Jonathan V. Swan (born 7 August 1985)[1] is an Australian and American[2] political reporter for The New York Times. He won an Emmy Award for his 2020 interview with then-U.S. president Donald Trump.[3]

Jonathan Swan
Swan in 2018
Born (1985-08-07) 7 August 1985 (age 39)
Sydney, Australia
Alma materSydney Grammar School
OccupationJournalist
EmployerThe New York Times
Spouse
(m. 2019)
Children2
Parents

Early life

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Swan was born and raised in Australia.[4] He is Jewish[5][6][7] and the son of physician, journalist, and broadcaster Norman Swan.[8] The younger Swan began his career at The Sydney Morning Herald and later moved to the United States and in 2014, where he held a yearlong fellowship with the American Political Science Association. He remained in the U.S. and resumed his career in journalism in 2015.[9]

Career

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Swan joined The New York Times in 2023. He had previously covered the White House, Congress, and political campaigns for Axios had worked at publications in the U.S. and Australia, including The Hill and The Sydney Morning Herald.[10]

In August 2020, Swan conducted an interview with President Trump for Axios on HBO.[11] During the interview, Swan pointedly questioned and fact-checked numerous false, misleading, or bizarre statements as the President spoke them.[12] The New York Times media columnist Ben Smith wrote that Swan's was "perhaps the best interview of Mr. Trump’s term."[13]

Controversy

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In March and April 2019, HuffPost and Wired reported that Axios had paid a firm to improve its reputation by lobbying for changes to the Wikipedia articles on Axios and Swan.[14][15]

Recognition

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As a member of the Sydney Morning Herald in the Canberra Press Gallery, Swan received the Wallace Brown Award in 2014 for most outstanding young journalist.[16][17] In 2016, Politico named him one of "16 Breakout Media Stars."[18] In 2020, The Jerusalem Post named Swan in its list of the world's 50 most influential Jews.[19] In 2021, Axios was awarded an Emmy Award in the Best Edited Interview category for "President Donald J. Trump: An Interview" by Jonathan Swan, who accepted the award.[20] The White House Correspondents' Association presented Swan the 2022 Aldo Beckman award for "overall excellence in White House coverage."[21]

Personal life

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Swan married American reporter Betsy Woodruff of Politico on 14 September 2019. They have two children.[22] Swan became an American citizen in July 2024.[4][23]

References

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  1. ^ "Monday's birthdays". Politico. Retrieved 14 November 2018.
  2. ^ Swan, Jonathan. "Thanks for all the kind notes, everyone. Was a very emotional day. Proud to be an American". X (Twitter).
  3. ^ "Emmy Awards". Retrieved 28 September 2021.
  4. ^ a b Farhi, Paul (4 November 2018). "A fast-rising journalist hits a speed bump with his latest scoop about Trump". The Washington Post. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  5. ^ Kassel, Matthew (25 November 2020). "Jonathan Swan prepares to migrate to the Biden beat". Jewish Insider. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
  6. ^ Brinn, David (20 September 2020). "Jewish journalists make a difference in the world". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
  7. ^ Grisar, PJ (4 August 2020). "Jonathan Swan is the meme hero we need right now". The Forward. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  8. ^ "Aussie named as a US political breakout star". Crikey. 7 November 2016. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
  9. ^ "Jonathan Swan". ussc.edu.au. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  10. ^ Times, New York (10 November 2023). "Jonathan Swan NYT". New York Times. Retrieved 10 November 2023.
  11. ^ Barr, Jeremy (4 August 2020). "Axios's Jonathan Swan is the latest interviewer to leave Trump grasping on TV". Washington Post. Retrieved 10 November 2023.
  12. ^ Roach, April (4 August 2020). "Journalist Jonathan Swan praised as 'hero' after cornering Donald Trump in car crash interview". Evening Standard. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
  13. ^ Smith, Ben (6 September 2020). "Journalists Aren't the Enemy of the People. But We're Not Your Friends". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 September 2020.
  14. ^ Feinberg, Ashley (14 March 2019). "Facebook, Axios And NBC Paid This Guy To Whitewash Wikipedia Pages". HuffPost. Retrieved 17 May 2019.
  15. ^ Cohen, Noam (7 April 2019). "Want to Know How to Build a Better Democracy? Ask Wikipedia". Wired. Retrieved 17 May 2019.
  16. ^ "Jonathan Swan, APSA Congressional Fellowship 2014". American Australian Association Limited. Archived from the original on 12 August 2016. Retrieved 12 August 2016.
  17. ^ "Fairfax journalist Jonathan Swan awarded prestigious Wallace Brown Young Achiever Award". The Sydney Morning Herald. 20 May 2014. Retrieved 23 April 2015.
  18. ^ Gold, Hadas (6 November 2016). "16 breakout media stars of 2016". Politico. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
  19. ^ Brinn, David. "JPOST 50 INFLUENTIAL JEWS". Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 18 September 2020.
  20. ^ "ABC's 'The Shot: Race to the Vaccine,' CNN's 'The Death of George Floyd' Among News Emmy Winners". The Hollywood Reporter. 29 September 2021.
  21. ^ "WHCA ANNOUNCES 2022 JOURNALISM AWARDS". WHCA. 6 April 2022. Retrieved 6 May 2022.
  22. ^ Betsy Woodruff Swan [@woodruffbets] (9 September 2020). "A big hello to everyone from our brand new baby, Esther Jane Swan" (Tweet). Retrieved 5 November 2020 – via Twitter.
  23. ^ Swan, Jonathan. "Thanks for all the kind notes, everyone. Was a very emotional day. Proud to be an American". X (Twitter).