Michael Isikoff was named NBC News National Investigative Correspondent in June 2010, reporting for all platforms of NBC News, including "NBC Nightly News," "Today" and MSNBC. Before he was named to this current position, Isikoffhad beenan MSNBC contributor since January 2009, making regular appearances on the "Rachel Maddow Show" and "Hardball with Chris Matthews." Heis the author of two New York Times best-selling books - "Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War," co-written with David Corn and "Uncovering Clinton: A Reporter's Story," which chronicled his own reporting of the Lewinsky story.
Since the events of September 11, Isikoff has broken repeated stories about the U.S. government's war on terror and won numerous journalism awards. Isikoff's June 2002 "Newsweek" cover story on U.S. intelligence failures that preceded the 9-11 terror attacks, along with a series of related articles, was honored with the Investigative Reporters and Editors' top prize for investigative reporting in magazine journalism. He was honored, along with a team of Newsweek reporters, by the Society of Professional Journalists for coverage of the Abu Ghraib scandal. Isikoff was also part of a reporting team that earned Newsweek the National Magazine Award for General Excellence in 2002, for their coverage of the aftermath of the September 11 terror attacks.
His exclusive reporting on the Monica Lewinsky scandal gained Isikoff national attention in 1998 and his coverage of the events that lead to President Bill Clinton's impeachment earned "Newsweek" the prestigious National Magazine Award in the Reporting category in 1999. Isikoff's Lewinsky reporting also won the National Headliner Award, the Edgar A. Poe Award presented by the White House Correspondents Association and the Gerald R. Ford Journalism Prize for Reporting on the Presidency. In 2009, Isikoff was named on a list of the 50 "Best and Most Influential Journalists" in the nation's capital by Washingtonian magazine.
Isikoff joined "Newsweek" as an Investigative Correspondent in June 1994. He has written extensively on the U.S. government's war on terrorism, the Abu Ghraib scandal, campaign-finance and congressional ethics abuses, presidential politics and other national issues. Isikoff’s blog "DeClassified - Investigative Reporting in Real Time," written with Mark Hosenball and published on Newsweek.com, has become a must-read for senior U.S. officials. Isikoff and Hosenball’s previous web column, "Terror Watch," also written for Newsweek.com, won the 2005 Society of Professional Journalists award for best investigative reporting online. Isikoff came to "Newsweek" from "The Washington Post," where he had been a reporter since September 1981.
Isikoff graduated from Washington University with a B.A. in 1974 and received a Masters in Journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism in 1976.