Ashley Feinberg is an American journalist, covering politics, media, and technology.
She is known for her internet sleuthing, through which she has uncovered information about the online activity of public figures.
Education
Feinberg was born in
Dallas
Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...
.
She attended
Trinity University and studied English and Communication, graduating in 2012.
Career
Feinberg began her journalism career in 2011 as an intern at the ''
San Antonio Current
The San Antonio ''Current'' is a free weekly alternative newspaper in San Antonio, Texas. The ''Current'' focuses on investigative journalism, political analysis, and critical coverage of local music and culture. It also contains extensive and u ...
''.
She joined
Gizmodo
''Gizmodo'' ( ) is a design, technology, science and science fiction website. It was originally launched as part of the Gawker Media network run by Nick Denton, and runs on the Kinja platform. ''Gizmodo'' also includes the subsite '' io9'', ...
in 2013 as an Editorial Assistant.
Feinberg drew attention with how-to story about the "creepiest things you can do on Facebook, such as tagging yourself in someone else’s engagement photo and requesting a relationship status."
She later was promoted as a staff writer at
Gawker
''Gawker'' is an American blog founded by Nick Denton and Elizabeth Spiers and based in New York City focusing on celebrities and the media industry. According to SimilarWeb, the site had over 23 million visits per month as of 2015. Founded ...
.
Discussing Gawker's closing in 2016, ''
HuffPost
''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...
'' cited Feinberg's work for the site among the reasons that "
you care about
free speech
Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recog ...
, then you should care about Gawker."
In August 2015, Feinberg broke news of ''
19 Kids and Counting
''19 Kids and Counting'' (formerly ''17 Kids and Counting'' and ''18 Kids and Counting'') is an American reality television series that aired on the cable channel TLC for seven years until its cancellation in 2015. The show features the Dugga ...
'' participant and conservative Christian activist
Josh Duggar
Joshua James Duggar (born March 3, 1988) is an American convicted sex offender and former reality television personality from the TLC (TV network), TLC series ''19 Kids and Counting''. The eldest of Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar's nineteen childre ...
's use of
Ashley Madison
Ashley Madison, or The Ashley Madison Agency, is a Canadian online dating service and social networking service marketed to people who are married or in relationships. The site has been widely condemned for being a "business built on the back of ...
, an online dating service marketed to married people seeking extramarital affairs.
Duggar's paid account was exposed in a July 2015
hacking of the site.
In March 2017, she discovered FBI director
James Comey
James Brien Comey Jr. (; born December 14, 1960) is an American lawyer who was the seventh director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 2013 until his dismissal in May 2017. Comey was a registered Republican for most of his adul ...
's secret
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
and
Instagram
Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...
accounts, which he confirmed later that year. Comey had previously mentioned a secret account in an interview and Feinberg connected the pseudonym "
Reinhold Niebuhr
Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr (June 21, 1892 – June 1, 1971) was an American Reformed theologian, ethicist, commentator on politics and public affairs, and professor at Union Theological Seminary for more than 30 years. Niebuhr was one of Ameri ...
", who was the subject of Comey's college thesis.
In October 2017, Feinberg joined ''HuffPost''.
In November 2017, according to Fox News, Feinberg tweeted, "Congratulations to John McCain’s wife and children on their upcoming tax-free inheritance", alluding to McCain's treatment for brain cancer. She subsequently received significant criticism, and later deleted the tweet and apologized. She later joined ''
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...
'', in May 2019.
Writing in the ''
Columbia Journalism Review
The ''Columbia Journalism Review'' (''CJR'') is a biannual magazine for professional journalists that has been published by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism since 1961. Its contents include news and media industry trends, ana ...
'', Matthew Kassel said, "Feinberg’s highly ironized persona gives her the air of a digital-era
Andy Kaufman
Andrew Geoffrey Kaufman ( ; January 17, 1949 – May 16, 1984) was an American entertainer and performance artist. While often called a "comedian", Kaufman preferred to describe himself instead as a "song and dance man". He has sometimes b ...
."
Feinberg's Gawker colleague John Cook described her as "sort of an anti-
troll
A troll is a being in Nordic folklore, including Norse mythology. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated areas of rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human ...
