Dan Froomkin is the editor of Press Watch, [1] an independent website previously known as White House Watch. [2] He is a former senior writer and Washington editor for The Intercept . Prior to that, he was a writer and editor for The Huffington Post . [3] [4]
Froomkin was raised in Washington, D.C. His parents were Maya Pines Froomkin, an author and journalist, and Joseph Froomkin, an economist. In 1985, Froomkin graduated from Yale University. [5] His brother is University of Miami law professor Michael Froomkin, a prominent blogger who writes on Florida politics and the law. [6]
He has worked at newspapers such as The Winston-Salem Journal , The Miami Herald , and the Orange County Register . He was a Michigan Journalism Fellow and editor of new media for Education Week . [7] In 1997, he joined washingtonpost.com , the relatively new online website of the Post, as a senior producer for politics. From 2001 to 2003, he was editor of washingtonpost.com. His column devoted to presidential accountability launched on January 12, 2004.
From 2004 to 2009, he wrote a highly successful column for the online version of The Washington Post entitled, White House Watch, and he was the senior Washington correspondent for The Huffington Post . [8] On June 18, 2009, it was reported that his blog and employment at The Washington Post were terminated. In July, 2009, he was hired by The Huffington Post.
Froomkin subsequently worked as the Washington bureau chief for The Intercept , from September, 2014 until May, 2017. In September 2018, Froomkin revived White House Watch as an independent website. [2]
In her editorial, "The Two Washington Posts", published on December 11, 2005, Washington Post Ombudsman Deborah Howell observes that the print newspaper The Washington Post and the website washingtonpost.com are two different entities; although "The Post Web site is owned by the Washington Post Co... it is not run by the newspaper. It is a separate company called Washington Post-Newsweek Interactive, or WPNI, with offices in Arlington." [9] Whereas "The Post provides the vast majority of the Web site's content... the Web site has its own staff of 65 editorial employees and its own features... [Moreover,] [t]here are cultural differences between the two newsrooms, which could be expected between a traditional newspaper and the more free-wheeling Web site... The two Posts interact every day... [but] political reporters at The Post don't like WPNI columnist Dan Froomkin's "White House Briefing", which is highly opinionated and liberal. They're afraid that some readers think that Froomkin is a Post White House reporter." [9]
Howell continued:
There was some support from readers for Froomkin in editorial correspondence about the matter. [10]
On January 30, 2007, White House Briefing was renamed White House Watch.[ citation needed ]
Froomkin was also the deputy editor of Nieman Watchdog: Questions the press should ask, a blog hosted by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University that "seeks to encourage more informed reporting by soliciting probing questions from experts". [11]
On June 18, 2009, it was reported that Froomkin was being fired by The Washington Post. [12] [13] Froomkin confirmed this in a June 19 entry on White House Watch: "As Washington Post ombudsman Andy Alexander and others reported yesterday, The Washington Post has terminated my contract. So sometime in late June or early July, I'll be writing my last blog post here." [14]
Almost immediately, Froomkin was hired by The Huffington Post, where he continued to write and edit. His last original column for that publication was September 25, 2013.
He joined The Intercept on September 4, 2014. On May 9, 2017, The Intercept announced he was leaving. The Intercept's editor praised Froomkin upon his leaving, writing: "Dan was integral to The Intercept from the start, building up a scrappy and smart bureau from scratch and infusing our independent voice on politics with his skepticism, wisdom, and wit. Dan never wavered in his fierce commitment to the Intercept's core mission of producing original accountability journalism. [15] [3] [16]
In September 2018, Froomkin revived White House Watch as an independent website. [2]
On June 8, 2022, in her assertion that many do not understand that an "existential fight for rule of law" is at stake in the hearings of the Select Committee on the January 6 attack on the Capitol, Heather Cox Richardson noted that in his publication, Presswatchers, [17] Froomkin had "explored how U.S. news organizations have failed to communicate to readers that we are on a knife edge between democracy and authoritarianism", [18] and noted his plea for journalists to "frame the events in the larger context of Republican attempts to overturn our democracy".
