Journalist
“You tell me whar a man gits his corn pone, en I’ll tell you what his ‘pinions is.” Mara Liasson’s quote in the 1973 Bandersnatch was prophetic. Her career in journalism suggests she has been tracking down that “corn pone” ever since.
After Scarsdale High School, Liasson attended Brown University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in American History. Before joining National Public Radio, she was the managing editor of a California Public Radio evening news program, a freelance radio and television reporter in San Francisco and a print journalist for a small newspaper in Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.
In 1985, Liasson was hired as a newscaster and a general assignment reporter by NPR. Four years later, she was promoted and given the title, “ NPR’s Congressional Correspondent,” a position she held until 1992. In that year Liasson was assigned to cover the presidential election. In her new role as “NPR’s White House Correspondent” she covered daily political events, the Clinton presidency and the presidential elections of 1996 and 2000. During that time period, she won the White House Correspondents award for daily news coverage in 1994, 1995 and 1997.
Now Liasson is the national political correspondent for NPR. She is a regular on All Things Considered and Morning Edition and for years appeared on Washington Week in Review.
Paralleling her career with NPR, since 1997, Liasson has been a political correspondent for Fox News Channel, serving as a contributor to Brit Hume’s political program and as a panelist on Fox News Sunday. Wherever she is, Mara Liasson continues to earn the respect of her colleagues and the admiration of her many fans.