Jamil Smith (journalist)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Jamil Smith (born September 23, 1975) is an American print and television journalist who is an essayist at the '' Los Angeles Times''. His reporting and commentary deal with a range of political and cultural topics, including race, gender, national politics, and pop culture. He has been a senior editor at '' The New Republic'', and a senior national correspondent at
MTV News MTV News is the news production division of MTV. The service is available in the US with localized versions on MTV's global network. In February 2016, MTV Networks confirmed it would refresh the MTV News brand in 2016, to compete with the likes ...
, a senior writer for '' Rolling Stone'' magazine, and a senior correspondent at Vox. While a television segment producer for NFL Films, Smith won three Sports Emmy Awards, in 2006, 2009, and 2010. He has also served as a producer for '' The Rachel Maddow Show'' and ''Melissa Harris-Perry''.


Early life

Born September 23, 1975, in
Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
, Smith attended Hawken School through eighth grade, then graduated from
Shaker Heights High School Shaker Heights High School is a public high school located in Shaker Heights, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. The high school is the only public high school in the Shaker Heights City School District, which serves Shaker Heights and a small part of ...
in 1993. While attending Shaker Heights High School, Smith wrote for the student newspaper, ''The Shakerite'', for four years, as well as participating in the wrestling and track teams and the school's Minority Achievement Community program, where black upperclassmen with high grade point averages mentor black freshman and sophomore boys with lower GPAs. Smith then attended the University of Pennsylvania and graduated with a bachelor's degree in English in 1997. While in college, Smith wrote for the campus student newspaper, '' The Daily Pennsylvanian'', and participated in Students Together Against Acquaintance Rape. He also studied abroad at
King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...
.


Career

After four years as an assistant at the William Morris Agency, Smith began his career in television and film production in 2002 as a production assistant with CNN. He next went to HBO Sports, then NFL Films, where he worked on production teams that won three
Sports Emmys The Sports Emmy Awards, or Sports Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS), the Sports E ...
, two for '' Inside the NFL'' and another for the
Cincinnati Bengals The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional American football team based in Cincinnati. The Bengals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The c ...
installment of the ''Hard Knocks'' series. In 2010, Smith joined MSNBC, serving as a producer for both '' The Rachel Maddow Show'' and ''Melissa Harris-Perry''. As a journalist and commentator, Smith has drawn notice for work on a range of political and cultural topics, including race and racism, police brutality, feminism and gender roles, and national politics. Smith joined '' The New Republic'' in January 2015, part of a wave of new hires following the 2014 removal of editor-in-chief Franklin Foer, which prompted the departure of 55 staff members and contributors. Foer's replacement, Gabriel Snyder, hired Smith as a senior editor covering race, politics and gender. With the magazine facing criticism both from those upset by changes at the long-standing institution and also from those critical of the magazine's history, particularly its treatment of race-related topics, Smith described his role, with colleagues, as aiming "to help usher this magazine into a different era." While at ''The New Republic'', Smith also launched and hosted the magazine's first podcast, ''Intersection.'' In 2016, Smith became a senior national correspondent for
MTV News MTV News is the news production division of MTV. The service is available in the US with localized versions on MTV's global network. In February 2016, MTV Networks confirmed it would refresh the MTV News brand in 2016, to compete with the likes ...
, hired alongside writers and editors including Ana Marie Cox, Jessica Hopper,
Charles Aaron Charles Aaron is an American music journalist and editor, formerly for '' Spin'' magazine, where he worked for 23 years. Personal Charles Aaron was born in Rockingham, North Carolina, and raised in Asheboro, North Carolina and Rome, Georgia. He ...
, Meredith Graves, Doreen St. Félix, and Ira Madison III as part of a significant expansion of MTV News programming. Among other on-air appearances for MTV, Smith served as a co-host, with
Charlamagne Tha God Lenard Larry McKelvey (born June 29, 1978), known professionally as Charlamagne tha God or simply Charlamagne, is an American radio host and television personality. He is a co-host of the nationally syndicated radio show ''The Breakfast Club' ...
, Marc Lamont Hill and Franchesca Ramsey, of the joint MTV- BET townhall "What Now", following the police shooting deaths of Alton Sterling and
Philando Castile On July 6, 2016, Philando Castile, a 32-year-old African-American man, was fatally shot during a traffic stop by police officer Jeronimo Yanez of the St. Anthony police department in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area. Castile was ...
and the shooting of police officers in Dallas that all took place in the first week of July 2016. At MTV, Smith also hosted ''The Racket,'' a YouTube series on politics, especially the US Presidential campaign. He also appeared on the MTV News podcast ''The Stakes,'' including hosting an episode commemorating the 25th anniversary of the
1992 Los Angeles riots The 1992 Los Angeles riots, sometimes called the 1992 Los Angeles uprising and the Los Angeles Race Riots, were a series of riots and civil disturbances that occurred in Los Angeles County, California, in April and May 1992. Unrest began in S ...
. After layoffs at MTV News in June 2017, Smith became a freelance reporter and opinion writer, writing (among other works) "The Revolutionary Power of ''
Black Panther A black panther is the melanistic colour variant of the leopard (''Panthera pardus'') and the jaguar (''Panthera onca''). Black panthers of both species have excess black pigments, but their typical rosettes are also present. They have been d ...
''," the cover story for '' Time'' magazine’s February 19, 2018 issue; this made ''Black Panther'' the first Marvel Cinematic Universe film to be featured on ''Time'''s cover. In his analysis, Smith argued the film was culturally significant as proof that African-American narratives can be commercial successes with all audiences, as well as that "making movies about black lives is part of showing that they matter." Smith joined '' Rolling Stone'' as senior writer in March 2018. In addition to his regular columns, Smith profiled, among others, U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Kamala Harris and interviewed Rep. John Lewis, Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti, and Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams. He called for Joe Biden to drop out of the
2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries Presidential primaries and caucuses were organized by the Democratic Party to select the 3,979 pledged delegates to the 2020 Democratic National Convention held on August 17–20 to determine the party's nominee for president in the 2020 Unit ...
in September 2019, for lacking "even the vocabulary to engage in an antiracist conversation". Smith contributed an essay entitled "She Can't Breathe" to the anti-rape anthology ''Believe Me: How Trusting Women Can Change the World'', published in January 2020 by Seal Press. In September 2022, Smith joined the '' Los Angeles Times'' as an essayist.