On August 26, 2022 Press Watch published an article in its newsletter, Presswatchers, and online, by Froomkin in the same vein, exploring how media again are failing to communicate to their readers effectively regarding dangers evident in the policies, actions, and campaigning messages of the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, that emulate and exceed those used by Trump to move the country into authoritarianism and toward fascism. [19] He conjectures that the media are failing to exercise their appropriate role in a democracy by reporting in a "neutral" style in order to appear "fair" by attempting to "balance" coverage, using euphemisms that fail to convey how dangerous what should be reported is, and even allowing the politician to dictate terms of engagement that are unprecedented in professional reporting, such as banning access to reporters who report things the candidate dislikes or limiting access only to those agreeing to allow critical review of what the media intends to produce before publication or broadcast. He asserts that DeSantis is "gaming" political journalists just as Trump had, which leads to a "normalizing" of dangerous actions and trends that should be reported as being dangerous and, that this should be reported consistently in order to keep readers from becoming complacent rather than increasingly concerned.
Froomkin labels this failure as "journalistic malpractice" and that it may be found even in highly respected media such as the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and others, as well as, among national broadcast media. He describes many examples and contrasts that with the frank reporting of media such as the Cleveland Plain Dealer. He makes many recommendations to the media and reminds them that their very existence may become the casualty of their own role in a "normalization" effect. In that vein, on October 13, 2023 Froomkin addressed announced layoffs at the Washington Post as the result of their having adopted the "balanced" reporting model instead of its former role of telling the truth that should be resurrected regarding the increasing contemporary threats leading toward authoritarianism. He suggested that returning to the historical role of the Post when it pursued Watergate could reverse the decline in readership and make it become a responsible leader among media now reluctant to champion such a cause. [20]
On November 7, 2023, Press Watch published an article pointing to the same failure seen in coverage by the New York Times and the Washington Post of Trump and his allies discussing authoritarian planning for a "second administration". [21] The article provided suggested headlines and text that he believes would fulfill responsibility to report recent events covered accurately to readers better than that published.
On November 9, 2023, Press Watch provided a full transcript of the proceedings in court on November 6, the day of the testimony by Trump at his civil fraud trial in Manhattan, that was offered freely after being acquired by Froomkin using publicly-funded gofundme contributions. [22] His stated objective was to enable the public to know exactly what transpired because media coverage of the day-long testimony was limited and subject to reporting perspectives.
The Washington Post, locally known as ThePost and, informally, WaPo or WP, is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington metropolitan area and has a national audience. As of 2023, the Post has 135,980 print subscribers and 2.5 million digital subscribers, both of which are the third-largest among U.S. newspapers after The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.
WND is an American far-right news and opinion website. It is known for promoting fake news and conspiracy theories, including the false claim that former President Barack Obama was born outside the United States.
Joseph Francis Farah is an American author, journalist, and editor-in-chief of the far-right website WorldNetDaily(WND). Farah gained prominence for promoting conspiracy theories surrounding the suicide of Vince Foster and is a proponent of birtherism, a debunked conspiracy theory that Barack Obama is not a natural-born citizen of the United States.
Barry Sussman was an American editor, author, and public opinion analyst who dealt primarily with public policy issues. He was city news editor at The Washington Post at the time of the Watergate break-in and supervised much of the reporting on the Watergate scandal.
Howard Alan Kurtz is an American journalist and author and host of Media Buzz on Fox News.
Christopher Michael Cillizza is an American political commentator, who worked for the television news channel CNN from 2017 to 2022. Prior to joining CNN, he wrote for The Fix, the daily political blog of The Washington Post, and was a regular contributor to the Post on political issues, a frequent panelist on Meet the Press, and an MSNBC political analyst.
Murray S. Waas is an American independent journalist and investigative journalist best known for his coverage of the White House planning for the 2003 invasion of Iraq and ensuing controversies and American political scandals such as the Plame affair. For much of his career, Waas focused on national security reporting, but has also written about social issues and corporate malfeasance. His articles about the second Iraq war and Plame affair matters have appeared in National Journal, where he has worked as a staff correspondent and contributing editor, The Atlantic, and, earlier The American Prospect.
