Fox Butterfield: Difference between revisions

|birth_date={{birth yeardate and age|1939|7|8}}

'''Fox Butterfield''' (born 8 July 1939)<ref>Shearer, isBenjamin anF. (2007). [[Unitedhttps://books.google.com/books?id=IzBxCP9QUo0C&dq=fox+butterfield+1939&pg=PA143 ''Home Front Heroes: A Biographical Dictionary of Americans During Wartime'' (Volume I)]. Greenwood Press. p. 143; States{{ISBN|0-313-33422-6}}. Retrieved 15 May 2020.</ref> is an American]] journalist who spent much of his 30-year career<ref>[http://www.ncjrs.gov/txtfiles1/177623-3.txt ''The 1999 Bureau of Justice Assistance National Partnership Meeting: Working Together for Peace and Justice in the 21st Century.'']</ref> reporting for ''[[The New York Times]]''.

Butterfield served as ''Times'' bureau chief in [[Saigon]], [[Tokyo]], [[Hong Kong]], [[Beijing]], and [[Boston]] and as a correspondent in [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] and [[New York City]]. During that time, he was awarded the [[Pulitzer Prize]] as a member of ''The New York Times'' team that published the [[Pentagon Papers]], the Pentagon's secret history of the Vietnam War, in 1971 and won a 1983 [[National Book Award for Nonfiction]] for ''China: Alive in the Bitter Sea'', an account of his experience as the first ''Times'' reporter allowed in China after the revolution.<ref name=nba1983>

This was the [[List of winners of the National Book Award#General Nonfiction|award for hardcover "General Nonfiction"]]. <br>From 1980 to 1983 in [[National Book Awards#History|National Book Awards history]] there were several nonfiction subcategories including General Nonfiction, with dual hardcover and paperback awards in most categories.</ref> He also wrote ''All God's Children: The Bosket Family and the American Tradition of Violence'' (1995)<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/newshour/gergen/butterfield.html "NewsHour Online: David Gergen interviews author Fox Butterfield"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131016035437/http://www.pbs.org/newshour/gergen/butterfield.html |date=2013-10-16 }}. Retrieved 2007-04-23.</ref> about the child criminal [[Willie Bosket]].

Butterfield was born in [[Lancaster, Pennsylvania]],<ref>[http://cwx.prenhall.com/bookbind/pubbooks/miller5/chapter7/custom2/deluxe-content.html ''The Prentice-Hall Reader'', Chapter 7 (6th Edition)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930020548/http://cwx.prenhall.com/bookbind/pubbooks/miller5/chapter7/custom2/deluxe-content.html |date=2007-09-30 }}. Retrieved 2007-04-23.</ref> the son of Lyman Henry Butterfield, a historian and a director of the [[Institute of Early American History and Culture]] in [[Williamsburg, Virginia]].<ref name="butterfield_society_nyt">"Elizabeth Mehren and Fox Butterfield, Newspaper Reporters, Marry in Utah." ''The New York Times'', January 31, 1988.</ref> The Canadian industrialist [[Cyrus S. Eaton]] was one of his grandfathers. His father named him "Fox" after the English Parliamentary leader, [[Charles James Fox]], who sided with the colonists.<ref name = "Zócalo">{{citation| title = Author and Journalist Fox Butterfield's|journal grandfathers= Zócalo| date = November 14, 2018| url = https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2018/11/14/author-journalist-fox-butterfield/personalities/in-the-green-room/}}</ref>

Butterfield graduated from the [[Lawrenceville School]] in 1957.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lawrenceville.org/about/history/notable-alumni/index.aspx |title=NOTABLE ALUMNI |publisher=The Lawrenceville School |accessdate=October 16, 2014 |archive-date=November 9, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161109003646/http://www.lawrenceville.org/about/history/notable-alumni/index.aspx |url-status=dead }}</ref> He received a bachelor's degree ''summa cum laude'', and master's degree, and doctorate of philosophy in Chinese history from [[Harvard University]]. In 1979 he was granted an honorary doctorate from the [[University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA]].

In 1988, Butterfield married Elizabeth Mehren, a reporter for ''[[The Los Angeles Times]]''.<ref name="butterfield_society_nyt"/> He has two children, Ethan and Sarah, from a previous marriage. to Ellen Sarkesian,He and Mehren had a daughter, Emily (26 Mar 1988-17 May 1988), and a son, Sam (1990–2013), with Mehren.<ref>[http://www.prematurity.org/mehren.html "Interview with Elizabeth Mehren, author of ''Born Too Soon''".] Retrieved 2007-04-23.</ref>

"The Butterfield wasEffect" notedis a term coined by [[James Taranto]] in his online editorial column for writing''[[The aWall sequenceStreet Journal]]'' called Best of the Web Today, typically bringing up a headline, "Fox Butterfield, Is That You?" later "Fox Butterfield, Call Your Office". Taranto coined the term after reading Butterfield's articles discussing the "paradox" of crime rates falling while the prison population grew due to tougher sentencing guidelines. Butterfield quoted F.B.I. statistics that from 1994 to 2003 there was a 16 percent drop in arrests for violent crime, including a 36 percent decrease in arrests for murder and a 25 percent decrease in arrests for robbery, but the tough new sentencing laws led to a growth in inmates being sent to prison.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1997/09/28/weekinreview/punitive-damages-crime-keeps-on-falling-but-prisons-keep-on-filling.html "Punitive Damages; Crime Keeps On Falling, but Prisons Keep On Filling"]; [https://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/28/national/28PRIS.html "Study Finds 2.6% Increase in U.S. Prison Population"];[https://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/08/national/08prisons.html?_r=1 "Despite Drop in Crime, an Increase in Inmates"]</ref> discussingTaranto theand "paradox"a of''[[Jewish crimeWorld ratesReview]]'' fallingcolumnist, whilealong with the prisonconservative population grew due''Weekly to tougher sentencing guidelinesStandard,'' withoutfelt everthat consideringButterfield theshould possibilityhave considered that the tougher sentencing guidelines maymight have reduced crime by causing more criminals to be imprisonedin jail.<ref name="jewishworldreview.com"/><ref>[{{cite web |url= http://archivewww.mrcjewishworldreview.orgcom/timeswatch1204/articles/2004/216graham120204.aspxasp TimesWatch:|title= Criminal Negligence of Cause and Effect]</ref> "The Butterfield Effect" is often brought up by|publisher= [[JamesJewish TarantoWorld Review]] in|first1= hisMichael column|last1= forGraham the|date= onlineDecember editorial page of the ''[[Wall Street Journal]]'' called Best of the Web Today2, typically2004|accessdate= bringing13 upMay a2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite headlineweb that|date=2000-08-21 displays the effect|title=The with the joke "Fox Butterfield, IsFollies That|url=https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/weekly-standard/the-fox-butterfield-follies You?"|access-date=2022-11-14 and|website=Washington later switched toExaminer "Fox Butterfield, Call Your Office."|language=en}}</ref>

* ''All God’sGod's Children: The Bosket Family and the American Tradition of Violence'' (1995)

* ''In My Father’sFather's House: A New View of How Crime Runs in the Family'', Knopf (2018)

*{{C-SPAN|Fox Butterfield42603}}

[[Category:The New York Times writersjournalists]]