Heroes, Killers, and a Double-Shot of Omarosa: The Daily Beast’s Best-Read Stories of 2017
White House backstabbers. Hollywood creeps. Dirty cops. Silicon Valley lunatics. And the marshmallow rock of 3 Doors Down. This year had it all.
Photo Illustration by Sarah Rogers/The Daily Beast
This last year was intense. Beyond intense—disturbing, wild, kaleidoscopic, and bike-stuck-on-a-train-track riveting.
In other words, it was a damn fine time to be a reporter. It was a damn fine time to be at The Daily Beast.
Take a look at this list of our 20 most-read stories and you’ll see what I mean. As the world got freakier, our reporters dug in deeper, delivering the groundbreaking investigations, exclusive interviews, and WTF moments you’ll see below. We exposed villains and the systems that protected them. We highlighted heroes trying to bring a little goodness to the planet. We caught Steve Bannon calling Jared Kushner a “cuck.” It was weird. It was frenetic. It was awful. It was glorious.
A note on the list: These aren’t the stories that got the most clicks, or the ones with most shares (although many of ’em went viral). These are the 20 articles that our readers spent the most time consuming.
So kick back, take a read, and get ready for an even wilder 2018.
Exclusive: Green Beret Discovered SEALs’ Illicit Cash. Then He Was Killed.
Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar’s death looked suspicious from the start. But even the most hard-bitten observers gasped when they learned how the Green Beret really died.
The assault was caught on tape. And yet prosecutors wanted to give only the lightest of sentences to the man who did it.
Bill Maher Exposes Tomi Lahren on ‘Real Time’
The Trump fangirl was not at her best—claiming the president isn’t actually in charge of military operations and decrying “racism against white individuals.” Maher and his panel pounced, viciously.
Clooney pushed hard for Hillary Clinton. In an exclusive interview, the Oscar-winning actor-filmmaker-humanitarian explained why all the endorsements, money, and institutional oomph weren’t enough to beat Trump.
Exclusive: Cadet Run Out of West Point After Accusing Army’s Star Quarterback of Rape
He was cleared by the school and the Army—and became captain of the football team. She says she was shamed by fellow cadets and disrespected by the academy’s leaders.
Exclusive: ‘Silicon Valley’ Star T.J. Miller Accused of Sexually Assaulting and Punching a Woman
Allegations of sexual violence have followed the acclaimed comic and actor years. Finally, accuser came forward.
NBC Fires Matt Lauer for Sexual Misconduct, and It’s Already Getting Worse
The #MeToo moment claimed the biggest name at NBC News—as the network braced for even more horror stories to emerge.
Trump’s Inauguration Welcome Concert Was a Total Disaster
Even diehard Trumpkins screamed to the sky during the rhythmic stylings of Ravidrums and the marshmallow rock of 3 Doors Down.
John Kelly Pushing Out Omarosa for ‘Triggering’ Trump
Trump’s “Apprentice” was bringing a little too much reality-TV drama to the Oval Office. So the general told her to GTFO.
It took just nine days for the first major constitutional crisis of the Trump presidency to erupt.
Cop Purged Dead Girl’s Texts at Scene of Her Death, Prosecutors Say
“You can’t do this to me,” the cop allegedly messaged over and over. “You can’t.”
A new photo supposedly showed the aviatrix taken alive, but eyewitness testimony unearthed by The Daily Beast proved the claim was false.
No One Knows What Omarosa Is Doing in the White House—Even Omarosa
Seemingly stripped of formal responsibilities, the onetime TV villain appeared to spend her White House time—and taxpayer salary—planning her wedding.
A Viral Sex Crime That Shocked a Nation
“Last spring I was sexually assaulted in broad daylight in Mexico City. It nearly destroyed my career, forced me to flee the country, and alienated me from society.”
How Doug Jones Destroyed Roy Moore’s Whole Shtick With One Well-Chosen Verb
“Prancing around on a stage in a cowboy suit.” At first it looks like a standard, if slightly harsh, political insult. But parse that phrase closely, and you realize it’s a body blow—not just to Roy Moore, but to the politics he champions.
Steve Bannon Calls Jared Kushner a ‘Cuck’ and ‘Globalist’ Behind His Back
Historians will likely look back at the spring of 2017 as the Golden Age of White House Backstabbing.
Republican Coal King Sues HBO Over John Oliver’s Show
When Last Week Tonight skewered a West Virginia coal magnate, he responded with a “rambling and semi-coherent” legal threat.
Snow Fall: The Plane Went Down With His Wife, His Kid... and a Secret
Don’t wait until Hollywood turns it into a blockbuster. Read this thriller now.
The Real-Life Story of Princess Margaret and Tony, Wild Swingers of ‘The Crown’
The Daily Beast’s Clive Irving had the inside track on the couple that scandalized Swinging London. After all, he worked with the future Lord Snowdon and brother-in-law to the queen.
Hollywood’s Other ‘Open Secret’ Besides Harvey Weinstein: Preying on Young Boys
“This is a place where adults have more direct and inappropriate connection with children than probably anywhere else in the world.”