Mara Liasson

Mara Liasson is the National Political Correspondent for National Public Radio and an "all-star" panelist for Fox News. She is on the board of trustees of Freedom House.

In October 2002, while appearing on a panel on Fox News, she denounced a congressmen who criticized President George W. Bush while visiting Iraq. "These guys are a disgrace. Look, everyone knows it's ... Politics 101 that you don't go to an adversary country, an enemy country, and badmouth the United States, its policies and the president of the United States. I mean, these guys ought to, I don't know, resign," she said.

Following complaints from NPR listeners, the NPR Ombudsman, Jeffrey Dvorkin, reviewed her comments.


 * "Each election year, Liasson provides key coverage of the candidates and issues in both presidential and congressional races. During her tenure she has covered three presidential elections -- in 1992, 1996, and 2000. Prior to her current assignment, Liasson was NPR's White House correspondent for all eight years of the Clinton administration. She has won the White House Correspondents Association's Merriman Smith Award for daily news coverage in 1994, 1995, and again in 1997. From 1989-1992 Liasson was NPR's congressional correspondent.


 * "Liasson joined NPR in 1985 as a general assignment reporter and newscaster. From September 1988 to June 1989 she took a leave of absence from NPR to attend Columbia University in New York as a recipient of a Knight-Bagehot Fellowship in Economics and Business Journalism. Prior to joining NPR, Liasson was a freelance radio and television reporter in San Francisco. She was also managing editor and anchor of California Edition, a California Public Radio nightly news program, and a print journalist for The Vineyard Gazette in Martha's Vineyard, Mass.


 * "Liasson is a graduate of Brown University where she earned a bachelor's degree in American History."