Martha Raddatz

Early life

Raddatz was born in Idaho Falls, Idaho, to Edward Dustin Raddatz and Doris Elaine (née Anderson). Her family later moved to Salt Lake City. She attended the University of Utah but dropped out to work at a local station. Raddatz is Jewish.

Career

Prior to 1993, Raddatz was the chief correspondent at the ABC News Boston affiliate WCVB-TV. From 1993 to 1998, Raddatz covered the Pentagon for National Public Radio.

Raddatz began her tenure at ABC News in 1999 as the network's State Department correspondent and became ABC's senior national security correspondent in May 2003, reporting extensively from Iraq. On June 8, 2006, Raddatz received a tip that terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had been located and killed. This tip allowed Raddatz and ABC News to become the first news organization in the world to break the news shortly after 2:30 a.m. EST.

In a March 24, 2008, extended interview with Dick Cheney conducted in Ankara, Turkey, on the fifth anniversary of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Raddatz posed a question about public opinion polls showing that Americans had lost confidence in the war, a question to which Cheney responded by saying "So?" Raddatz appeared taken aback by the response, and Cheney's remark prompted widespread criticism, including a Washington Post op-ed by former Republican Congressman and Cheney friend Mickey Edwards.

Raddatz is also the author of the New York Times bestseller The Long Road Home: A Story of War and Family, a book about the Siege of Sadr City, Iraq. A TV mini series based on the book aired on NatGeo in late 2017.

After the national security beat, Raddatz became the network's chief White House correspondent for the last term of the George W. Bush administration.

Raddatz was appointed as ABC's Senior Foreign Affairs Correspondent in November 2008.

Raddatz served as the moderator of the Vice-Presidential debate on October 11, 2012, between Paul Ryan and Joe Biden at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky. Raddatz also served alongside Anderson Cooper as co-moderator for the second presidential debate in 2016, between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump at Washington University in St. Louis. Cooper and Raddatz were reviewed and some commentators noted their "no-nonsense approach" and "aggressive style", though Raddatz was criticized for a challenge to one of Trump's statements, which some journalists felt "fell outside of her mandate as moderator".

The Guardian said in 2014 that Raddatz "is known for having well-cultivated sources inside the Defense Department."

Raddatz appeared as a reporter interviewing the President-elect of the United States in the 2017 episode "Imminent Risk" of the Showtime series Homeland.

Personal life

Raddatz resides in Arlington, Virginia, with her third husband, journalist Tom Gjelten. She has two children from two previous marriages: a daughter, Greta Bradlee, and a son, Jake Genachowski. Her first husband was Ben Bradlee Jr., a Pulitzer Prize-winning editor for The Boston Globe, biographer, and son of former Washington Post executive editor Benjamin C. Bradlee. Her second husband was Julius Genachowski, chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission under the Obama administration. President Barack Obama attended their wedding in 1991, when he and Genachowski were students at Harvard Law School.

References

References

1. "A best-selling book by former Utahn Martha Raddatz is now a shattering miniseries about war and family".
2. (2016-11-29). "Women of Washington: Martha Raddatz of ABC News".
3. gw.geneanet.org/
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5. Kurtz, Howard. "Martha Raddatz, Putting Herself in the Thick of Things". [[The Washington Post]].
6. (February 25, 2009). "Martha Raddatz". [[ABCNews.com]].
7. Bauder, David. (June 8, 2006). "ABC News scores overnight beat on story of al-Zarqawi's death". [[San Diego Union Tribune]].
8. (March 24, 2008). "Full Interview: Dick Cheney on Iraq". ABC News.
9. Edwards, Mickey. (March 22, 2008). "Dick Cheney's Error: It's Government By the People". [[The Washington Post]].
10. Raddatz, Martha. (January 9, 2007). "Tone of the Briefing".
11. (August 13, 2012). "Martha Raddatz to Moderate VP Debate".
12. Borchers, Callum. (2016-09-29). "Anderson Cooper and Martha Raddatz drop hints about the second Clinton-Trump debate". The Washington Post.
13. Grinapol, Corinne. (October 10, 2016). "How Did Martha Raddatz and Anderson Cooper Do as Moderators?". [[Adweek]].
14. (March 13, 2014). "MH370 search: Pentagon sends destroyer through Malacca Strait – live". [[The Guardian]].
15. Littleton, Cynthia. (March 6, 2017). "''Homeland'' Recap: Dar Adal Works All Angles in Episode 7, 'Imminent Risk'". [[Variety (magazine).
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17. (2008). "[[Contemporary Authors]]". [[Gale (publisher).
18. Larkin, Johnnie. (June 11, 2011). "Martha Raddatz is Chief White House correspondent for ABC News". TV Newsroom.
19. "Ben Bradlee Jr.". The Boston Globe.
20. Groer, Annie. (February 16, 2010). "Quinn Bradlee to Marry on Greta Bradlee's Long-Planned Wedding Day". Politics Daily.
21. "FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski". Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved July 7, 2009
22. (October 10, 2012). "ABC News defends Martha Raddatz". [[USA Today]].