David Lazarus is an American business and consumer columnist who works for ''

KTLA KTLA (channel 5) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of The CW. It is the largest directly owned property of the network's majority owner, Nexstar Media Group, and is the seco ...

'' and worked for the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' from August 2007 to January 2022. His last column was published on January 28, 2022.

Early life and education

He attended

Ojai Valley School Ojai Valley School is a co-educational independent boarding school in the Ojai Valley near the city of Ojai, California, United States. The school was founded in 1911 and offers pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade education. The motto of th ...

and

Crossroads School (Santa Monica, California) Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences is a private, K–12, independent, college preparatory school in Santa Monica, California, United States. The school is a former member of the G20 Schools Group. History The school was founded in 1971 as a se ...

before heading north to attend and graduate from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, where he earned a degree in history.

Writing

David Lazarus has written pieces for ''

'' about consumer affairs and business topics including

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...

and BMW-customer service issues. Before joining the ''LA Times'' staff in 2007, Lazarus worked as a columnist for the ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...

'' and a nightly

talk radio Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often featur ...

host for San Francisco's

KGO Radio KGO (810 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to San Francisco, California, and owned by Cumulus Media. KGO operates with 50,000 watts, the highest power permitted AM radio stations by the Federal Communications Commission, but uses ...

. Lazarus also worked for ''

The San Francisco Examiner The ''San Francisco Examiner'' is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and published since 1863. Once self-dubbed the "Monarch of the Dailies" by then-owner William Randolph Hearst, and flagship of the Hearst Corporat ...

'',''

The Bangkok Post The ''Bangkok Post'' is an English-language daily newspaper published in Bangkok, Thailand. It is published in broadsheet and digital formats. The first issue was sold on 1 August 1946. It had four pages and cost one baht, a considerable amount ...

'', and ''

The Japan Times ''The Japan Times'' is Japan's largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper. It is published by , a subsidiary of News2u Holdings, Inc.. It is headquartered in the in Kioicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo. History ''The Japan Times'' was launched by ...

''. He won first place in the 2005 National Headliner Awards contest for business reporting. And the Society of Professional Journalists in Northern California named him "Journalist of the Year" in 2001. A media watchdog site, Grade the News, described him this way: "Since coming to the ''Chronicle'' from ''Wired News'' in 1999, David Lazarus has been one of the most prolific, and influential, writers at the paper." He is known for sticking up and helping ordinary people deal with problems "such as fighting telemarketers" when no one else is able to step up. Lazarus is the author of two books on Japan, where he lived for several years, and has had articles published in many magazines.

Radio interviews

Lazarus has often been interviewed about data breach issues (see

Anthem medical data breach The Anthem medical data breach was a medical data breach of information held by Elevance Health, known at that time as Anthem Inc. On February 4, 2015, Anthem, Inc. disclosed that criminal hackers had broken into its servers and had potentially s ...

) and privacy matters on

shows such as the

Norman Goldman Norman Maurice Goldman (born March 17, 1959) is an American attorney and a former political talk radio host. Goldman first broadcast nationally as a fill-in host for ''The Ed Schultz Show'' in 2006, as well as creating colorful segments as th ...

Show. He is also regularly seen on

“Consumer Confidential” segments.

Personal

Lazarus lives in Southern California with his wife and son.

References

External links

Lazarus's articles
at ''Los Angeles Times'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Lazarus, David American columnists American male journalists American talk radio hosts Consumer rights activists Writers from San Francisco Radio personalities from San Francisco University of California, Berkeley alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Place of birth missing (living people) American skeptics Crossroads School alumni