Lawrence Wright
Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Looming Tower and staff writer for The New Yorker
Matt Bai
Columnist for The Washington Post and author of All the Truth is Out
“You don't face the next era by demanding the government of the last one. That's not who we are.”
Photo credit: Robyn Twomey
Matt Bai is one of the most respected political journalists in the country. He is a contributing columnist at The Washington Post and the author of All the Truth Is Out: The Week Politics Went Tabloid— adapted into a major motion picture, The Front Runner. Bai challenges the way we view the intersection of media and politics and draws unique connections that resonate with a wide variety of audiences.
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About Matt Bai
Matt Bai is a contributing columnist for The Washington Post. He previously served as the national political columnist for Yahoo News, and covered three presidential campaigns for the New York Times Magazine as chief political correspondent. He began his career as a city-desk reporter for The Boston Globe and a national correspondent for Newsweek. Bai has been a fellow at Harvard’s Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School of Government and a resident scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars in Washington. He is a graduate of Tufts and Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism
In November 2018, the film adaptation of Bai’s book All the Truth Is Out: The Week Politics Went Tabloid will be released in theaters. The film, The Front Runner, is directed by Jason Reitman and stars Hugh Jackman. Bai co-wrote the screenplay with Reitman and Jay Carson and served as an executive producer.
Bai lectures about the role of media in a political landscape and the influence of generational changes in American politics and society. He speaks frequently at universities, corporations, and journalism programs. He is also the author of The Argument: Inside the Battle to Remake Democratic Politics, which was honored as a New York Times Notable Book for 2007. He appeared in two episodes of the hit Netflix series House of Cards during in the show’s second season, playing himself.
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Speaking Topics
The Rise of Tabloid Politics
With a mix of history, personal experience and reflection, the author of All the Truth Is Out brings us back to first modern political scandal—the fall of Gary Hart in 1987—and its reverberating effect on our politics and journalism in the decades since. It's the story of how politics became entertainment, and a provocative argument for why America and its media often get the leaders they deserve. Bai also speaks about the process of adapting his book to the big screen for the feature film The Front Runner.
The Politics of Political Journalism
Teddy White and Walter Cronkite could never have imagined the pressures of covering politics and presidential campaigns in the online age. Withering attacks from both the left and right, upstart bloggers and amateur truth-squads—all have combined to erode the public's faith in once venerable political journalists. Why some critics are right to hold journalists accountable, and why others are simply pursuing an agenda at the public's expense.
Politics, The Next Generation
It's not really true to say the Internet has changed our politics. In truth, the Internet has changed everything in the society, from the way we find jobs to the way we buy cars and date—and politics is simply the last big institution to catch up. How the online revolution is bound to change Washington, and why it's time for a failed generation of leaders to get out of the way.
The Permanent Wave
Three straight presidents have now seen their parties lose control of Congress in "wave elections"—something unprecedented in American history. What's really going on? Maybe Americans really are swinging back and forth between ideologies. More likely, though, our turbulent politics reflects the larger trend in the society away from large institutions and limited choices—a trend that could spell the end of two-party politics as we've known it.
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Praise for Matt Bai
Speaking on ‘The Rise of Tabloid Politics’ and on the heels of Trump’s victory in the 2016 presidential election, Matt Bai provided a well-balanced presentation. Keeping his personal views out of the forefront, audience members appreciated Bai’s extensive political knowledge, professionalism and personable nature. We will be watching for more of Bai’s keen insights moving forward.
— Friends of Boca Grande Community Center, Boca Grande, FL.Each of [Bai’s] talks drew a full and engaged audience.… His knowledge, professionalism and candor were greatly appreciated and his media style and knowledge was first class. He is a professional and I would love to have him back in the future.
— PayPal AustraliaPraise for The Front Runner
An introspective book that is set in another era but offers insights into ours. . . . Bai says what is obvious—that the Donna Rice furor irreparably hurt Hart—but he also says what is less obvious, and very wise: that it hurt us all.
— The Boston GlobeIn buoyant, vivid prose . . . All the Truth Is Out gives the reader a visceral appreciation of how our political discourse has changed in the last two and a half decades, and how those changes reflect broader cultural and social shifts.
— Michiko Kakutani, The New York TimesA volume of insight and wisdom, an uncommon page-turner about the turning points we don’t recognize until we’re too far beyond them to turn back.
— Minneapolis Star TribunePraise for All The Truth is Out: The Week Politics Went Tabloid
Persuasive….[a] first-rate work of political journalism.
— Publishers WeeklyA new look at a scandal that changed American politics…[a] probing narrative.
— Kirkus ReviewsWhat a tally of loss is to be found in this passionate and unsparing book about a turning point in modern America—an insider’s account, brilliantly told by one of America’s finest political journalists.
— Lawrence Wright, author of The Looming TowerWith extraordinary care and rare insight, Matt Bai leads us from the unraveling of Gary Hart's presidential campaign in 1987 to the present day. It's a trail that leads directly to the triumph of tabloid journalism – exposing falsehoods rather than illuminating worldviews, finding character flaws and isolated transgressions rather than looking for experience and intelligence, playing ‘gotcha’ rather than examining a candidate’s capacity to govern. As Bai notes, that trail has brought American politics to a deadening end.
— Robert B. Reich, author of Aftershock -
Books by Matt Bai
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Featured Title
The Front Runner
“Perhaps you’re one of the many millions who believe something has gone sadly wrong in national politics. . . . If so, All the Truth Is Out is for you.”
—The Dallas Morning News
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