Spencer Ackerman
| Spencer Ackerman | |
|---|---|
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| Education | Rutgers University |
| Occupation | Journalist, blogger |
| Nationality | U.S.  |
| Notable credit(s) | National Security Correspondent for the Washington Independent; former reporter for The New Republic; has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News; frequent guest on BloggingHeads.tv |
Spencer Ackerman is an American national security reporter and blogger. He began his career at The New Republic and currently writes for Wired magazine's national security blog, Danger Room.[1]
Ackerman graduated from Rutgers University[2] where he was an editor for the Daily Targum student paper. In 2002, he moved to Washington D.C. to become an intern and later an associate editor at The New Republic magazine.[2] He initially supported the Iraq War, but became disillusioned and in 2004 started a blog on The New Republic website called Iraq'd which chronicled the dilemma of pro-war liberals. He also wrote, with John B. Judis, an article that started the chain of events that led to the Plame affair.
In 2006 Ackerman was fired from TNR for "insubordination" (in TNR editor Franklin Foer's account) or "irreconciliable ideological differences" (in Ackerman's).[3] He subsequently wrote for The American Prospect (which offered him a job within a day of his firing) and Talking Points Memo.[3] Ackerman blogged and reported on national security issues at the Washington Independent from the paper's creation in 2008 until 2010, when he left for Wired.[4] He also has a personal blog at FireDogLake, Attackerman.
Ackerman is a fan of comic books and hardcore punk music. He has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, Al Jazeera and BloggingHeads.tv.
Ackerman worked as a consultant on the 2009 satirical film In the Loop.[5]
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[edit] Firing from The New Republic
In October 2006 he was fired by The New Republic Editor Franklin Foer. Describing it as a "painful" decision, Foer attributed the firing to Ackerman's "insubordination": disparaging the magazine on his personal blog Too Hot For TNR, saying that he would "skullfuck" a terrorist's corpse at an editorial meeting if that was required to "establish his anti-terrorist bona fides" and sending Foer an e-mail where he said—in what according to Ackerman was intended to be a joke—he would “make a niche in your skull” with a baseball bat.[3]
Ackerman, by contrast, argued that the dismissal was due to “irreconcilable ideological differences”. He believed that his leftward drift as a result of the Iraq War and the actions of the Bush administration was not appreciated by the senior editorial staff.[3] Ackerman reports having no regrets over anything he wrote or said but in retrospect believes that he should have quit well before he was fired. [1]
[edit] JournoList
Ackerman was a member of the private Google Groups forum JournoList. Following revelations by The Daily Caller of comments on the list, Washington Post reporter Dave Weigel was forced to resign. "Incendiary" JournoList comments by Ackerman on topics like the Jeremiah Wright controversy were also revealed by the Caller, but a spokesman for Wired said that Ackerman would keep his job, saying "We hired Spencer Ackerman for his well-informed national security reporting and fully support it. Anyone with access to Google can discover his political leanings."[6]
Ann Coulter criticized Ackerman for suggesting that opponents of conservatives 'start randomly picking conservatives -- "Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares -- and call them racists."'[7] [8]
[edit] References
- ^ Marx, Greg (23 June 2010). "Spencer Ackerman to Join Wired’s Danger Room". Columbia Journalism Review.
- ^ a b "D.C.'s New Young Blogging Elite". The Wall Street Journal. September 12, 2007. http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB118945161322222870-bXYxKiJLpOaWB_OQ3i8yGp8dqwM_20071012.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top. Retrieved 2007-09-12.
- ^ a b c d Calderone, Michael. "Off the Record". New York Observer. http://www.observer.com/node/39607#. Retrieved 29 October 2006.
- ^ Aaron, Weiner (23 June 2010). "A Bittersweet Farewell to a TWI Icon, Spencer Ackerman". Washington Independent. http://washingtonindependent.com/88123/a-bittersweet-farewell-to-a-twi-icon-spencer-ackerman.
- ^ Ackerman, Spencer (July 23, 2009). "How to succeed in Hollywood without really trying". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/jul/23/armando-iannucci-in-the-loop-washington. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
- ^ Hagey, Keach (2010-07-20). "Unlike David Weigel, Spencer Ackerman keeps job". Politico. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/39974.html. Retrieved 2010-07-20.
- ^ Coulter, Ann. "Obama's Poll Numbers Down, Imaginary Racism Up". http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=38190.
- ^ Kurtz, Howard (2010-07-23). "Getting the message on Journolist's controversial postings". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/22/AR2010072206024.html?sub=AR. "Spencer Ackerman, then with the Washington Independent and now at Wired.com, wrote: "If the right forces us all to either defend Wright or tear him down, no matter what we choose, we lose the game they've put upon us. Instead, take one of them -- [[Fred Barnes (journalist)|]], Karl Rove, who cares -- and call them racists. Ask: why do they have such a deep-seated problem with a black politician who unites the country?""
[edit] External links
- Attackerman - Ackerman's blog at firedoglake
- Danger Room - Ackerman's national security blog at Wired
- Too Hot For TNR – Ackerman's personal blog from 2006 to 2008
- List of video conversations with Ackerman on BloggingHeads.tv
- Articles by Ackerman at The New Republic
- Articles by Ackerman at The American Prospect
- Killing the Messenger by Ackerman in Salon, November 16, 2004
- Q&A: Spencer Ackerman 2009 interview with Ackerman at Columbia Journalism Review