On April 29, 2006, American comedian Stephen Colbert appeared as the featured entertainer at the 2006 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, which was held in Washington, D.C., at the Hilton Washington hotel. Colbert's performance, consisting of a 16-minute podium speech and a 7-minute video presentation, was broadcast live across the United States on the cable television networks C-SPAN and MSNBC. Standing a few feet from U.S. President George W. Bush, in front of an audience of celebrities, politicians, and members of the White House Press Corps, Colbert delivered a controversial, searing routine targeting the president and the media. He spoke in the persona of the character he played on Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, a parody of conservative pundits such as Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity.
Leonard "Len" Downie Jr. is an American journalist who was executive editor of The Washington Post from 1991 to 2008. He worked in the Post newsroom for 44 years. His roles at the newspaper included executive editor, managing editor, national editor, London correspondent, assistant managing editor for metropolitan news, deputy metropolitan editor, and investigative and local reporter. Downie became executive editor upon the retirement of Ben Bradlee. During Downie's tenure as executive editor, the Washington Post won 25 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other newspaper had won during the term of a single executive editor. Downie currently serves as vice president at large at the Washington Post, as Weil Family Professor of Journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, and as a member of several advisory boards associated with journalism and public affairs.
The Daily Beast is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. Founded in 2008, the website is owned by IAC Inc.
Marcy Wheeler, long known by the handle "emptywheel", is an American independent journalist specializing in national security and civil liberties. Wheeler publishes on her own site, Emptywheel, established in July 2011. She has reported on United States v. Libby and the investigation of President Donald Trump's connections to Russia, among other national security matters.
David Weigel is an American journalist. He works for Semafor. Weigel previously covered politics for The Washington Post,Slate, and Bloomberg Politics and is a contributing editor for Reason magazine.
The Daily Caller is a right-wing news and opinion website based in Washington, D.C. It was founded by former Fox News host Tucker Carlson and political pundit Neil Patel in 2010. Launched as a "conservative answer to The Huffington Post", The Daily Caller quadrupled its audience and became profitable by 2012, surpassing several rival websites by 2013. In 2020, the site was described by The New York Times as having been "a pioneer in online conservative journalism". The Daily Caller is a member of the White House press pool.
Mary Catherine Jordan is an American journalist and author who is Associate Editor at the Washington Post. She was a foreign correspondent for 14 years. With her husband, Kevin Sullivan, Jordan ran the newspaper's bureaus in Tokyo, Mexico City and London. Jordan also was the founding editor and head of content for Washington Post Live.
First Look Media is an American nonprofit media organization founded by Pierre Omidyar in October 2013 as a venue for "original, independent journalism". The project was started as a collaboration with Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill, and Laura Poitras with a promised $250 million in funding from Omidyar. The organization announced plans to support multiple publications, the first of which was The Intercept, launched in February 2014.
The Intercept is an American left-wing nonprofit news organization that publishes articles and podcasts online.
Vox is an American news and opinion website owned by Vox Media. The website was founded in April 2014 by Ezra Klein, Matt Yglesias, and Melissa Bell, and is noted for its concept of explanatory journalism. Vox's media presence also includes a YouTube channel, several podcasts, and a show presented on Netflix. Vox has been described as left-leaning and progressive.
John F. Solomon is an American journalist who was a contributor to Fox News until late 2020. He was formerly an executive and editor-in-chief at The Washington Times.
Arthur Gregg Sulzberger is an American journalist serving as the chairman of The New York Times Company and publisher of its flagship newspaper, The New York Times.
Trump Revealed: An American Journey of Ambition, Ego, Money, and Power is a biography of Donald Trump, written by Michael Kranish and Marc Fisher. It was first published in 2016 in hardcover format by Scribner. It was released in ebook format that year and paperback format in 2017 under the title Trump Revealed: The Definitive Biography of the 45th President. The book was a collaborative research project by The Washington Post, supervised by the newspaper's editor Marty Baron and consisting of contributions from thirty-eight journalists, and two fact-checkers. Trump initially refused to be interviewed for the book, then relented, and subsequently raised the possibility of a libel lawsuit against the authors. After the book was completed, Trump urged his Twitter followers not to buy it.