''The Daily Beast'' is an American news

website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google Search, Google, Facebook, Amaz ...

focused on politics, media, and pop culture. It was founded in 2008. It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by

Noah Shachtman Noah Shachtman is an American journalist, and musician. He is the editor-in-chief of ''Rolling Stone''. From 2018 to 2021, he served as the editor-in-chief of ''The Daily Beast''. He previously was the executive editor of the site. A former non-re ...

, the site's editor-in-chief from 2018 to 2021. In a 2015 interview, former

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

John Avlon John Phillips Avlon (born January 19, 1973) is an American journalist and political commentator. He is a Senior Political Analyst and anchor at CNN and was the editor-in-chief and managing director of ''The Daily Beast'' from 2013 to 2018. Avlon ...

described the ''Beast''s editorial approach: "We seek out scoops, scandals, and stories about secret worlds; we love confronting bullies, bigots, and hypocrites." In 2018, Avlon described the ''Beast''s "strike zone" as "politics, pop culture, and power".

History

''The Daily Beast'' began publishing on October 6, 2008. Its founding editor was

Tina Brown Christina Hambley Brown, Lady Evans (born 21 November 1953), is an English journalist, magazine editor, columnist, talk-show host, and author of ''The Diana Chronicles'' (2007) a biography of Diana, Princess of Wales, '' The Vanity Fair Diarie ...

, a former editor of ''Vanity Fair'' and ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' as well as the short-lived ''Talk'' magazine. The name of the site was taken from a fictional newspaper in

Evelyn Waugh Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires ''Decli ...

's novel ''Scoop''. In 2010, ''The Daily Beast'' merged with the magazine ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...

'' creating a combined company,

The Newsweek Daily Beast Company NewsBeast was an American media company, and owner of ''Newsweek'' and ''The Daily Beast''. It was established in 2010 as a merger between the two media outlets. The company was owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp and the estate of Sidney Harman, with S ...

. The merger ended in 2013, when ''Daily Beast'' owner IAC sold ''Newsweek'' to

IBT Media IBT Media is an American global digital news organization with over 90 million monthly readers, owned by followers of religious leader David Jang. It publishes the '' International Business Times'' and ''Medical Daily'', among others. IBT Media ...

, owner of the ''

International Business Times The ''International Business Times'' is an American online news publication that publishes five national editions in four languages. The publication, sometimes called ''IBTimes'' or ''IBT'', offers news, opinion and editorial commentary on busi ...

''. Brown stepped down as editor in September 2013.

, an American journalist and political commentator as well as a

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

contributor, was the site's editor-in-chief and managing director from 2013 to 2018. In September 2014, ''The Daily Beast'' reached a new record of 21 million unique visitors – a 60% year-over-year increase in readers, accompanied by a 300% increase in the overall size of its social media community. In May 2018 Avlon departed from the ''Beast'' to become full-time Senior Political Analyst and anchor at

. Avlon was succeeded by executive editor

. In March 2017 former chief strategy and product officer Mike Dyer left for

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...

. In May 2017, Heather Dietrick was appointed president and publisher. In July 2021, Shachtman announced that he'd be moving from the Beast to

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

and that he will be succeeded by Tracy Connor.

Editorial stance

In an April 2018 interview, Avlon described the publication's political stance as "non-partisan but not neutral": "what that means is we're going to hit both sides where appropriate, but we're not going for mythic moral equivalence on every issue." In April 2017, Avlon discussed the organization's approach on the

Poynter Institute The Poynter Institute for Media Studies is a non-profit journalism school and research organization in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. The school is the owner of the ''Tampa Bay Times'' newspaper and the International Fact-Checking Netw ...

