Politics
More PoliticsThe Left's Top 25 Journalists
Tunku Varadarajan is a national affairs correspondent and writer at large for The Daily Beast. He is also the Virginia Hobbs Carpenter Fellow in Journalism at Stanford's Hoover Institution and a professor at NYU's Stern Business School. He is a former assistant managing editor at The Wall Street Journal. (Follow him on Twitter here.)
From Jane Hamsher and Ezra Klein to Kos and Krugman, Tunku Varadarajan counts down the most influential left-wing journalists in the country.
Given that almost four times as many American journalists identify themselves as “liberal” than as “conservative” (thanks, Pew, for that little detail), our exercise in tagging the 25 most influential journalists who sit somewhere to the left of center on the political aisle was considerably more complex than the one last week in which we identified the top 25 on the right. Classifying our journalists as being “on the left” protects us from being derailed by pesky questions of taxonomy—whether someone is “liberal,” “progressive” or “radical”—although everyone on this list could be said, plausibly, to belong to one of those categories. What unites them all, broadly, is their belief (expressed or implied) that “their side” is currently in power in Washington. The list below distills responses canvassed from about 75 academics, politicians, journalists, and denizens of corporate America. (It may interest readers to know that I edited a similar list, days after Barack Obama’s inauguration as president, for Forbes. Whereas the two lists have a good deal in common, there are significant differences, most of which reflect the fact that the left no longer sees itself as being “in opposition.”) Our definition of “journalist” is a loose one, and may not please some J-school pedants: We include anyone whose primary vocation is to supply, edit, host, or curate information, news reporting, criticism, or opinion. To keep matters from getting messy, we have excluded any writer or editor whose primary affiliation is with The Daily Beast, though a couple of contributors appear.
Here, in ascending order, is The Daily Beast’s list of America’s 25 most consequential left-of-center journalists.
Click Image to View Our Gallery of the Left's Top 25 Journalists
Tunku Varadarajan is a national affairs correspondent and writer at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a research fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution and a professor at NYU’s Stern Business School. He is a former assistant managing editor at The Wall Street Journal. (Follow him on Twitter here.)
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Monk66
Jon Stewart is the man.
scott1607
Hmm, would it be too much to ask now for a list of REAL journalists? You know, the old school types where they just reported the facts and we didn't know their political leanings? Both the right and left lists are full of entertainers and editorialists, but I don't see an actual journalist in either of them.
goffbum
Wow, that's really news worthy....since when has the left deserved any accolade's? Most of them are comedien's I thought?...Hmmm.....oh well........
verycold
Our society deemed them too boring and unimportant and so they passed away.
Instead of using the word "journalists", he should have just used the word "voices".
CosmicSurfer
Unfortunately, any real journalists are either unemployed or do not exist (or may be attempting to live on the net while pushing coffee at a Starbucks).
Journalists are a dying breed. Those so-called writers for the majors or airing on the non-stop People Magazine type shows aren't journalists. They are over paid PR reps with an agenda to push. Real Journalists aren't allowed.
When was the last time you heard anyone confront Cheney in an interview? Or even Sarah Palin?
WiltonDiary
Can you read?
The story is about Liberal = left leaning journalists!
This is not a story about "non-partisian" journalists, like Brian Williams, Dianne Sawyer or Shep Smith.
katiewon
They're all at the "National Enquirer."
ArmyVet64
scott1607 - Good point. I didn't see any "journalists" in the list, only leftist hacks. You can't be a "real journalist" and pimp for the Obama Administration.
camper
We should retire the word journalist from the language. It no longer has any meaning or purpose. Rachal Maddow, Jon Stewart.....Journalists? Well then I suppose Rush and Glen are journalists as well. Thankfully most of the real journalist are dead now and don't have to see what has become of their honorable profession. Universities should close Journalism schools and incorporate them into the theater department. As far as I'm concerned, journalism... Is the .....MOST......MISused........Word.........in..the....WORld.
flyoverland
Exactly, these people are commentators, not journalists.
