Molly Ball

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Molly Ball
Ball in 2017
EducationYale University
Occupations
  • Political journalist
  • writer
SpouseDavid Kihara
Awards

Molly Ball is an American political journalist and writer. She is the senior political correspondent for The Wall Street Journal.[1] She is the author of a 2020 biography of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Early life and education[edit]

Ball was raised in Colorado and Idaho.[2] She graduated from Cherry Creek High School in the Denver suburb of Greenwood Village in 1997. She attended Yale University, where she wrote for the Yale Herald[3] and graduated in 2001[4][5]. She had a summer internship at the Washington Post[3], then moved to Cambodia and spent two years reporting for the The Cambodia Daily.[6]

Career[edit]

She has since been a reporter for Politico, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, and the Las Vegas Sun. She covered U.S. politics for The Atlantic, where she won the 2012 Toner Prize for Excellence in Public Reporting for her coverage of the 2012 United States elections, including the 2012 United States presidential election and the 2012 gay marriage referendums.[7] In 2017, Ball joined Time as the National Political Correspondent[8], then the The Wall Street Journal in 2023.

Recognition[edit]

In 2019, Ball received the Gerald R. Ford Prize for Distinguished Reporting on the Presidency for her coverage of the Trump administration.[9] Other awards she has received include the Lee Walczak Award for Political Analysis, the Sandy Hume Memorial Award for Excellence in Political Journalism, the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi Award, and the Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting.[2] Ball received the 2020 Everett McKinley Dirksen Award for Distinguished Reporting of Congress from the National Press Foundation for her reporting on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, which judges called "authoritative," "compelling" and "nuanced."[10] She was honored as Outstanding Journalist in Print in the 2020 Washington Women in Journalism awards.[11]

Legal controversies[edit]

In December 2017, The Atlantic published "When the Presses Stop," an article by Molly Ball that detailed the life and career of Bernie Krisher, a journalist, philanthropist and publisher of The Cambodia Daily, where Ball had worked as a reporter. Krisher's family said the article contained several inaccuracies and misrepresented events related to Krisher's efforts to help Ball during a health crisis, among other issues.[12][13][14]

Krisher's family eventually sued The Atlantic in Japan, where Krisher had lived since 1962, alleging defamation and invasion of privacy in Ball's allegation that Krisher failed to assist her with a health insurance problem in 2003 and mischaracterizations of Krisher's journalistic and philanthropic endeavors.[12][13][14]

In January 2024, The Atlantic settled the suit, not admitting wrongdoing or liability, but making 16 online corrections to the original article and destroying all digital and physical copies of the photos taken by Ball of Krisher.[12][13][14][15][16]

This lawsuit highlighted the importance of factual accuracy and ethical journalism practices, and the challenges American media companies face when operating internationally, where legal protections and standards for defamation can vary significantly from those in the United States.[12][13][14]

Personal life[edit]

Ball is of Jewish heritage.[17] She lives in Arlington, Virginia with her husband, David Kihara, and their three children.[18][19]

In 2007, she won $100,000 on the game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.[4]

References[edit]

  1. ^ @mollyesque (September 25, 2023). "Some news about me: I have a new job!" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  2. ^ a b "Molly Ball". Pulitzer Center. Archived from the original on May 22, 2020. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
  3. ^ a b "Washingtonpost.com: Journalism Internships for College Students". www.washingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2024-05-28.
  4. ^ a b "Molly Ball (profile of)". Washington Week. PBS. Retrieved 2020-05-10.
  5. ^ "For Yale Women, boundless ambition, local action". YaleNews. July 11, 2013.
  6. ^ Ball, Molly (September 27, 2023). "An announcement And a reflection on my career in journalism". mollyball.substack.com.
  7. ^ Loughlin, Wendy S. (March 28, 2013). "The Atlantic's Molly Ball is the winner of the Newhouse School's 2012 Toner Prize". Newhouse School. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  8. ^ Time Staff (October 10, 2017). "Molly Ball Joins TIME as National Political Correspondent". Time. Archived from the original on October 11, 2017. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  9. ^ "Reporting Prizes: Reporting on the Presidency 2019". Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation. June 4, 2019. Retrieved 2020-05-10.
  10. ^ "Molly Ball Wins Dirksen Award for Distinguished Reporting of Congress". National Press Foundation. December 1, 2020. Retrieved 2021-07-14.
  11. ^ "Meet the Winners of the 2020 Washington Women in Journalism Awards". Washingtonian. September 22, 2020. Archived from the original on January 19, 2021. Retrieved 2021-07-14.
  12. ^ a b c d Wemple, Erik (2024-03-01). "Opinion | Settlement in Japanese court ends embarrassing episode for the Atlantic". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2024-04-09.
  13. ^ a b c d "Legacy battle | FCCJ". www.fccj.or.jp. Retrieved 2024-04-09.
  14. ^ a b c d "QOSHE - The Atlantic concludes lawsuit in Japan with embarrassing admissions - Erik Wemple". qoshe.com. Retrieved 2024-04-09.
  15. ^ Ball, Molly (2017-12-08). "When the Presses Stop". The Atlantic. ISSN 2151-9463. Retrieved 2024-04-09.
  16. ^ Ball, Molly (April 9, 2024). "When The Presses Stop". The Pulitzer Center. Retrieved April 9, 2024.
  17. ^ "Twitter verified account". Jun 1, 2016. ...almost--almost!--makes me want to get high with my own neurotic Jewish mom
  18. ^ "Twitter verified account". Jun 26, 2015.
  19. ^ Friess, Steve (July 1, 2013). "The neon story machine: Former Vegas journos strike it big in D.C." KNPR. Ball, a staff writer for The Atlantic who lived in Las Vegas from 2004 to 2009 and whose husband, former R-J cops reporter David Kihara, is managing editor for the website of WJLA, the ABC affiliate in D.C

External links[edit]

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Molly_Ball&oldid=1226011790"