's podcast saying, "We're not going to toe any partisan line." In December 2017,

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

reported that ''The Daily Beast''s editor-in-chief John Avlon had begun pairing reporters from both the right and left sides of the

political spectrum A political spectrum is a system to characterize and classify different political positions in relation to one another. These positions sit upon one or more geometric axes that represent independent political dimensions. The expressions politi ...

to cover

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...

stories. Specifically, reporters Asawin Suebsaeng (formerly of ''

Mother Jones Mary G. Harris Jones (1837 (baptized) – November 30, 1930), known as Mother Jones from 1897 onwards, was an Irish-born American schoolteacher and dressmaker who became a prominent union organizer, community organizer, and activist. She h ...

'') and Lachlan Markay (formerly of

The Heritage Foundation The Heritage Foundation (abbreviated to Heritage) is an American conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C. that is primarily geared toward public policy. The foundation took a leading role in the conservative movement during the presiden ...

) were tasked with covering the

Trump Administration Donald Trump's tenure as the 45th president of the United States began with his inauguration on January 20, 2017, and ended on January 20, 2021. Trump, a Republican from New York City, took office following his Electoral College victory ...

. ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' media critic

Erik Wemple Erik Wemple is an American journalist who works as a columnist and media critic at ''The Washington Post''. He was formerly the editor of the alternative weekly ''Washington City Paper''. Early life Wemple was raised in Niskayuna, New York, and a ...

stated in 2018 that "Pound for pound, 'The Daily Beast''is an impressive operation. As I see it, they do a few things well: They bang the phones, they don't always follow the same story everyone else is doing, and they are fast." Later in 2018, editor-in-chief Noah Shachtman characterized ''The Daily Beast'' as a "high-end tabloid" that embraces gonzo journalism. According to Shachtman, ''The Daily Beast'''s

social media policy A social media policy is a policy which advises representatives of an organization on their use of social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other f ...

for journalists consists (as of 2018) of three main rules: "you're reporters, not cheerleaders" so don't be an open partisan; avoid hate speech and posts that could offend a group; and "don't get your fellow reporters in trouble".

Format

A feature of ''The Daily Beast'' is the ''Cheat Sheet'', billed as "must reads from all over". Published throughout the day, the ''Cheat Sheet'' offers a selection of articles from online news outlets on popular stories. The ''Cheat Sheet'' includes brief summaries of the article, and a link to read the full text of the article on the website of its provider. It is found at www.thedailybeast.com/cheat-sheet. After the launch, the site introduced additional sections, including a video ''Cheat Sheet'' and ''Book Beast''. The site frequently creates encyclopedic landing pages on topical subjects such as President Obama's inauguration, the

Bernard Madoff Bernard Lawrence Madoff ( ; April 29, 1938April 14, 2021) was an American fraudster and financier who was the admitted mastermind of the largest Ponzi scheme in history, worth about $64.8 billion. He was at one time chairman of the NASDAQ ...

Ponzi scheme, and the Iran uprising. In 2014, ''The Daily Beast'' became the majority on mobile and released an

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...

app, which Nieman Lab described as "the dawn of the quantified news reader". The illustrational style used at the top of every article has been described as, "jaunty collage and pop-art illustrations".

Contributors

Contributors to the publication include notable writers and political activists such as: *

Ayaan Hirsi Ali Ayaan Hirsi Ali (; ; Somali: ''Ayaan Xirsi Cali'':'' Ayān Ḥirsī 'Alī;'' born Ayaan Hirsi Magan, ar, أيان حرسي علي / ALA-LC: ''Ayān Ḥirsī 'Alī'' 13 November 1969) is a Somali-born Dutch-American activist and former politicia ...

Samantha Leigh Allen Samantha Leigh Allen is an American journalist and author. Allen worked as a senior reporter for ''The Daily Beast'' and now works as a freelance journalist. In 2019 she published the nonfiction book '' Real Queer America: LGBT Stories From Red St ...

* Martin Amis *

Mike Barnicle Michael Barnicle (born October 13, 1943) is an American print and broadcast journalist, and a social and political commentator. He is a senior contributor and the veteran columnist on MSNBC's '' Morning Joe''. He is also seen on NBC's ''Today Sh ...

