Pen name Mark Bowden Role Writer Name Mark Bowden | Nationality American Occupation Author Spouse Gail Louise McLaughlin | |
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Born Mark Robert Bowden
July 17, 1951 (age 72)
St. Louis, Missouri, United States ( 1951-07-17 ) Notable works Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War Education Loyola University Maryland (1973) Movies Black Hawk Down, Money for Nothing, Guests of the Ayatollah Children Aaron Bowden, Benjamin Bowden, Anya Bowden, Daniel Bowden, William Bowden Books Black Hawk Down, Killing Pablo, The Finish: The Killing of Osama, Winning Body Languag, Guests of the Ayatollah Similar People Mohamed Farrah Aidid, Michael Durant, Joey Coyle, Ken Nolan, Ridley Scott | ||
Mark Bowden, Author of "Hue 1968" | Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
Mark Robert Bowden (born July 17, 1951) is an American writer and author. He is a National Correspondent for The Atlantic and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, he is a 1973 graduate of Loyola University Maryland. While at Loyola, he was inspired to embark on a journalistic career by reading Tom Wolfe's book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. In 2010, in his acceptance speech for a lifetime achievement award at the National Book Awards, Wolfe called Bowden one of the two "writers to watch" (along with Michael Lewis).
Contents
- Mark Bowden Author of Hue 1968 Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
- Mark bowden hue 1968 with bob woodward
- Family and personal life
- Controversies and criticism
- On coercive interrogation and torture
- Future of the media
- Awards
- Filmography
- References
From 1979 to 2003, Bowden was a staff writer for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Over the years, he has written for The New Yorker, Men's Journal, The Atlantic, Sports Illustrated, and Rolling Stone. Some of his awards are listed below. He has taught journalism and creative writing at Loyola University Maryland, and was Distinguished Writer in Residence at The University of Delaware from 2013-2017.
Mark bowden hue 1968 with bob woodward
Family and personal life
He currently lives in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. Bowden's own father, now deceased, was a first cousin of former Florida State Seminoles football coach Bobby Bowden.
Controversies and criticism
From June 2012 through March 2013 the legal blog "Trials & Tribulations", which reports on Californian trials and legal affairs, has run a seven part series titled "Fact Checking Mark Bowden's Curious Vanity Fair Article on Stephanie Lazarus". The blog series disputes facts in Bowden's July 2012 Vanity Fair article, "A Case So Cold It Was Blue", suggests that quotes and states of mind of key persons in the narrative had been made up by Bowden to fit his story, and questions whether Bowden had done any relevant interviews or had attended a single day of the murder trial of former LAPD detective Stephanie Lazarus, whose case was the centerpiece of his story. In Part VI, published on T&T in October 2012, Bowden's editor at Vanity Fair, Cullen Murphy, declined to comment on the record about the errors in Bowden's article. Part VII, from March 2013, suggests that Bowden, who was not approached about the allegations prior to their posting, has since declined to respond to questions posed by the website's blogger regarding the disputed Vanity Fair story when asked either through Email or in person.
On coercive interrogation and torture
In the October 2003 issue of The Atlantic, Bowden's article "The Dark Art of Interrogation" advocated a ban on all forms of coercive interrogation, but argued that in certain rare instances interrogators would be morally justified in breaking the law and ought to face the consequences. Written more than a year before the violations revealed at Abu Ghraib and other detention centers, it said, in part:
The Bush Administration has adopted exactly the right posture on the matter. Candor and consistency are not always public virtues. Torture is a crime against humanity, but coercion is an issue that is rightly handled with a wink, or even a touch of hypocrisy; it should be banned but also quietly practiced. Those who protest coercive methods will exaggerate their horrors, which is good: it generates a useful climate of fear. It is wise of the President to reiterate U.S. support for international agreements banning torture, and it is wise for American interrogators to employ whatever coercive methods work. It is also smart not to discuss the matter with anyone.
On pages 231–234 of the book The Men Who Stare at Goats by Jon Ronson, Bowden's article is mentioned as a reference to the CIA's Project ARTICHOKE, a program to create ways of interrogating people that could be brutal or even fatal.
Future of the media
Bowden holds unconventional views on the future of the media in the 21st-century. He does not believe attention spans are shortening and believes young people are just as drawn to "deep" journalism as other generations. He stated in March 2009: "Nothing will ever replace language as the medium of thought, so nothing will replace the well-written, originally-reported story, or the well-reasoned essay."