Who

Alter is a senior editor and columnist at Newsweek and covers politics and the media. He's known for moderate liberal stances and criticism of President Bush.

Backstory

Chicago native and Harvard grad Alter started off at the inside-the-Beltway magazine Washington Monthly, before joining Newsweek in 1983 as associate editor. He toiled away at the title throughout the '80s, and in 1991 earned his own weekly column about politics and the media, which he's been writing ever since. Now Newsweek's go-to guy for political coverage, Alter has covered the last six presidential campaigns for the mag; he also originated Newsweek's "Conventional Wisdom Watch," the catchy little front-of-the-book feature that tells you who's up and who's down, complete with arrows to illustrate the point. In addition to his Newsweek duties, since 1996 Alter's been a contributing correspondent for NBC, where he's a regular on the Today show, NBC Nightly News, and MSNBC.

In print

Alter is the author of the 2006 bestseller The Defining Moment: FDR's Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope.

Health report

Alter survived a bout with cancerous lymphoma that was diagnosed in 2004; he underwent an adult stem-cell transplant as part of his treatment. He wrote extensively about the ordeal for Newsweek.

Personal

Alter is married to Emily Jane Lazar and they have three children—Charlotte, Tommy, and Molly. A TV producer, Lazar once worked as a booker on Aaron Brown's show on CNN and the CBS Morning News. Most recently, she was a booker for the Colbert Report, where, naturally, she booked her husband as a guest. They live in Montclair.