Peter Beinart Peter Alexander Beinart (; born February 28, 1971) is an American liberal columnist, journalist, and political commentator. A former editor of ''The New Republic'', he has also written for ''Time'', ''The New York Times'', and ''The New York Revie ...

Jamelle Bouie Jamelle Antoine Bouie (born April 12, 1987) is an American columnist for ''The New York Times''. He was formerly chief political correspondent for ''Slate''. David Uberti, writing in the Columbia Journalism Review in 2019, called Bouie "one of ...

Jimmy Breslin James Earle Breslin (October 17, 1928 – March 19, 2017) was an American journalist and author. Until the time of his death, he wrote a column for the New York ''Daily News'' Sunday edition.''Current Biography 1942'', pp. 648–51: "Patterson, ...

* Christopher Buckley * Gordon Chang * Ron Christie * Eleanor Clift *

Ana Marie Cox Ana Marie Cox (born September 23, 1972) is an American author, blogger, political columnist, and critic. The founding editor of the political blog '' Wonkette'', she was also the Senior Political Correspondent for MTV News, and conducted the "Ta ...

Christopher Dickey Christopher Swift Dickey (August 31, 1951 – July 16, 2020) was an American journalist, author, and news editor. He was the Paris-based world news editor for ''The Daily Beast''. He authored seven books, including ''Our Man in Charleston: Brita ...

Diane Dimond Diane Dimond (born November 15, 1952) is an American investigative journalist, author, syndicated columnist, and TV commentator. She is best known for breaking the story of child molestation allegations against singer Michael Jackson and her co ...

* Kim Dozier *

Joshua Dubois Joshua DuBois (born 1982) is an executive and former government official who served as the head of the Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships in the Executive Office of the President of the United States from 2009 to 2013. In February ...

* Mark Ebner *

Jon Favreau Jonathan Kolia Favreau (; born October 19, 1966) is an American actor and filmmaker. As an actor, Favreau has appeared in films such as ''Rudy (film), Rudy'' (1993), ''PCU (film), PCU'' (1994), ''Swingers (1996 film), Swingers'' (1996), ''Very ...

David Frum David Jeffrey Frum (; born June 30, 1960) is a Canadian-American political commentator and a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, who is currently a senior editor at ''The Atlantic'' as well as an MSNBC contributor. In 2003, Frum a ...

* Leslie H. Gelb *

Daniel Genis Daniel Genis (born August 2, 1978) is a Russian-American Journalist, Writer, and media person. Early life and career Daniel Genis was born in New York City to Alexander and Irina Genis, only a few months after their emigration from the Sovie ...

Michelle Goldberg Michelle Goldberg (born 1975)"Michelle Goldberg". Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2016. Retrieved via Biography in Context database, January 28, 2017. is an American journalist and author, and an op-ed columnist for ''The New York Tim ...

* Daniel Goldman * Daniel Gross *

Lloyd Grove Lloyd Bennett Grove is editor at large for ''The Daily Beast'', an American news reporting and opinion website focusing on politics and pop culture. He is also a frequent contributor to ''New York''. He was a gossip columnist for ''New York Daily ...

Shane Harris Shane Harris is an American journalist and author. He is a senior national security writer at the ''Washington Post''. He specializes in coverage of America's intelligence agencies. He is author of the books '' The Watchers: The Rise of Americ ...

Molly Jong-Fast Molly Jong-Fast (born August 19, 1978) is an American writer, journalist, author, political commentator, and podcaster. Career As of November 2021, Jong-Fast is a contributing writer at ''The Atlantic'' and at ''Vogue''. She had previously w ...

* Jackie Kucinich *

Eli Lake Eli Jon Lake is an American journalist and the former senior national security correspondent for ''The Daily Beast'' and ''Newsweek''. Currently, he is a columnist for the Bloomberg View. He has also contributed to CNN, Fox, CSPAN, Charlie ...

* Bernard Henri Levy *

Matt K. Lewis Matt K. Lewis is an American conservative political writer, blogger, podcaster, and columnist for ''The Daily Beast'', formerly with ''The Daily Caller'', and has written for ''The Week''.

