shows that he panned which racked up long runs, as well as many shows that got raves from him but couldn't stay open more than a few weeks. He published a memoir, Ghost Light (ISBN 0-375-75824-0), in 2000.

Rich authored the book The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth from 9/11 to Katrina, a criticism of the post-9/11 policies of the George W. Bush administration and especially of its use of PR. The book's fame was bolstered by a recurring endorsement on The Colbert Report following host Stephen Colbert's mock-"outrage" that Hugo Chávez had increased sales of Noam Chomsky's Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance to the Number 1 spot at Amazon.com, dropping Rich's book to spot 2.

Rich makes regular references to a broad range of popular culture — including television, movies, theater, and literature — and draws connections to politics and current events. In a January 2006 appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show, he commented on the James Frey memoir scandal. On that show, he expanded on his usage in his column of the term "truthiness" (originally coined on The Colbert Report) to summarize a variety of parallel ills in culture and politics. In 2005, Rich received the George Polk Award [1] given annually by Long Island University to honor contributions to journalistic integrity and investigative reporting.

Rich graduated from Harvard in 1971, where he was editorial chairman of the Harvard Crimson, studied American History and Literature, and lived in Lowell House. Before joining the Times in 1980, he was a film critic for Time. He is Jewish.[2] He is married to Alex Witchel, who also writes for the Times, and has two sons from his previous marriage to Gail Winston. He lives in Manhattan.





Criticisms
Rich is often criticized by Bill O'Reilly, host of The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News Channel. Rich is openly critical of Fox News Channel, accusing it of having a conservative bias. [3] O'Reilly cites Rich's 2007 award from GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) as proof of his bias[4]. O'Reilly has also called Rich a hypocrite on O'Reilly's radio broadcast April 16, 2007 in response to Rich calling Mel Gibson anti-semitic for his movie, The Passion of the Christ, despite Rich's friendly nature with controversial commentator Don Imus who has called New York City based sportscaster Len Berman "Lenny the Jew" on a 60 Minutes Broadcast in 1998.


Books
The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth from 9/11 to Katrina (ISBN 1-59420-098-X)
Ghost Light: A Memoir (ISBN 0-375-75824-0)

References
^ George Polk Awards for Journalism press release. Long Island University. Retrieved on November 15, 2006.
^ Everybody hates Don Imus. Retrieved on April 15, 2007.
^ Frank Rich. This Time Bill O'Reilly Got It Right. Retrieved on April 5, 2007.
^ Patti LaBelle, Tom Ford, Kate Clinton Honored at 18th Annual GLAAD Media Awards in New York. Retrieved on April 5, 2007.

External links
"Meet Frank Rich", New York Times biographical video interview (Requires TimesSelect subscription)
Index of New York Times columns by Frank Rich requires "Times Select" membership to view individual articles.
Harvard Crimson pieces
Rich participates in extended political discussion with Andrew Rosenthal, David Brooks and Maureen Dowd, New York Times video, July 17, 2006 (TimesSelect subscription required)]
Reviewing "Reality" - New York Times columnist Frank Rich views political life through a theatrical lens, by Craig Lambert, Harvard Magazine, July-August 2007