Olivier Knox is a French American journalist who is the chief Washington correspondent for Sirius XM. In addition to his career at Agence France-Presse and Yahoo News, he is most known for chairing the White House Correspondents' Association and for his reboot of the White House Correspondents Dinner into its original format, which saw the elimination of the tradition of having a comedian as the featured speaker and an absence of A-list celebrities at the event.[1][2]
Olivier Knox | |
|---|---|
| Education | Columbia University (BA) Johns Hopkins University (MA) Middlebury College Language Schools |
| Occupation | journalist |
| Known for | chief Washington D.C. correspondent for Sirius XM former chair of the White House Correspondents' Association |
Education
editHe graduated from Columbia College in 1992 and obtained his graduate degree from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.[3][4] At Columbia, he studied with political scientist Charles V. Hamilton and Shakespeare scholar James S. Shapiro.[3] He also studied at the Middlebury College Language Schools, where he took a course in Italian, and graduated in 1994.[5]
Career
editHe began his career as an Agence France-Presse desk editor and worked as a Congressional and White House correspondent for 15 years, during which he covered the impeachment of Bill Clinton, Al Gore's presidential campaign, as well as the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations.[6] He covered the White House for AFP from 2000 to 2009, right until Barack Obama's inauguration.[7]
In 2012, he was hired by Yahoo news as its first White House correspondent and later became its chief Washington correspondent. He also hosted a weekly political round-table show on P.O.T.U.S. for three years on behalf of Yahoo News.[8][9] In 2018, he was named the new chief Washington correspondent for SiriusXM.[10] He returned to the P.O.T.U.S. channel and is now hosting a radio talk show called "The Big Picture".[11]
He was elected president of the White House Correspondents' Association from 2018 to 2019, beating Major Garrett of CBS News, 121 to 90 votes.[12][13] During the White House Correspondents Dinner of 2019, he announced an annual prize of $25,000 for the best piece of investigative political journalism focused on accountability in state government.[14]
In preparation of the dinner that year, Knox broke with tradition by making a departure from the lighthearted and star-studded atmosphere of previous years' dinners and giving it a more serious tone with the invitation of historian and biographer Ron Chernow, instead of a professional comedian, as the featured speaker.[2][15] The dinner also saw reduced attendance of Hollywood celebrities from previous years.[16] Knox welcomed those changes, saying that he wanted to return the event to its original roots and do away with the "celebrification" of the dinner.[15]
Personal life
editKnox lives in Bethesda, Maryland with his wife, Jennifer Lewis, and their son.[17] He is the son of Middlebury College professors Edward C. Knox and the late Huguette-Laure Knox, both of whom taught in the French Department.[18] His father is American and his mother is French. He was born in Vermont, but grew up in both France and the United States.[19]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Evans, Garrett (2019-04-10). "White House correspondents' dinner gets a reset". TheHill. Retrieved 2020-05-22.
- ^ a b "History in the making for White House Correspondents Dinner". Roll Call. 28 April 2019. Retrieved 2020-05-22.
- ^ a b "Take Five with Olivier Knox '92". Columbia College Today. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
- ^ "Olivier Knox". WHHA (en-US). Retrieved 2020-05-22.
- ^ "Former White House reporter Olivier Knox speaks on October 7". Middlebury. 2009-12-17. Retrieved 2020-05-22.
- ^ "Olivier Knox | School of Media & Public Affairs (SMPA) | The George Washington University". smpa.gwu.edu. Retrieved 2020-05-22.
- ^ "Yahoo! News' Bombshell Hire: AFP's Olivier Knox". www.adweek.com. February 2012. Retrieved 2020-05-22.
- ^ "Yahoo News hires Olivier Knox as its first White House correspondent". www.yahoo.com. February 2012. Retrieved 2020-05-22.
- ^ Lippman, Daniel (18 July 2017). "BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Olivier Knox, chief Washington correspondent for Yahoo News". Politico. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
- ^ "Olivier Knox named new chief Washington correspondent for SiriusXM". Hear & Now. 2018-04-05. Retrieved 2020-05-22.
- ^ "Veteran Journalist Olivier Knox Named SiriusXM's Chief Washington Correspondent". siriusxm2019cr.q4web.com. Retrieved 2020-05-22.
- ^ Hains, Tim (April 28, 2019). "Head of WH Correspondents' Association Olivier Knox: "Enemy Of The People" Is Not A Punchline". www.realclearpolitics.com. Retrieved 2020-05-22.
- ^ Gold, Hadas (15 July 2016). "Olivier Knox elected WHCA president for 2018-2019". POLITICO. Retrieved 2020-05-22.
- ^ Rao, Sonia. "What you missed from the White House correspondents' dinner, from digs at Trump to Ron Chernow's quips". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
- ^ a b Heil, Emily. "How the White House correspondents' dinner lost its sense of humor". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
- ^ Polus, Sarah. "The star power expected for this year's White House correspondents' dinner? Basically just Jay Leno". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
- ^ "An Insider's Guide to the White House Correspondents' Dinner". The Hollywood Reporter. 29 April 2016. Retrieved 2020-05-22.
- ^ "In Memoriam: Huguette-Laure Knox". Middlebury. 2018-05-14. Retrieved 2020-05-22.
- ^ Hess, Stephen (2006). Through their eyes : foreign correspondents in the United States. Brookings Institution Press. p. 39. ISBN 0815735820. OCLC 1090032512.