Ira Madison III Ira Madison III (born July 28, 1986) is an American television writer and podcaster. He is the main host of the Crooked Media podcast ''Keep It!'' He is a former critic at ''The Daily Beast'', ''GQ Magazine'', and other publications. Early lif ...

Meghan McCain Meghan Marguerite McCain (born October 23, 1984) is an American television personality, columnist, and author. She has worked for ABC News, Fox News, and MSNBC. The daughter of politician John McCain and diplomat Cindy McCain, she has been a pu ...

Mark McKinnon Mark David McKinnon (born May 5, 1955) is an American political advisor, reform advocate, media columnist, and television producer. He was the chief media advisor to five successful presidential primary and general election campaigns, and is a co ...

* Michael Moynihan *

Maajid Nawaz Maajid Usman Nawaz (; born 2 November 1977) is a British activist and former radio presenter. He was the founding chairman of Quilliam. Until January 2022, he was the host of an LBC radio show on Saturdays and Sundays. Born in Southend-on-Sea ...

Olivia Nuzzi Olivia Nuzzi (born January 6, 1993) is a political reporter who serves as the Washington correspondent for ''New York'' magazine. Early and personal life Nuzzi was born in New York City. She is the daughter of Kelly and John Nuzzi, who was born ...

Dean Obeidallah Dean Obeidallah (born December 17, 1969) is an American lawyer, comedian, and journalist. He is the host of SiriusXM Progress' ''The Dean Obeidallah Show'' and a frequent contributor to CNN, The Daily Beast, and MSNBC. Obeidallah was born in N ...

* P. J. O'Rourke * Kirsten Powers *

Joy-Ann Reid Joy-Ann M. Lomena-Reid (born December 8, 1968), known professionally as Joy Reid, is an American cable television host, MSNBC national correspondent, liberal political commentator, and author. She hosted the weekly MSNBC morning show, ''AM Joy' ...

Josh Rogin Josh Rogin is an American journalist who serves as a foreign policy columnist for the Global Opinions section of ''The Washington Post'' and as a political analyst for CNN. He is the author of the book ''Chaos Under Heaven: Trump, Xi, and the B ...

Mimi Sheraton Mimi Sheraton (born Miriam Solomon; February 10, 1926) is an American food critic and writer. Family and education Sheraton's mother, Beatrice, was described as an excellent cook and her father, Joseph Solomon, as a commission merchant in a wh ...

Harry Siegel Harry Siegel (born 1977) is a senior editor for The Daily Beast. Biography Siegel is a lifelong resident of the Brooklyn area of New York City. He graduated from Brandeis University, Siegel worked at ''The New York Sun'' as an editorial writer an ...

Will Sommer Will Sommer (born June 17, 1988) is an American journalist working as a media reporter for The Washington Post. Previously, he worked as a politics reporter for The Daily Beast since 2018, a campaign editor for ''The Hill (newspaper), The Hill'' ...

* Stuart Stevens *

Goldie Taylor Goldie Taylor (born July 18, 1968) is an American author and opinion writer based in Atlanta, Georgia. She is an editor-at-large of The Daily Beast. Early life Taylor was born in University City, Missouri, and raised in East St. Louis, Illino ...

Michael Tomasky Michael John Tomasky (born October 13, 1960) is an American columnist, progressive commentator, and author. He is the editor of ''The New Republic'' and editor in chief of ''Democracy''. He has been a special correspondent for ''Newsweek'', ''T ...

Touré Touré is the French transcription of a West African surname (English transcriptions are '' Turay'' and '' Touray''). The name is probably derived from ''tùùré'', the word for 'elephant' in Soninké, the language of the Ghana Empire. The clan ...

Michael Weiss Michael Weiss may refer to: Sports * Michael Weiss (figure skater) (born 1976), American former figure skater * Michael Weiss (swimmer) (born 1991), American swimmer * Michael Weiss (triathlete) (born 1981), Austrian triathlete and cyclist * Mich ...