...She uses the weapons of the troll for the forces of good."
Her interview with Twitter CEO
Jack Dorsey
Jack Patrick Dorsey (born November 19, 1976) is an American Internet entrepreneur and programmer who is a co-founder and former CEO of Twitter, Inc., as well as a co-founder and the CEO and chairperson of Block, Inc., the developer of the Squa ...
was reported internationally, with Dorsey and commentators saying that it made Dorsey "look bad".
Feinberg was chosen for the 2019
Forbes 30 Under 30
''Forbes'' 30 Under 30 is a set of lists of people under 30 years old issued annually by '' Forbes'' magazine and some of its regional editions. The American lists recognize 600 business and industry figures, with 30 selected in twenty industries ...
in Media list, which noted she is "known for uncovering secrets about public figures through digital sleuthing, having discovered
Donald Trump Jr.
Donald John Trump Jr. (born December 31, 1977) is an American political activist, businessman, author, and former television presenter. He is the eldest child of Donald Trump, 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021, and his firs ...
’s hundreds of posts on an online hunting forum,
Sebastian Gorka
Sebastian Lukács Gorka ( hu, Gorka Sebestyén Lukács) (born October 22, 1970) is a British-born Hungarian-American media personality (currently with Salem Radio and NewsMax TV), military and intelligence analyst, and former government off ...
’s Amazon wishlist and James Comey’s once-private Twitter account" as well as Duggar's
Ashley Madison
Ashley Madison, or The Ashley Madison Agency, is a Canadian online dating service and social networking service marketed to people who are married or in relationships. The site has been widely condemned for being a "business built on the back of ...
account.
In March 2019, Feinberg reported in ''HuffPost'' that American news website ''
Axios Axios commonly refers to:
* Axios (river), a river that runs through Greece and North Macedonia
* ''Axios'' (website), an American news and information website
Axios may also refer to:
Brands and enterprises
* Axios, a brand of suspension produ ...
'' had paid a firm to
improve its reputation by
lobbying for changes to the
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read refer ...
articles on ''Axios'' and
Jonathan Swan.
In August 2019, Feinberg and her former employer, ''HuffPost'', were sued for defamation by Professor Derrick Evans for a 2018 article alleging he and Douglas Kennedy had supplied cocaine to fellow students at
Georgetown Preparatory School
Georgetown Preparatory School (also known as Georgetown Prep) is a Jesuit college-preparatory school in North Bethesda, Maryland for boys in ninth through twelfth grade. It has a 93-acre (380,000 square meters) campus. It is the only Jesuit boar ...
during
Brett Kavanaugh's time there, while also insinuating a connection to the drug overdose death of Kennedy's brother.
In October 2019, Feinberg uncovered an anonymous Twitter account that Republican senator
Mitt Romney
Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947) is an American politician, businessman, and lawyer serving as the junior United States senator from Utah since January 2019, succeeding Orrin Hatch. He served as the 70th governor of Massachusetts ...
had used to, among other political comments, post criticism of Donald Trump.
In December 2019, Feinberg investigated editors on the
English Wikipedia
The English Wikipedia is, along with the Simple English Wikipedia, one of two English-language editions of Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia. It was founded on January 15, 2001, as Wikipedia's first edition, and, as of
, has the most arti ...
who made edits that appeared to have been written either by
Pete Buttigieg
Peter Paul Montgomery Buttigieg ( ; ; Sometimes pronounced or , but not by Buttigieg himself. born January 19, 1982) is an American politician and former military officer who is currently serving as the United States secretary of transp ...
or by an individual with intimate knowledge of his early life, family, education, friends, and career. The Buttigieg campaign responded by claiming that these editors were not Buttigieg.
References
External links
*
Feinberg discusses reporting on Josh Duggar's Ashley Madison accounton MSNBC, August 24, 2015
{{DEFAULTSORT:Feinberg, Ashley
21st-century American journalists
21st-century American women writers
American women journalists
Gawker Media
HuffPost writers and columnists
Jewish American journalists
Journalists from New York City
Journalists from Texas
Living people
Slate (magazine) people
Trinity University (Texas) alumni
Writers from Dallas
Year of birth missing (living people)