Jacob Hirsch Soboroff (born March 27, 1983) is an American journalist. He is known as a correspondent for

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's var ...

and

MSNBC MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and political ...

. Prior to his debut on the network in September 2015, he was the host of ''YouTube Nation'' and a co-host of ''

TakePart Live TakePart was a website operated by Participant Media, a motion picture studio that focuses on issues of social justice. TakePart was founded in 2008 to promote Participant Media's films as well as make viewers aware of the social advocacy efforts ...

'' on Pivot TV. He was also a founding host and producer of ''

HuffPost Live HuffPost Live was an Internet-based video streaming network run by ''The Huffington Post'', a news website in the United States. The network produced original programming as well as live conversations among users via platforms such as Skype and G ...

'', the live streaming network of ''

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 ...

''.

Early life

Born in Los Angeles, California, Soboroff is the eldest child of Patti (née Schertzer) and

Steve Soboroff Steve Soboroff (born August 31, 1948) is an American businessman, philanthropist, and politician, who has been serving as a Los Angeles Police Commissioner since August 2013. Soboroff previously served as President of the Los Angeles Recreatio ...

, a member of the

Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners The Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners, also commonly known as the Los Angeles Police Commission, is a five-member body of civilian-only, appointed officials which oversees the Los Angeles Police Department. Organization The board is made ...

. He is of

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

descent. Soboroff attended

Harvard-Westlake School Harvard-Westlake School is an independent, co-educational university preparatory day school consisting of two campuses located in Los Angeles, California, with approximately 1,600 students enrolled in grades seven through twelve. Its two predec ...

, and later received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

in politics in 2005 and a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

in political theory and philosophy in 2006, both from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

Career

In college, Soboroff was an aide to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Mayor

Michael R. Bloomberg Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman, politician, philanthropist, and author. He is the majority owner, co-founder and CEO of Bloomberg L.P. He was Mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013, and was a ca ...

. Soboroff was a contributor to

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

's 2012 presidential election coverage, for which he discussed America's young voters with presidential candidate

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 f ...

. As the founding correspondent for AMC News, Soboroff interviewed actors and filmmakers. Soboroff co-hosted NBC's proactive school makeover show

School Pride ''School Pride'' was an American reality television series which aired on NBC, from executive producers Cheryl Hines and Denise Cramsey. The 7-episode series, which followed the renovation of a different public school each week, aired from Octo ...

. He has contributed reporting to

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 ...

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 ...

's Weekend Edition, and the

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

series ''

Wired Science ''Wired Science'' was a weekly television program that covered modern scientific and technological topics. In January 2007 PBS aired pilot episodes for three different science programs, including ''Wired Science''. Using Nielsen ratings, CPB-sp ...

''. Between January and December 2014, Soboroff hosted ''YouTube Nation'', a pop-culture oriented news show on

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 ...

. As a correspondent for

, Soboroff specializes in border issues, making him one of the first reporters to call public attention to the

Trump administration family separation policy The United States family separation policy under the Trump administration was presented to the public as a "zero tolerance" approach intended to deter illegal immigration and to encourage tougher legislation. In some cases, families followi ...

, whereby children were separated from parents who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border without proper documentation. He was one of ten journalists invited by authorities to tour

Casa Padre Casa Padre is a shelter for unaccompanied or separated immigrant minors in custody of the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement, a division of Health & Human Services, located in Brownsville, Texas. The site opened in March 2017, and is still hous ...

, a facility in Texas housing 1500 boys ages 10 to 17. He described it as "shocking... an old Walmart which has essentially been turned into a child prison." His book on the subject, titled ''Separated: Inside an American Tragedy'', was published on July 7, 2020.

Personal life

Soboroff resides in Los Angeles. He married fashion executive Nicole Cari in 2012. He has two children. Soboroff is an executive director of the nonpartisan organization Why Tuesday? It seeks to make "America's democracy stronger through increased voter participation".

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Soboroff, Jacob American television journalists MSNBC people NBC News people HuffPost writers and columnists Journalists from California Jewish American journalists Writers from Los Angeles New York University alumni