* Rick Wilson In May 2017, Pulitzer Prize–winning national security reporter

Spencer Ackerman Spencer Ackerman is an American journalist and writer. Focusing primarily on national security, he began his career at ''The New Republic'' in 2002 before writing for ''Wired'', ''The Guardian'' and ''The Daily Beast''. He won a 2012 National ...

left ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' and joined ''The Daily Beast''. In June 2017, ''

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 ...

'' senior political editor Sam Stein announced he was joining ''The Daily Beast'' in the same capacity.

Reach

In early June 2014, Capital New York re-published a memo by outgoing CEO Rhona Murphy, stating that ''The Daily Beast''s average unique monthly visitors increased from 13.5 million in 2013 to more than 17 million in 2014. By September 2014, the website reached a new record of 21 million unique visitors; it was a 60% year-over-year increase in readers, accompanied by a 300% increase in the overall size of its social media community. In 2015, Ken Doctor, a news analyst for

Nieman Lab The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University is the primary journalism institution at Harvard. It was founded in February 1938 as the result of a $1.4 million bequest by Agnes Wahl Nieman, the widow of Lucius W. Nieman, founder of ...

, reported that ''The Daily Beast'' is "one of the fastest-growing news and information sites year-over-year in the 'General News' category". During Avlon's leadership from 2013 to 2018, ''The Daily Beast'' doubled its traffic to 1.1 million readers a day and won over 17 awards for journalistic excellence.

Awards

''The Daily Beast'' won a

Webby Award The Webby Awards are awards for excellence on the Internet presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over two thousand industry experts and technology innovators. Categories include ...

for "Best News Site" in 2012 and 2013. Also in 2012 John Avlon won National Society of Newspaper Columnists' award for best online column in 2012 for ''The Daily Beast''. In March 2012, "Book Beast" won a National Magazine Award for Website Department, which "honors a department, channel or microsite". Anna Nemstova received the Courage in Journalism Award in 2015 from the International Women's Media Foundation. Also that year, Michael Daly won with the National Society of Newspaper Columnists award in the category of Online, Blog, Multimedia – Over 100,000 Unique Visitors. In 2016, the

Los Angeles Press Club The Los Angeles Press Club is an American journalism organization founded in 1913. It honors journalists through its annual National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards and SoCal Journalism Awards. The Board of Directors includes the organi ...

nominated several of The Beast's writers including M. L. Nestel for Arts/Entertainment Investigative,

Brandy Zadrozny Brandy Zadrozny (born August 30, 1980) is an American investigative journalist and reporter with NBC News who specialises in political radicalization, extremism and disinformation on the Internet. Early life and education Before entering jour ...

and Ben Collins for best Celebrity Investigative, Malcolm Jones for best Obituary, Lizzie Crocker for Humor and Tim Teeman for Industry/ArtsHard News. Also nominated for best in field were Kevin Fallon for Industry/Arts Soft News and Melissa Leon for Industry/Arts Soft News. The Association of LGBTQ Journalists or

NLGJA NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ Journalists, is an American professional association dedicated to unbiased coverage of LGBT, LGBTQ issues in the media. It is based in Washington, D.C., and the membership consists primarily of journalists, student ...

nominated both Tim Teeman 2016 Journalist of the Year and Heather Boerner Excellence in HIV/AIDS Coverage. In 2017, NLGJA awarded Jay Michaelson for his coverage of GOP anti-LGBT legislation and Tim Teeman for reporting on ALS. In 2017, the website won three New York Press Club Journalism Awards in the internet publishing categories of Entertainment News, Crime Reporting and Travel Reporting. In December, the Los Angeles Press Club's National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards announced the platform had won 4 awards for 2017 reporting including investigative articles about the

Nate Parker Nate Parker (born November 18, 1979) is an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter. He has appeared in '' Beyond the Lights'', '' Red Tails'', '' The Secret Life of Bees'', '' The Great Debaters'', ''Arbitrage'', ''Non-Stop'', ' ...

rape case, comic Bob Smith's struggle with ALS, and remembering

Bill Paxton William Paxton (May 17, 1955 – February 25, 2017) was an American actor and filmmaker. He appeared in films such as '' Weird Science'' (1985), ''Aliens'' (1986), '' Near Dark'' (1987), '' Tombstone'' (1993), ''True Lies'' (1994), '' Apollo 1 ...