Natural-Selection
Monk, I agree. He is left leaning, but fair and funny. Now, he does a "fake" news show, yet they call him an "influential left journalist?" The left must be grasping at straws to have a fake journalist as one of their best? The rest don't get any decent ratings...so why are they so great?
verycold
He is funny, but giving him that much credit for his "voice" alone will influence what he says. That is why politicians often do well during the campaign and later sound like they had a personality transplant. Egos are easily massaged and the best even fall.
timeisnow
Natural,
Jon may be funny but he is no way fair or a journalist, he is a comedian that most people ignore.
johnwr3
If you want to know why liberals are an endangered species look no further than your list of 25. America has voted with their remotes and this group has a very small following. Take any of them and check out how poorly they do in the ratings. If no one is listening than how is this article relevant?
WiltonDiary
Lets be read: The president is Liberal, the Congress is Liberal, the Senate is Liberal = The US is liberal.
Someone is doing a damn good job of keeping the country left of center!
President Obama won by a landslide; the only poll that counts is the election. Hold you nasty and hateful comments until November and then you can bet, the Democrats and Liberals will still be the majority!
reardongalt
They really shouldn't count HuffPo. She can't speak English. I think as a minimum speaking English should be a requirement. There's nothing more annoying than being lectured by a foreigner.
johnwr3
Landslide for Obama??? McCain has 60 million voters who would disagree. A landslide example is Reagan 54 million vs. Mondale 37 million. This country is center right according to all the polls, too.
timeisnow
Monk
Stewart is a Radical Left wing Radical just like the rest of these Moldy Oldies...lol
I never watch or read any of these nut jobs, too wacky and to far out in left field for the average person...
AlPike
This is the problem, you never watch them and the liberals never watch your guys, so all anyone ever hears one side of the story.
Think about it you never watch them, but you feel that you can make a judgement. How did you arrive at this judgment? Your guys told you they were nut jobs so it must be true.
People no longer watch news for informations, they watch it to have their opinions validated. This is obtuse because more effort is directed at assigning blame than finding solutions to our common problems like unemployment. I am so tired of the intellectual sloths that know nothing but that "its Bush/Obama'a fault".
The truth is that the country is just about evenly divided politically and there is no way that half of the entire country is crazy regardless of their politics so we better start listening to each other and finding commonalities.
WiltonDiary
If you don't read or watch them you are not qualified to comment!
JTS1021
Wow timeisnow, you are telling me that you, a hardcore right-winger that views anyone with a single liberal viewpoint on anything as a radical, don't watch and read liberal-leaning pundits and "journalists"? I'm shocked!
In related news, I can pretty much guarantee you didn't recognize half the people on this list.
Another note: You should win an award for most impressive baseless, pointless name-calling. Seriously, I really got to give you credit, for originality alone: "a Radical Left wing Radical". That's double the radical!
hypersurf
Even Jon Stewart himself said his was not a journalist. They are infotainers.
smshirk
Jon Stewart is a comedian. How can he be included as an influential journalist by anyone's standards. He is funny, but for heavens sakes, he makes jokes!
mittypuffs
Ummmmm where's Maureen Dowd? Epic fail, Varadarajan. I love Jon Stewart, but, (and he would agree) he is not a journalist.
WestVillager
Have to agree in context. She's miles more interesting and skilled than Rich. Stewart should be #1 b/c these folks are more entertainers or commentators than straight up journalists.
WiltonDiary
Have you ever read Maureen Dowd? She is not a liberal journalist; she writes an opinion column!
FarLeftFist
Notice the genius of all the Liberal journalists, a while back TDB did a conservative list and I don't think their was a college degree in the bunch, just a group of fear-mongering conspiracy theorists like Beck and Limbaugh. Seriously, the Lib journalists mentioned above are all geniuses, check their credentials.
Baddchild
If a college degree was all it was cracked up to be 0bama wouldn't be such a failure. Leftist journalists have to go to college for indoctrination, I survived 5 years of the indoctrination camps and met far more intelligent people outside the walls of academia than behind them. That's the beauty of America, and the failing of liberals, they only see intelligence in the little cocoons they surround themselves in and look their nose down anyone who is different than them.
