James Bettner Brooke (born February 21, 1955 in New York City) is an American journalist who currently works for Bloomberg News. Previously, he had spent much of his career as a reporter for
The New York Times.
Among the posts Brooke has held at the
Times:
- assistant to James Reston, Washington columnist, 1978—80
- metropolitan reporter, 1984—86
- bureau chief, Abidjan, Ivory Coast, December 1986-January 1989
- bureau chief, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, February 1989-July 1995
- Rocky Mountain bureau chief, Denver, Colorado, August 1995-1999
- bureau chief, Canada, August 1999- 2001
- East Asia correspondent (Japan, South Korea, North Korea) based in Tokyo, August 2001-?
Brooke graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in Latin American Studies and was a stringer for United Press International as a student. In 1976, he spent a semester at Pontificia Universidade Catolica in Rio de Janeiro.
After graduation, Brooke was a freelance reporter and part-time staffer at
The Berkshire Eagle in Massachusetts from June 1977 to April 1978. Prior to joining the
Times as a reporter in 1984, he was the South American correspondent for
The Miami Herald.