. In 2018, the trade magazine '' Digiday'' awarded the ''Beast''s Cheat Sheet for best email newsletter.

Beast Books

In September 2009, ''The Daily Beast'' launched a publishing initiative entitled "Beast Books" that will produce books by ''Beast'' writers on an accelerated publishing schedule. The first book published by Beast Books was

's ''Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America''. In January 2011, they published Stephen L. Carter's ''The Violence of Peace: America's Wars in the Age of Obama''. Also in 2011, Beast Books published Nobel Peace Prize winner

Leymah Gbowee Leymah Roberta Gbowee (born 1 February 1972) is a Liberian peace activist responsible for leading a women's nonviolent peace movement, Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace that helped bring an end to the Second Liberian Civil War in 2003. Her ef ...

's memoir, ''Mighty Be Our Powers''.

Controversies

Plagiarism

In February 2010,

Jack Shafer Jack Shafer (born November 14, 1957) is an American journalist who writes about media for ''Politico''. Prior to joining ''Politico'', he worked for Reuters and also edited and wrote the column'' "''Press Box" for ''Slate'', an online magazine. B ...

of ''

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. ...

'' magazine reported that the chief investigative reporter for ''The Daily Beast'',

Gerald Posner Gerald Leo Posner (born May 20, 1954) is an American investigative journalist and author of thirteen books, including ''Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK'' (1993), which explores the John F. Kennedy assassination, and ' ...

, had plagiarised five sentences from an article published by the ''

Miami Herald The ''Miami Herald'' is an American daily newspaper owned by the McClatchy Company and headquartered in Doral, Florida, a List of communities in Miami-Dade County, Florida, city in western Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County and the M ...

''. Shafer also discovered that Posner had plagiarized content from a ''Miami Herald'' blog, a ''Miami Herald'' editorial, ''Texas Lawyer'' magazine and a health care journalism blog. Posner was subsequently dismissed from ''The Daily Beast'' following an internal review.

Nico Hines' 2016 Olympics article

On August 11, 2016, ''The Daily Beast'' published an article entitled "I Got Three Grindr Dates in an Hour in the Olympic Village", written by Nico Hines, the site's London editor, who was assigned to cover the Olympic Games. Hines, a

heterosexual Heterosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction or sexual behavior between people of the opposite sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, heterosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to ...

married man, signed up for several gay and straight dating apps, including

Tinder Tinder is easily combustible material used to start a fire. Tinder is a finely divided, open material which will begin to glow under a shower of sparks. Air is gently wafted over the glowing tinder until it bursts into flame. The flaming tinder i ...

Bumble Bumble is an online dating application. Profiles of potential matches are displayed to users, who can "swipe left" to reject a candidate or "swipe right" to indicate interest. In heterosexual matches, only female users can make the first contac ...

and

Grindr Grindr () is a location-based social networking and online dating application targeted towards members of the gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community. It was one of the first geosocial apps for gay men when it launched in March 2009 an ...

, and documented his experiences in the

Olympic Village An Olympic Village is an accommodation center built for the Olympic Games, usually within an Olympic Park or elsewhere in a host city. Olympic Villages are built to house all participating athletes, as well as officials and athletic trainers. Afte ...

