Thomas Oliphant

All you want to know about Thomas Oliphant

Thomas Oliphant is an American columnist who has written for the Boston Globe since 1968. Oliphant appeared in the 2004 movie Going Upriver, in which he recounted his observations of John Kerry's activities in opposition to the Vietnam War in 1971.

Oliphant studies at Harvard University.

In March 2005, Oliphant suffered a brain aneurysm. Subsequent to his recovery, according to a February 2006 article in Boston Magazine [1], Oliphant accepted a retirement buyout package from the New York Times Company, which owns the Boston Globe.

Oliphant is a frequent guest on "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" on PBS, the last appearance being on Monday April 9, 2007. Oliphant was also a regular guest on The Al Franken Show, where he also appeared as a guest host in August of 2006.[2]

Oliphant is the husband of CBS reporter Susan Spencer. [3]

On April 9, 2007, Oliphant was a guest on the Don Imus show in the midst of a developing controversy arising from a comment by Imus regarding players on the Rutgers women's basketball team. Prior to the show, Imus had apologized for his comment. “Whatever problem there was, I think that he took care of with his statement of Friday,” said Mr. Oliphant to the New York Times. “It was classic Imus. He said he screwed up and he was sorry. Bang. Bang. It was very much to the point, and did not offer any excuses.”

Mr. Oliphant, after declaring solidarity with Mr. Imus, has announced that he will no longer appear on T.V. or Radio until Mr. Imus is reinstated to both his radio show and the MSNBC simulcast.

Mr. Oliphant failed to show up for his scheduled appearance on the Imus-in-the-Morning program on 9/18/08. The speculation by the cast was that he had been ball-gagged and was otherwise engaged at the time.

Books

(co-author) All by Myself: The Unmaking of a Presidential Campaign (1989) ISBN 0-87106-547-9
Praying for Gil Hodges : A Memoir of the 1955 World Series and One Family's Love of the Brooklyn Dodgers (2005) ISBN 0-312-31761-1

External links

Oliphant's June 5, 2005, article about his return from a brain aneurysm, My Journey into Darkness, free on the Boston Globe site. If it has been removed you can also find it at CommonGround CommonSense.

To read articles written by Thomas Oliphant when he was at the Boston Globe, one must do a search on the Boston Globe site and pay for them. The last of more than 80 Oliphant columns archived there was written in December 2005.