As for this silly list I can give the top 10 liberal journalists easily:
1. NY Times
2. Washington Post
3. CBS
4. ABC
5. NBC
6. PBS
7. CNN
8. LA Times
9. 0bama's telepromter
10. MSNBC
Since these so-called news organazations that they work for are so wrought with bias it would be unfair to point out select individuals when they all just follow the same talking points.
AngryJ
LOLs @ #9!
Natural-Selection
Badd....now that's funny! Well done!!
FarLeftFist
Badd
Jealousy is a silly trait, especially for a man.
sophia5
WHAT !!! . . . No Keith Olbermann ?
This is an OUTRAGE . . . SIR !!! . . . The Groucho Marxist(?) . . . Of the Airwaves.
This is the Biggest Injustice . . . I've EVA HOYYD !!!
DEMAND A RECOUNT . . . SIR !!! . . . yuk ! yuk ! yuk ! . . . SIR !!!
Lavaux
Well said re the college degrees. For 8 years I prostrated myself to the higher mind only to become a conservative after contemplating the taxes withheld from my first serious paycheck. Here I was contributing 29% of my income to making the world a better place, and it wasn't getting any better. Worse, if there weren't any rational distinctions between social problems and personal problems other than the number and identity of the people who have them, then the state could take and spend 100% of everyone's income and the world would still stink.
This led me to question whether what makes the world stink is the distribution of wealth and power or our capacity as human beings to bury ourselves under a mountain of personal problems, most of which are not our own. I decided it must be the latter, renounced the higher mind, embraced conservatism and then got to work getting a life.
I suspect many more conservatives and centrists have similar stories to tell, which is why I get the Tea Party movement. When the federal government looks set to demolish the American Dream for us and our progeny, we've either got to stand up and take action or bend over and receive it.
AlanD2
The "0bama" troll strikes again!
vwcat12
Lavaux, the well off pays less taxes then ever before.
They actually got wealthier, raked in much more and paid much less then ever.
And the rest of the country got tax breaks last year.
The tired old whining about taxes plays to the misinformed but, in reality, it is not true.
But, I suppose you get all your info from 'real journalists' (as if they existed anymore) from Faux news and the rest of the infotainment on the right.
kilchis
So who do you work for?
RevPettibone
to FarLeftFist....
"What unites them all, broadly, is their belief (expressed or implied) that "their side" is currently in power in Washington."
Once again both you and TDB focus on the mediocrity of a person's liberal bias as a basis to crown them the impresarios of public opinion.
I have to laugh at you though, because in your zeal to prove a point all you managed was to confirm your lack of credibility and portray yourself as a liberal braggart. Next time you want to malign a group of people, make sure you do the research necessary prior to making any allegations......... had you taken the time, you would have discovered the correct educational and life accomplishments of the 25 conservatives you're referring to:
5 - BAs
1 - MPA
1 - MBA
4 - MA
2 - JD
3 - Ph.Ds
Many with numerous degrees and graduating with honors, here in the States and at Oxford.
Amongst the ranks of the 25 conservatives are 4 law professors, 1 Supreme Court law clerk, high ranking political aides, speech writers, editors, columnists, reporters of major publications and media outlets, and numerous highly successful authors and business people.
RevPettibone
typo correction.... 4 (1 law) professors
FarLeftFist
Rev
Who cares.
RevPettibone
to FarLeftFist....
what's the matter kid...... is it that hard to take your foot outta your mouth?
wyorich
Rev.
I'm sorry I didn't realize that you had done the same research that I just posted. When dealing with the Fister, reality doesn't often enter into the equation. It's pretty hard to grasp the facts for him, because he has his far left fingers up his arse.
AngryJ
LOL Geniuses...lol...man you crack me up. If they are so smart why can't they get there ratings up? Or sell their papers? The only one with good rating is Stewart, who is NOT a journalist, he is a COMEDIAN...LOLs.
threesides2everystory
@AngryJ
Ratings = quality??? How do you square that with reality?
By your logic McDonald's Happy Meals are the most nutritious thing we can eat. And Brittany Spears is a genius musician.
If you really believe that ratings are a measure of anything other than successful marketing, then you are living proof that FAUX News consumers are the most Gullible demographic. Sucker..
