Carl Hulse

Class of 1972 Carl Hulse graduated from Ottawa High in 1972, where he participated in track, cross country, football, civic council, and was acknowledged as an Illinois State Scholar. He later continued his education at Illinois State University, graduating with a degree in communications. Carl Hulse then became a professional writer, serving among other posts, as the Chief Congressional Correspondent for the New York Times. He joined the New York Times in 1986 and first became a congressional correspondent in 2002. The New York Times has frequently been the subject of criticisms from conservatives for being a liberal voice. However, Bob Stevenson, spokesman and communications director until 2006 for the Tennessee Republican and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, praised Carl Hulse, describing him as “eminently fair” and “in the upper echelon of those reporters who have ever covered Congress.” Included among the many significant stories he has covered were his role as night editor coordinating night-time coverage in the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and the coverage of the House and Senate votes regarding the potential impeachment of President Bill Clinton. His earliest front page story was in the St. Columba Crest, his school paper as a third grader in Ottawa – beginning his career which moved to the Vidette at Illinois State University, the NewsTribune in LaSalle-Peru, the Daily Journal in Kankakee, the Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale, before taking a position as Washington Bureau chief for the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group of community newspapers centered in the Southeast, then to the New York Times as night editor in 2001, to the Capitol Hill beat in 2002, then ultimately the Chief Congressional Correspondent for the New York Times in 2006.