[1] He is a 2018 Pulitzer Prize and George Polk Award recipient and a political analyst for MSNBC.

Hamburger started his career as a reporter Arkansas Gazette in 1976 before joining the Minneapolis Star-Tribune in 1983.

After his fellowship at Stanford, Hamburger became Washington Bureau Chief for the Star-Tribune in 1995, and then remained in the post when the paper was acquired by McClatchey in 1998.

He won the White House Correspondent Association's Raymond Clapper Memorial Award, and was a finalist for the Goldsmith Award for Investigative Reporting and the Pulitzer Prize for his work on conflict of interest on the federal bench for the Star-Tribune in 1996.

In 2006, he won Columbia University's John B. Oakes Award for Distinguished Environmental Journalism.