Have a little more Snake Oil with your Chicken McGreaswich.
RevPettibone
to threesides2everystory.....
Given the parameters you espouse, it appears what's necessary to being proclaimed credible is a like-mindedness to the opinion you buy in to....... that perspective can hardly be considered logical...nor should it ever be acceptable....... cause whether you like what's said or not, there's always gonna be a ying to your yang ......
My friend, I hope we can all challenge, disagree,,,,,even get in to a knock down drag out fight over something.... but we must never cheapen the debate by thinking one way is the end all/be all.
JTS1021
I love how conservatives love to brag about ratings and talk about how many people listen to conservative pundits and programs and how few little listen to liberal pundits and programs.
And then whenever they talk about, say, the election of Barack Obama or the fiasco that is Sarah Palin, they start screaming "The liberals control the media! They have hypnotized people into believing their liberal agenda!"
For instance Angry, if you want to gloat about ratings, stop calling non-conservative networks the "mainstream media". Stop acting like Sarah Palin's stupidity is because "everyone is out to get her."
You can't have it both ways. You can't brag about how little of influence liberals have and than play the victimization card and complain that liberals have too much influence.
AngryJ
Threesides, I never said ratings = quality, I was explaining how these GENIUSES cannot do well in their area of expertise. If you want to compare apples and oranges go ahead, but Brittany made a lot of money in her area of expertise and is still doing so today, though she might qualify for the idiot savant category...
JTS, this article clearly explains that there are four times as many liberal journalists as conservative. So yes, the MSM is run by the liberals. Only recently has an alternate view been available, and the sudden success of conservative media proves that the all-knowing liberal MSM is a farce, and will continue to decline in the future.
BTW, I never said anything about Palin, you did...
JTS1021
It's still pointless. If you claim more people watch Fox News than any other network than Fox News is the mainstream media. If there are 4 times as many liberal journalists, but no one listens to them, than they can't control anything, can they? For an analogy, say we were competing businesses and I was able to sink $2 million dollars into my business and you brought along 9 of your friends and you each could sink five grand into yours. Wouldn't it be ridiculous for me to say, "I'm the little guy because I'm outnumbered 10 to 1! You guys control everything!"
You can't say that Fox News is the little guy just trying to be heard and then brag that Fox News is the most powerful, most influential, most watched news network. It just doesn't make any sense.
And I don't know where you are getting your facts from, but Rush Limbaugh has been on the air for three decades and Fox News has been around for like 15 years. It's not like this is something new and different.
And I wouldn't be bragging that the "liberal media" is going to decline and somehow Fox News is going to get more powerful because these things tend to be cyclical. Michael Moore was one of the most successful directors on the planet during the Bush years, he's since tail-offed into obscurity. Being the "opposition" is always good business because people are naturally anti-government. The minute we have another Republican President and the Fox News pundits go back to reading directly from memos the White House instructed them to read, people are going to lose interest.
Natural-Selection
Yes, their genius of these liberal journalists is that they are mostly magicians....they have made people disappear from their ratings.
FarLeftFist
Why do RW'ers always point to ratings as the benchmark, Jerry Springer had high ratings too. It just proves you are all mindless drones following the sheep herd, try thinking outside the box. Your a pawn and a robot.
RevPettibone
to FarLeftFist.....
so you like Jerry Springer,,,, it figures, cause you're a chip off the old block.
try watching CPAC/10 on CSPAN....and learn something worth while.
Baddchild
Jerry Springer got great ratings when he went to Air America - not!
I tuned in to listen to the lefties rant but my local Air America station was replaced by Lawrence Welk... what happened??? LOL
sophia5
FarLeft
( " the Lib journalists mentioned above are all geniuses " )
Who doesn't think "Genius" at the mention of Arianna Huffington ?
scott1607
If you go by all the comments posted here, left or right, it's pretty obvious what criteria most people are using to judge a good journalist. Fits your worldview = good, square peg = target practice.
verycold
I do think education is very relevant. I often hunt up people's bios wondering where they came from. Many times it is a very big surprise. What often happens with liberals is that they came from what they term "very strict" conservative families which clearly they are rebelling against. A good education should broaden one's thinking, but often with our educational system it closes many doors instead. People can be incredibly bright and still be wrong.