. While not specifically naming names, Hines provided enough detail in the article to identify individual athletes, leading to widespread criticism that this information could be used against closeted gay athletes, especially those living in repressive countries. Facing intense backlash online, ''The Daily Beast'' edited the piece to remove details that could allow athletes to be identified, and editor in chief

added a lengthy editor's note. Criticism challenging the value of the piece continued, and ''The Daily Beast'' eventually removed the article altogether and issued an apology. In March 2017, Hines issued a formal apology for his actions, and it was announced by the website's editor Hines would be returning to ''The Daily Beast'' "following a lengthy period of intense reflection". Andrew M. Seaman, ethics committee chair for the

Society of Professional Journalists The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), formerly known as Sigma Delta Chi, is the oldest organization representing journalists in the United States. It was established on April 17, 1909, at DePauw University,2009 SPJ Annual Report, letter ...

, called the article "journalistic trash, unethical and dangerous". The

National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ Journalists, is an American professional association dedicated to unbiased coverage of LGBTQ issues in the media. It is based in Washington, D.C., and the membership consists primarily of journalists, students, e ...

stated "The reporting was unethical, extremely careless of individual privacy and potentially dangerous to the athletes". Vince Gonzales, professor of professional practice at

USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism The USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism comprises a School of Communication and a School of Journalism at the University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = N ...

wrote "I think this borders on journalistic malpractice". The president of

GLAAD GLAAD (), an acronym of Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, is an American non-governmental media monitoring organization originally founded as a protest against defamatory coverage of gay and lesbian demographics and their portrayals ...

Sarah Kate Ellis Sarah Kate Ellis (born November 27, 1971) is an American media executive, journalist, and author, most widely known for launching and turning around media brands within magazines such as '' New York'', ''InStyle'', ''Real Simple'', and ''Vogue''. ...

, wrote "How this reporter thought it was OK—or that somehow it was in the public's interest—to write about his deceitful encounters with these men reflects a complete lack of judgment and disregard for basic decency, not to mention the ethics of journalism".

Doxing accusation

In June 2019, ''The Daily Beast'' reporter

Kevin Poulsen Kevin Lee Poulsen (born November 30, 1965) is an American former black-hat hacker and a contributing editor at ''The Daily Beast''. Biography He was born in Pasadena, California, on November 30, 1965. Black-hat hacking On June 1, 1990, Poul ...

was accused of

doxing Doxing or doxxing is the act of publicly providing personally identifiable information about an individual or organization, usually via the internet. Historically, the term has been used interchangeably to refer to both the aggregation of this in ...

Shawn Brooks, a 34-year-old

Trump supporter Trumpism is a term for the political ideologies, social emotions, style of governance, political movement, and set of mechanisms for acquiring and keeping control of power associated with Donald Trump and his political base. ''wikt:Trumpist ...

living in

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

, when Poulsen revealed his identity for being the alleged creator and disseminator of a widely shared fake video, which showed American politician

Nancy Pelosi Nancy Patricia Pelosi (; ; born March 26, 1940) is an American politician who has served as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives since 2019 and previously from 2007 to 2011. She has represented in the United States House of ...

speaking in a slurred manner. The fake video had been shared over 60,000 times on

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

and had more than 4 million views, and also spread to

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

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 ...

. In response, Brooks denied creating the fake video, despite admitting to being one of the administrators of the group that originally posted the video, Politics WatchDog, and blamed a "female admin" of the group. Brooks also said that he would sue ''The Daily Beast'' and Poulsen for publishing "inaccurate trash", and created a

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page to raise money for

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, with a goal of raising $10,000. As of the morning of June 3, 2019, he had raised more than $4,400.

Reactions

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'' co-founder

Glenn Greenwald Glenn Edward Greenwald (born March 6, 1967) is an American journalist, author and lawyer. In 2014, he cofounded ''The Intercept'', of which he was an editor until he resigned in October 2020. Greenwald subsequently started publishing on Substac ...

criticized ''The Daily Beast'' for revealing Brooks' identity, saying on Twitter that it was "repellent to unleash the resources of a major news outlet on an obscure, anonymous, powerless, quasi-unemployed citizen for the crime of trivially mocking the most powerful political leaders". ''

'' and '' New York'' contributor

Yashar Ali Yashar Ali (born Yashar Ali Hedayat; fa, یاشار علی هدایت ; November 23, 1979) is an American journalist who has contributed to ''HuffPost'', NBC News, and ''New York'' magazine. In 2019, Ali was included in Time Magazine’s list o ...

also criticized ''The Daily Beast'' for revealing Brooks' identity, saying it "sets a really bad precedent when a private citizen has their identity publicly revealed simply because they made a video of a politician appearing to be drunk". ''

The Daily Wire ''The Daily Wire'' is an American conservative news website and media company founded in 2015 by political commentator Ben Shapiro and film director Jeremy Boreing. The company is a major publisher on Facebook, and produces podcasts such as ' ...

