Mark Whitaker (born c. 1957) is Senior Vice President of NBC News, the no.2 position in the news division. He oversees national and international reporting for all NBC News platforms, including NBC Nightly News, the Today show, MSNBC and MSNBC.com. Before joining NBC, Whitaker was the Editor of Newsweek, the first African-American to lead a national newsmagazine. While he ran the magazine, from 1998 until 2006, it won four National Magazine Awards--for coverage of 9/11, the Iraq War, the Monica Lewinsky scandal and the 2004 elections. From 2004 to 2006, Whitaker served as President of the American Society of Magazine Editors. In October 2006, Whitaker was appointed Vice President and Editor-in-Chief of New Ventures of Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive (WPNI), the digital division of the Washington Post Company. In April 2007, he launched Sprig.com, a Web site focused on environmentally-friendly living. Whitaker graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College in 1979, where he served on the editorial board of The Harvard Crimson. He received a Marshall Scholarship and studied International Relations at Oxford University's Balliol College from 1979 until 1981.
Qur'an Desecration Controversy
On April 30, 2005, Newsweek published an article by Michael Isikoff which included a claim that it had been confirmed by military investigators that a U.S. interrogator had flushed a Qur'an down a toilet at Guantanamo Bay detention camp[1]. Riots broke out in Afghanistan following the publication of this report, in which at least 15 people were killed. However, when Isikoff's anonymous source could not confirm details of the story, Whitaker was forced to issue a retraction, making headline news around the world.[2]
References
- ^ "Botched Report Puts Newsweek Editor in Front Of the Story", Washington Post, 2005-05-18. Retrieved on 2008-01-04.
- ^ "Newsweek withdraws Koran report", BBC News, 2005-05-17. Retrieved on 2008-01-04.