As I recall, Michael Medved was a devout liberal growing up having worked for the Kennedy campaigns. All was going well until the day somebody robbed him. He was coping with that not so well, when a liberal lawyer friend of his informed him he should in fact feel sympathy for the robber since he had a more difficult life than Medved. Yup, that was the defining day for him. He just flipped a switch and out came the conservative.
kilchis
He must have held deep political convictions.
wyorich
FLF,
First things first. Before you opine on the genius of the liberal journalists, perhaps you should review your own elementary education. In your first sentence there are two separate thoughts, therefore you should have ended the sentence, "Notice the genius of all Liberal journalists" with a period, and then continued with "A while back..." Secondly, in what should have been your second sentence you misspelled the word "there". When you make elementary school, grammatical errors while posting on someone's alleged genius, your credibility is shot. Remember, it is better to remain silent, and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth (or in your case, type), and remove all doubt.
Finally, I encourage you to check the credentials of the 25 liberal journalists, as listed by TDB, against TDB's earlier article on the 25 conservative journalists.
You stated, "a while back TDB did a conservative list and I don't think their (sp) was a college degree in the bunch..." You should have stopped after the words, "I don't think".
A quick google/wikipedia search provided these results for the 25 conservative journalists:
1. 21 of the 25 had Bachelors Degrees. The four who didn't are, Matt Drudge, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, and Rush Limbaugh. I don't think a college education would have provided these four men with any advantage in life, and I would put their combined success up against the entire list of the liberal journalists.
2. In addition to the 21 Bachelors, there were 7 Masters, 4 Law, and 1 Doctorate.
Obviously, this bit of research on my part, once again displays the ignorance of your liberal post. But in the arena of ideas, based on facts, you just can't compete.
taranto
Not sure he should be #1, but stewart does his homework, and is a great crafter of questions. But his interviews are spectacular when he wants them to be: he benefits by using the unforgiving camera and TV audience to manipulate the trust between he and the subject, then he lowers the boom
where's thomas friedman?
neverlate
aah! It makes me feel good to see what a weak bench the Left does have. Other than Stewart and Rich, a bunch of blowhards pushing a failed 60's agenda. While the Right has multiple candidates to fill Buckley's shoes, the Left has no one to replace Vidal.
Mike1c
Fred Hiatt???? You mean the guy who has kept the flag flying for the illegal invasion in Iraq? The guy who hired two Bush speechwriters, keeps his Liberal columnists op-eds to dull-Tuesday? The guy who continuously contradicts his own newspaper's reports with his editorials? When did he last pen a column sympathetic to causes on the left of the political spectrum?
And where oh where is Joe Conason?
vwcat12
Agreed! how did Hiatt get on that list. On the most conservative or most neocon, yes. Most liberal....what a joke!
katynova
Count me among the many who were utterly astonished to discover Fred Hiatt regarded as a liberal. Most progressive/liberals would regard Hiatt as a neo-con. Under his regime, the WaPo has pursued an increasingly conservative point of view. It is rather sad when the op-ed page doesn't differ all that much from the editorial page.
cresttwo
Wow. I mean, just Wow. Glen Greenwald [who should be number one] is no where to be seen, and Fred Hiatt? WAR MONGER HIATT? How clueless is this fellow?
This dude must think that Holy Joe Lieberman is a liberal too.
This is the Toyota Recall of Daily Beast stories. What an embarrassment.
AngryJ
Maddow, really? Possibly the most annoying person on TV, yes I am including Beck in that too. Her show is doing so horrible she will probably be canceled soon. Her show is so bad Lou Dobbs RERUNS are more popular...lmao...I guess once she ran out of Bush jokes people started realizing she is a complete idiot.
tomfarr
She helped bring down Air America and is now helping drive MSNBC into oblivion.
I suppose she will wash up on the warm shores of Huff Post or Kos.
AlanD2
Sorry, AngryJ & tomfarr. Rachel has one of the highest ratings on MSNBC.
