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Jim Newton is a journalist, author and lecturer of Communication Studies and Public Policy at UCLA. He is most known as a biographer and historian and for his 25-year tenure at the Los Angeles Times, covering politics and the LAPD. He is a frequent guest lecturer and public speaker, and a regular commentator in print, radio and television.
Education
Born in Palo Alto, CA, and raised in California; Massachusetts; Arizona; Washington; and Guadalajara, Mexico, Newton graduated from Palo Alto High School in 1981. Newton attended Dartmouth College from 1981 to 1985. While at Dartmouth he was a member of Casque and Gauntlet senior honor society and was publisher of the Daily Dartmouth. His senior thesis in Government was awarded the Pressman Prize and was later published by “Polity, the New England Journal of Political Science.” He graduated with highest department honors in Government in 1985.
He was a John Jacobs Fellow at UC Berkeley from 2004 to 2005 and a Senior Fellow in Public Affairs at UCLA from 2009 to 2014.
Journalism
Newton began his career in journalism in 1985 when he served as a clerk to New York Times columnist James Reston until 1987. Reston’s clerkship was modeled after that of the United States Supreme Court, and Newton was one in a long line of clerks to serve with Reston in the Times’ Washington bureau. During his time at the New York Times, Newton also served as a news assistant assigned to the foreign desk. He then worked as a reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for two years, first covering suburban county government, then Atlanta City Hall and Mayor Andrew Young. He left the Constitution to join the Los Angeles Times in 1989.
Los Angeles Times
Over the course of a 25-year career at The Times, Newton served as a reporter, editor, bureau chief, department head, editorial page editor, columnist and editor-at-large. He covered the LAPD, Mayor Richard Riordan, state and local politics and breaking news as well as investigations. He was the lead reporter on the civil rights trial of the LAPD officers who beat Rodney G. King in 1991, and on the murder trial of OJ Simpson in 1994 and 1995. As editorial page editor, he oversaw The Times’ editorials on all issues, including its presidential endorsements in 2008, when The Times, for the first time in its history, endorsed a Democrat for president (Barack Obama). He played a significant role in two reporting efforts, the 1992 riots and the 1994 Northridge earthquake, that were awarded Pulitzer Prizes for the staff.
UCLA
At UCLA, Newton serves as editor-in-chief of Blueprint, a magazine focused on public policy issues in Los Angeles and California. He is also a lecturer in Public Policy and Communication Studies and a senior consultant with UCLA magazine.
Publications
Newton is the author or co-author of four major works of American biography and history. They are: Justice for All: Earl Warren and the Nation He Made,” “Eisenhower: The White House Years,” “Worthy Fights: A Memoir of Leadership in War and Peace,” (with Leon Panetta), and “Man of Tomorrow: The Relentless Life of Jerry Brown.” All were critically well-received, all were regional best-sellers and “Worthy Fights” was a New York Times best-seller. Together, they have established Newton as a leading contemporary American historian, with special expertise in the history, culture and politics of California.
Sample reviews:
“Justice for All: Earl Warren and the Nation He Made,” Riverhead, 2006
“The definitive biography of Earl Warren for this generation ,,, [a] masterful narrative.” Publishers Weekly
“Eisenhower: The White House Years,” Doubleday, 2011
“Newton's narrative, especially of the many international crises, is clear, brisk, and insightful, a timely study of a master of consensus politics with lessons for today's polarized Washington.” Publishers Weekly
“Worthy Fights: A Memoir of Leadership in War and Peace,” Penguin Press, 2014 (co-author)
“A valuable portrait of how to get things done in Washington.” Kirkus Reviews
“Man of Tomorrow: The Relentless Life of Jerry Brown,” Little, Brown, 2020
“It is the play of this man of the mind against the experience of a veteran newsman — once the editorial page editor of the Times, now affiliated with UCLA — that makes this volume a formidable contribution to the history of both the state and the country.” Los Angeles Times
Other work:
Newton is a member of the boards of the First Amendment Coalition, the California Policy Lab and the Gooden Center in Pasadena. He also is a member of the advisory board of the Geffen Academy at UCLA.
Personal:
Newton is married to Karlene Goller, former deputy general counsel of the Los Angeles Times and now a First Amendment lawyer representing journalists, authors, news organizations and others. He has one son, Jack Newton, a college student.