Ben Shapiro Benjamin Aaron Shapiro (born January 15, 1984) is an American attorney, businessman, columnist, conservative political commentator, and media personality. At age 17, he became the youngest nationally syndicated columnist in the United States. ...

said on

Laura Ingraham Laura Anne Ingraham (born June 19, 1963) is an American conservative television host. Gale Biography In Context. She has been the host of '' The Ingraham Angle'' on Fox News Channel since October 2017, and is the editor-in-chief of LifeZette ...

's ''

The Ingraham Angle ''The Ingraham Angle'' is an American conservative news and opinion-based talk show that premiered on October 30, 2017, on the Fox News channel. The show features Laura Ingraham, Raymond Arroyo, and guests discussing the day's latest issues, n ...

'' on June 3 that "My impression was that if you are posting anonymously on Facebook, then it's not really within Facebook's purview to start handing that information to media outlets, but I guess that isn't true". Other journalists who criticized ''The Daily Beast'' include

freelance journalist ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...

and former ''The Young Turks'' journalist Michael Tracey (American journalist), Michael Tracey, who said on Twitter that "No one on the planet ever thought "disinformation is the purview of Russia alone" other than self-aggrandizing, sleazy, click-chasing Daily Beast journalists", and media editor for ''TheWrap'' John R. Levine, Jon Levine, who called the article a "hit job over a joke video that happened to go viral". When ''The Daily Beast'' editor

was asked about these criticisms by

media reporter Brian Stelter on his ''Reliable Sources'' show on June 2, 2019, Shachtman defended the article, noting that the fake video had reached "the highest levels of power, with Rudy Giuliani himself tweeting it out" and therefore, according to Shachtman, it was worth identifying the creator of the fake video. Shachtman said Poulsen spoke with Brooks in an on-the-record interview for an hour.

Description of Israel Defense Forces

In August 2021, ''The Daily Beast'' published an article criticizing Mayim Bialik's appointment as the new host of ''Jeopardy!'', which described the Israel Defense Forces as "genocidal"; after human rights lawyers and members of the Jewish community objected, ''The Daily Beast'' removed the word and stated that it would review its editorial policy on the use of the term "genocide".

''Griffith v. The Daily Beast et al'' (2020)

In January 2019, ''The Daily Beast'' staff writer Maxwell Tani published an article entitled "Gawker 2.0 Implodes as Its Only Reporters Quit," alleging the site's "editorial director Carson Griffith's offensive remarks about everything from race to penis size" caused the implosion. On February 27, 2020, journalist Carson Griffith announced she was suing ''The Daily Beast'', Tani and

over a "defamatory and untruthful" article that contains allegations of offensive workplace comments from her former co-workers and former ''Gawker'' writers Maya Kosoff and Anna Breslaw. On March 24, 2021, a New York Supreme Court judge denied a motion by ''The Daily Beast'', Shachtman and Tani to dismiss Griffith's defamation lawsuit. "This Court finds that Plaintiff has sufficiently pled a cause of action for defamation," Justice Phillip Hom wrote in the ruling. On August 9, 2022, a New York Supreme Court judge denied another motion by ''The Daily Beast,'' Shachtman and Tani pursuant of New York's anti-Strategic lawsuit against public participation, SLAPP amendment. The lawsuit will now advance towards discovery.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Daily Beast, The American news websites IAC (company) Internet properties established in 2008 Podcasting companies