And have you notices she's appearing more frequently on Meet the Press? Conservatives on MTP now have to be careful about telling blatant lies when Rachel is there, as she will call them out.
AngryJ
Ahh good point, she has high ratings on MSNBC, just shows how low the rating of MSNBC truly are...sorry Alan, the numbers don't lie, google it if you don't believe me.
"MSNBC is, of course, the network that once billed itself as the Obama Network. Apparently,"The Cartoon Network" was already taken."
http://www.ihatethemedia.com/rachel-maddows-death-spiral-another-week-of -record-low-ratings
angst7
One does not have to assume that a loosely definition of "journalist" was used in the making of this list. Perhaps half are journalist and the rest are entertainers, at best.
tomfarr
Prescinding from the question as to whether it is accurate to call Stewart a journalist, I have to say that he has been in an impossible situation since Obama completed the Democratic takeover of the US government - he is a political satirist who flourished when he was in the opposition, but now that his party is in power he is shackled, unwilling as he is to make serious fun of the Democrats who can so easily be mocked and satirized.
He will not really lay a glove on Obama, Reid, Pelosi, and other
flaming failures.
ittybittykitty
Obviously you don't watch his show. It has been funnier than ever lately. Jon is an equal opportunity satirist.
threesides2everystory
No Secret he leans left. He's the first to admit. But he shreds the Dems all the time and does a good job of it. If there is an easy target he will shoot and score on both sides of the isle. Take off your Red Lenses and watch him for a week. Live a little. Laugh a lot.
TheWildestofThings
@tom,
spoken like someone who's never watched his show.
Baddchild
Where is that highly respected Oblerman on this list? Has he lost the liberal media with his audience??
AlanD2
Nope, he's still my second favorite commentator (after Maddow) on MSNBC, Baddie.
bulldog17
What a sad group of anti-American losers. I'm quite certain another 25 or so media liberals could easily be added. Who would care other than those on the anti-American left.
vwcat12
The old saw from the Nixon Administration about the 'liberal media' no longer exists.
Not when you have a news channel dedicated to the promotion of conservative thinking and even if they are loose with facts (lie) they still are seen as a news channel.
Not when you have a whole industry of 'news' dedicated to promoting the conservative mindset.
And certainly not when you had the whole journalism industry roll over for Bush in the lead up to Iraq.
TheWildestofThings
no one on that list hates america or is anti-american. your vitriolic lies do nothing but further divide america.
Resolute
It's interesting that you've included Amanpour on this list and not Fareed Zakaria. Those two always seem to go hand-in-hand for me.
ThinkAgain
One has to think (hope) that CNN won't appreciate their Chief International CORRESPONDENT being called a leading liberal journalist. Surely, that's supposed to be an OBJECTIVE reporter of events and opinions, not an champion of the liberal ideology?
Simca09
Jon Stewart? Absolutely! But I'm tired of repeated references to his pull with the 25-40 demographic. If my little universe is any indication, he is every bit as influential with the "over 50" crowd.
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Simca09
Agree! It's especially sad that certain stories initially ignored by the "news media" - George Allen & "maccaca", Ted Stevens & The Bridge to Nowhere, etc - only got traction after being skewered on The Daily Show. Equally sad that he and Colbert provide the only venue for authors of serious books - both fiction and nonfiction -to get exposure.
ThinkAgain
He was funny when Bush was in power and he was funny when the dems thought they ruled. Now that things are shaky for the liberals he's starting to take himself a little too seriously and spout the same tripe that you hear on all the liberal media. He's forgetting the funny.
TheWildestofThings
Do you even watch his show
tagimaucia
If Fred Hiatt is part of "the left", I'm the Duke of Edinburgh. He's a neocon. And though he's arguably as much a libertarian as a lefty, Glenn Greenwald should be on the list.
DurangoDave
I agree wholeheartedly with both points. Glenn Greenwald should definitely have been on the list. Without taking part in the "who's a journalist" discussion, Fred Hiatt, the man who's turned the WaPo op-ed page into a Weekly Standard clone, is not in any way a voice for "the left."
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