Linda Wertheimer
As NPR's senior national correspondent, Linda Wertheimer travels the country and the globe for NPR News, bringing her unique insights and wealth of experience to bear on the day's top news stories.
A respected leader in media and a beloved figure to listeners who have followed her three-decade-long NPR career, Wertheimer provides clear-eyed analysis and thoughtful reporting on all NPR News programs.
Before taking the senior national correspondent post in 2002, Wertheimer spent 13 years hosting of NPR's news magazine All Things Considered. During that time, Wertheimer helped build the afternoon news program's audience to record levels. The show grew from six million listeners in 1989 to nearly 10 million listeners by spring of 2001, making it one of the top afternoon drive-time, news radio programs in the country. Wertheimer's influence on All Things Considered — and, by extension, all of public radio — has been profound.
She joined NPR at the network's inception, and served as All Things Considered's first director starting with its debut on May 3, 1971. In the more than 40 years since, she has served NPR in a variety of roles including reporter and host.
From 1974 to 1989, Wertheimer provided highly praised and award-winning coverage of national politics and Congress for NPR, serving as its congressional and then national political correspondent. Wertheimer traveled the country with major presidential candidates, covered state presidential primaries and the general elections, and regularly reported from Congress on the major events of the day — from the Watergate impeachment hearings to the Reagan Revolution to historic tax reform legislation to the Iran-Contra affair. During this period, Wertheimer covered four presidential and eight congressional elections for NPR.
In 1976, Wertheimer became the first woman to anchor network coverage of a presidential nomination convention and of election night. Over her career at NPR, she has anchored ten presidential nomination conventions and 12 election nights.
Wertheimer is the first person to broadcast live from inside the United States Senate chamber. Her 37 days of live coverage of the Senate Panama Canal Treaty debates won her a special Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University award.
In 1995, Wertheimer shared in an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Silver Baton Award given to NPR for its coverage of the first 100 days of the 104th Congress, the period that followed the 1994 Republican takeover of Congress.
Wertheimer has received numerous other journalism awards, including awards from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for her anchoring of The Iran-Contra Affair: A Special Report, a series of 41 half-hour programs on the Iran-Contra congressional hearings, from American Women in Radio/TV for her story Illegal Abortion, and from the American Legion for NPR's coverage of the Panama Treaty debates.
in 1997, Wertheimer was named one of the top 50 journalists in Washington by Washingtonian magazine and in 1998 as one of America's 200 most influential women by Vanity Fair.
A graduate of Wellesley College, Wertheimer received its highest alumni honor in 1985, the Distinguished Alumna Achievement Award. Wertheimer holds honorary degrees from Colby College, Wheaton College, and Illinois Wesleyan University.
Prior to joining NPR, Wertheimer worked for the British Broadcasting Corporation in London and for WCBS Radio in New York.
Her 1995 book, Listening to America: Twenty-five Years in the Life of a Nation as Heard on National Public Radio, published by Houghton Mifflin, celebrates NPR's history.
-
William Pryor's latest book, Virginia Woolf and the Raverats, takes readers inside the friendship between writer Virginia Woolf and the artists Jacques and Gwen Raverat. Their years of correspondence, many published for the first time, focused on art and mortality. Hear NPR's Linda Wertheimer and Pryor.
-
Michael Moore's documentary about President Bush's war on terror -- Fahrenheit 9/11 -- has won the Palme d'Or, top prize at the Cannes Film Festival. The politically charged film explores the links between the Bush family and Saudi Arabia. Hear NPR's Linda Wertheimer and Los Angeles Times film critic Ken Turan.
-
Writer and critic Luc Sante has edited a true-crime series of books. The Library of Larceny has republished the stories of bank robber Willie Sutton (Where the Money Was, pool room hustler Danny McGoorty (McGoorty) and pyramid schemer Charles Ponzi (Ponzi). Sante speaks with NPR's Linda Wertheimer.
-
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld may have been directly responsible for ordering the interrogation tactics used at the Abu Ghraib prison, according to an article by Seymour Hersh of The New Yorker. The Pentagon has issued a statement denying the report, while lawmakers are calling for an investigation. Hear NPR's Libby Lewis, NPR's Linda Wertheimer and Sen. Bill Nelson.
-
Sonia Gandhi is likely to become India's next prime minister. She's the Italian-born daughter-in-law of the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and the widow of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Her Congress Party staged a surprise electoral victory in recent parliamentary elections. Hear NPR's Linda Wertheimer talks to NPR's Philip Reeves.
-
Next week members of the Sept. 11 commission will hear testimony from the current and former heads of federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Commissioners want to know what structural reforms have taken place in government since Sept. 11, 2001, that would or could prevent future attacks. Hear NPR's Linda Wertheimer, public service professor Paul Light of New York University, and John MacGaffin, the CIA's former associate deputy director for operations.
-
The U.S. military calls for a cease-fire in Fallujah, but there are continuing skirmishes between American Marines and insurgents. A firefight north of Baghdad reportedly kills more than 40 Iraqis and wounds many Americans. Hear NPR's Linda Wertheimer and Rajiv Chandrasekaran of The Washington Post.
-
Singer-songwriter Thea Gilmore is just 24, but last fall she released her fifth CD, Avalanche. Her thought-provoking material reflects the influences of Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Elvis Costello and the Replacements. NPR's Linda Wertheimer talks with Gilmore about her music. -
Novelist Eudora Welty and her mother Chestina once lovingly tended a family garden at their Mississippi home. Now it's open to the public. Writer Jeanette Hardy previewed the restored garden. She speaks with NPR's Linda Wertheimer
-
NPR's Linda Wertheimer talks with the members of Anonymous 4 — an a cappella singing group — about their latest CD: American Angels: Songs of Hope, Redemption, & Glory. Unlike their earlier albums, this album focuses on 18th century American spirituals and shape-note music.
