Jordan Daniel Chariton (born September 20, 1986) is an American investigative reporter. Chariton is the CEO of ''Status Coup'', a progressive media outlet that features investigative and on-the-ground reporting on politics, corruption, the working class, social justice, and the environment.
Chariton's reporting has been published in The Guardian, VICE News, The Intercept, Detroit Metro Times, The Hill, Mediaite, and CNBC.com. Chariton previously worked for digital news network ''
The Young Turks
''The Young Turks'' (TYT) is an American progressive news commentary show on YouTube that additionally appears on selected television channels. TYT serves as the flagship program of the TYT Network, a multi-channel network of associated web s ...
'', where he covered the 2016 presidential election,
the protests at Standing Rock, North Dakota, and notably the
Flint water crisis.
Early life and education
Chariton was born and raised in
Long Island,
New York, graduating from
Massapequa High School
Massapequa High School is a public high school located in Massapequa, New York, United States, for students in grades 10 through 12.
As of the 2014-15 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,825 students and 142.4 classroom teachers (on an ...
in 2004. He graduated from the
University of Tampa
The University of Tampa (UT) is a private university in Tampa, Florida. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. UT offers more than 200 programs of study, including 22 master's degrees and a broad variety of majors, ...
in 2008, Majoring in Communications, with a Minor in Writing.
Career
Chariton's early experience working in mainstream media spanned left-wing and right-wing news outlets. His cable news background included
Fox News
The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...
,
Fox Business 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 politi ...
. He also reported for ''TheWrap''
and ''TVNewser'',
Salon, and
Mediaite
Mediaite is a news website focusing on politics and the media.Howard PolskinHow the Washington Examiner became a traffic monster ''Columbia Journalism Review'' (May 15, 2020). Founded by Dan Abrams, it is part of the Abrams Media Network.
Conte ...
, as well as the non-profit
92nd Street Y.
At Fox News
Chariton began his professional career in news at Fox News in 2008. He was initially booking guests on its live election themed web show ''The Strategy Room'', after which he began producing segments and live shows. In 2010, Chariton moved over to Fox Business as a guest booker and producer for “Freedom Watch,” hosted by Libertarian host
Judge Andrew Napolitano.
At MSNBC
In 2011, Chariton left Fox News and joined the MSNBC network as a guest booker for a variety of daytime programs. Chariton primarily focused on political pundits and guests providing analysis and commentary on the 2012 presidential campaign, as well as the
Occupy Wall Street
Occupy Wall Street (OWS) was a protest movement against economic inequality and the influence of money in politics that began in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Wall Street financial district, in September 2011. It gave rise to t ...
movement as it was occurring.
At 92nd Street Y
Chariton left MSNBC in 2012 for the NYC non-profit 92nd Street Y as a digital producer for its ''Campaign for the American Conversation'' video series. As CAC producer, Chariton interviewed journalists, politicians, and think tank experts, and was nominated for a 2013
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 includ ...
. In 2013, Chariton moved from the digital to the event side of 92Y, helping book guests for 92Y’s lecture series such as Obama's 2008 campaign manager,
David Plouffe
David Plouffe (; born May 27, 1967) is an American political and business strategist best known as the campaign manager for Barack Obama's successful 2008 presidential campaign. A long-time Democratic Party campaign consultant, he was a partn ...
.
At Mediaite, TVNewser, and TheWrap
Chariton began freelance writing for
Mediaite
Mediaite is a news website focusing on politics and the media.Howard PolskinHow the Washington Examiner became a traffic monster ''Columbia Journalism Review'' (May 15, 2020). Founded by Dan Abrams, it is part of the Abrams Media Network.
Conte ...
in 2013, a website focusing on politics and media. His commentary covered media hypocrisy, presidential campaigns, gun violence in America, the military industrial complex, among other contemporary issues. He also wrote about the growing social TV industry for another Mediabistro blog “Lost Remote.”
Chariton saw the electronic news industry evolving and joined TVNewser, a Mediabistro blog focusing on the television news industry.
There, Chariton covered ratings, hiring, cable news coverage, and interviewed anchors and journalists from a variety of networks. He wrote multiple articles about the transitioning of the medium, and the increasingly significant role that electronic media and social media had in contemporary news. In 2014, Chariton joined LA-based entertainment trade website TheWrap as its media reporter. At The Wrap, Chariton broke stories about CNN staffers’ complaints about the network’s obsessive coverage of Donald Trump, MSNBC’s executives shifting the network away from a Progressive identity, and "Legacy newspapers like the New York Times and Washington Post's pivot to digital subscriptions."
