Elizabeth Drew

Elizabeth Drew (born November 16, 1935) is an influential American political journalist and author. Known for her incisive coverage of Washington politics, she has chronicled multiple presidencies, written numerous books, and been a fixture on television and in print for decades.

Introduction

Elizabeth Drew (née Elizabeth Brenner) is one of the foremost American political journalists of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Over a career spanning more than half a century, she has covered Congress, presidential administrations, elections, Watergate, scandals, and policy battles. Her penetrating analyses and on-the-ground reporting have earned her respect as a bridge between journalism and political history.

Early Life and Education

• Elizabeth Jane Brenner was born on November 16, 1935, in Cincinnati, Ohio.

• Her parents were William J. Brenner, a furniture manufacturer, and Estelle Brenner (née Jacobs).

• She attended Wellesley College, graduating in 1957 with a B.A. in Political Science.

• While at Wellesley, she was elected Phi Beta Kappa.

Early Career

• After college, Drew began working at Congressional Quarterly in 1959.

• She steadily established herself in Washington as a journalist focused on politics, policy, and institutions.

Major Career Roles & Works

Journalism & Correspondence

• From 1967 to 1973, Drew was Washington correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly.

• From 1973 to 1992, she was Washington correspondent for The New Yorker.

• She made regular television appearances, including on Agronsky and Company, and hosted her own interview program Thirty Minutes With… on PBS (1971–1973).

• She also served as a panelist on Meet the Press, and later appeared on the PBS NewsHour.

Political Debates & Moderation

• Drew was a panelist in the 1976 U.S. presidential debate.

• She moderated the Democratic primary debate in 1984.

Books & Writing

Elizabeth Drew has written 14 books (and in one case an expanded anniversary edition) covering elections, presidencies, scandals, and political power struggles.

Some key titles:

• Washington Journal: The Events of 1973–74 (1975) – her firsthand account of the Watergate era.

• Portrait of an Election: The 1980 Presidential Campaign (1981)

• On the Edge: The Clinton Presidency (1994)

• Citizen McCain (2002)

• George W. Bush’s Washington (2004)

• Richard M. Nixon (2007), as part of the American Presidents series.

• Other books include Showdown: The Struggle Between the Gingrich Congress and the Clinton White House, Whatever It Takes, Politics and Money, etc.

Her Washington Journal was reissued in 2014 with a new afterword.

Affiliations & Recognition

• She was a director of the Council on Foreign Relations (1972–1977).

• She was chosen to give the Knight Lecture at Stanford University in 1997.

Style, Impact, and Approach

• Drew often combines insider access, careful reporting, and clear, elegant prose.

• Her Washington Journal emerged from journals she kept during Watergate; she viewed being a journalist in Washington during that time as “being at the battlefront.”

• She is known for chronological narrative, showing how political events and personalities evolve over time, interlaced with reflections, character portraits, and institutional analysis.

• Her long tenure gives her a continuity of perspective: she has covered major transitions and crises across multiple decades, making her work valuable not just as journalism but as political history.

Personal Life

• She married J. Patterson Drew on April 11, 1964; he died in 1970.

• She later married David Webster on September 26, 1981; he died in 2003.

• Elizabeth Drew lives in Washington, D.C.

Legacy & Contribution

• Drew has chronicled the evolutions of modern U.S. politics in real time, giving readers—and later historians—a rich archive of insider perspective.

• Her works serve not only as journalistic accounts but also as primary source material for understanding presidencies, political culture, and institutional struggles.

• She is often praised for combining journalistic immediacy with historical depth.

• She has also been outspoken about gender dynamics in journalism, notably in talks and speeches about how women in her profession have been treated (e.g. in a lifetime achievement address).

Selected Quotes

I could not reliably find many well-documented short quotes specifically attributed to her in the sources I surveyed, but some attributed observations include:

• She described being a journalist in Washington during Watergate as “like being at the battlefront.”

• In more recent public remarks, she has named the phenomenon of “atmospheric discrimination” to describe pervasive, subtle biases women face in journalism.

Lessons from Elizabeth Drew

1. Longevity matters. Consistent, careful coverage over decades gives a journalist perspective that short-term commentators lack.

2. Balance access with integrity. Drew maintained relationships with insiders while still observing skeptical scrutiny.

3. Narrative with context. Reporting events is important, but placing them in institutional, human, and temporal context deepens their meaning.

4. Speak truth about structure. Her willingness to speak about gender inequity in her profession shows that observers can—and perhaps should—reflect on their own industries.

5. Be both journalist and historian. Her work bridges the immediate and the enduring: capturing a moment and making it meaningful for the future.