Michael Wines

Stephen Michael Wines (born June 3, 1951) is an American journalist. He is a national correspondent for The New York Times at present. Wines was previously the Times bureau chief in the China, Johannesburg and Moscow.

Wines graduated from Pleasure Ridge Park High School in Louisville Kentucky. Later, Wines became a 1973 graduate of the University of Kentucky. He received his M.S. degree in journalism from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1974.

After receiving his M.S. degree, Wines became a general assignment reporter for The Lexington Herald. Wines covered municipal and state government, politics and education for The Louisville Times from 1974 to 1981. He wrote about regulatory affairs and the U.S. Department of Justice for National Journal magazine from 1981 to 1984.

From 1984 to 1988, Wines was a Washington-based correspondent for the Los Angeles Times.

In 2001, Michael Wines was awarded the Worst Journalist Award by The eXiled, an award based on reader voting of the Russian ex-pat satirical newspaper. For winning this honor, Wines received an eXiled T-shirt--along with having a custard pie thrown at his face made from, among more innocuous ingredients, horse semen. (http://exiledonline.com/feature-new-york-times-hack-eats-horse-sperm-pie/). Well-known journalists and editors of The eXiled, Mark Ames and Matt Taibbi, participated in the prank. Matt Taibbi has spoken of this during a CSPAN interview (https://www.c-span.org/video/?318388-1/qa-matt-taibbi)

He has been bureau chief at international postings for The New York Times since 2002.

Wines is married to Sharon LaFraniere, who also writes for the Times. They have three children, Brett, Jack and Nikki.