Honors

While a segment producer at NFL Films, Smith was part of teams that won the 2006 and 2009 Outstanding Studio Show – Weekly Sports Emmy for '' Inside the NFL'' and the 2010 Outstanding Edited Sports Series/Anthology Sports Emmy for '' Hard Knocks: Training Camp With The Cincinnati Bengals.'' Smith has repeatedly been named to ''The Root'' 100 list of leading black influencers, including in 2011 for his work on ''The Rachel Maddow Show'', in 2013 for his work on ''Melissa Harris-Perry'', and in 2015 for his work at ''The New Republic'', where, ''The Root'' wrote, he "hits on cultural touch points from campus rape to the
Rev. Al Sharpton Alfred Charles Sharpton Jr. (born October 3, 1954) is an American civil rights activist, Baptist minister, talk show host and politician. Sharpton is the founder of the National Action Network. In 2004, he was a candidate for the Democratic ...
, banging out a nice mix of opinion, headlines and original reporting." For his ''Time'' cover story on ''Black Panther'', Smith received the Arts Reporting award in May 2019 from the Deadline Club, the New York City chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. According to the judges' comments, “Jamil Smith’s TIME cover story ‘A Hero Rises’ managed to approach an extremely well-covered topic from a fresh angle and in an intimate voice. Smith employed unique use of the first-person voice (and even the second-person “you”) to bring in his own perspective while also addressing the reader. And he placed “Black Panther” in both current and historical political perspective. Wakanda forever!”


Personal life

In 2017, Smith moved from Brooklyn, New York, to Los Angeles, California.


See also

*
Rachel Maddow Rachel Anne Maddow (, ; born April 1, 1973) is an American television news program host and liberal political commentator. Maddow hosts ''The Rachel Maddow Show'', a weekly television show on MSNBC, and serves as the cable network's special eve ...
* Melissa Harris-Perry * Chris Hayes * Gene Demby * Joy-Ann Reid * Larry Wilmore


References


External links


Jamil Smith
on Twitter
Jamil Smith
on
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 ...
*
Jamil Smith archive
at '' The New Republic''
Jamil Smith archive
at
MTV News MTV News is the news production division of MTV. The service is available in the US with localized versions on MTV's global network. In February 2016, MTV Networks confirmed it would refresh the MTV News brand in 2016, to compete with the likes ...

Jamil Smith archive
at '' Rolling Stone'' * {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Jamil American television reporters and correspondents University of Pennsylvania alumni Living people The New Republic people Television producers from Ohio 1975 births NFL Films people Rolling Stone people African-American journalists African-American writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers Sports Emmy Award winners MTV people Writers from Cleveland Journalists from Ohio American magazine journalists American opinion journalists American political journalists People from Shaker Heights, Ohio 21st-century African-American writers 20th-century African-American people