At The Young Turks/TYT Politics
Chariton was hired as the first ever on-the-ground reporter for the online Progressive commentary show ''The Young Turks''. He was hired to run ''TYT Politics'' YouTube channel, which he grew to 140,000 subscribers in his first year.
He is best known for covering (at the scene) the
Flint water crisis,
the
protests at Standing Rock
The Standing Rock Reservation ( lkt, Íŋyaŋ Woslál Háŋ) lies across the border between North Dakota, North and South Dakota in the United States, and is inhabited by ethnic "Hunkpapa Lakota, Hunkpapa and Sihasapa bands of Lakota Oyate a ...
,
North Dakota
North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minnesota to the east, So ...
, and the
DNC Wikileaks scandal as well as the
Podesta emails
In March 2016, the personal Gmail account of John Podesta, a former White House chief of staff and chair of Hillary Clinton's 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, was compromised in a data breach accomplished via a spear-phishing attack, and some ...
.
He also covered the water crisis at Cape Fear,
North Carolina
North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...
.
Chariton interviewed activist/Oscar-winning actress Susan Sarandon in 2016 for the Rebel HQ segment of TYT Politics. The clip of her thoughts on Donald Trump was picked up by several media outlets, including the New York Daily News, Politico, and Entertainment Weekly.
Chariton became known for his interviews with voters, activists, working class people, and community members rather than political pundits and campaign operatives. He reported on the controversy involving
Democratic National Committee interim chairwoman
Donna Brazile
Donna Lease Brazile (; born December 15, 1959) is an American political strategist, campaign manager and political analyst who served twice as acting Chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). She is currently an ABC News contributor, ...
during the
2016 presidential election
This national electoral calendar for 2016 lists the national/ federal elections held in 2016 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included.
January
*7 January: Kiri ...
. Chariton also grew acclaim for challenging supporters of Donald Trump, with several of his interviews going viral online. His most memorable moment from the 2016 campaign trail was when he challenged Democratic strategist and CNN contributor Donna Brazile about her passing off questions for a CNN town hall to Hillary Clinton’s campaign ahead of time.
Beyond the campaign, Chariton rose to notoriety for his on-the-ground coverage from North Dakota from indigenous protests at Standing Rock against the Dakota Access Pipeline (he took seven reporting trips there from August 2016 to February 2017). At Standing Rock, Chariton interviewed hundreds of indigenous people and environmental activists and was one of the few national journalists to cover violent standoffs between local police and protesters.
In 2017, Chariton hosted a live town hall from Flint where he interviewed sick residents suffering from the toxic water they consumed. The town hall was watched by hundreds of thousands of viewers. Chariton also embarked on a “Disappearing Middle Class” reporting tour through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin where he interviewed struggling people and workers living paycheck to paycheck, homeless individuals, and political activists. Chariton’s coverage helped grow the TYT Politics YouTube channel to 140,000 subscribers in under a year.
In October 2017, Chariton and ''The Young Turks'' cameraman Ty Bayliss were arrested in
St. Louis
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
while covering Black Lives Matter protests after police officer Jason Stockley was aquitted for shooting and killing
Anthony Lamar Smith, a 24-year-old African American man. After the arrest, on
misdemeanor charges of
trespass
Trespass is an area of tort law broadly divided into three groups: trespass to the person, trespass to chattels, and trespass to land.
Trespass to the person historically involved six separate trespasses: threats, assault, battery, woundi ...
ing,
Cenk Uygur
Cenk Kadir Uygur ( ; ; born March 21, 1970) is a Turkish-American progressive political commentator, media host, attorney, journalist, and politician. Uygur is the creator of ''The Young Turks'', an American left-wing, sociopolitical, progressi ...
tweeted to demand the immediate release of Chariton and Bayliss and to declare that the arrest was a violation of the
First Amendment
First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1).
First or 1st may also refer to:
*World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement
Arts and media Music
* 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...
and a clear attack on the
freedom of the press.
As Independent Media Owner
Chariton launched his own YouTube channel and website in February 2018, that focused on investigative reporting. The channel and website were under an umbrella grouping called ''Jordan Chariton Reports''. As part of ''Jordan Chariton Reports'', on May 27, 2018, he released an investigative piece on
''TruthDig'' showing that the science and data used to declare the water safe in
Flint
Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and sta ...
, Michigan was suspect, which was later featured on May 31, 2018, on the
Thom Hartmann
Thomas Carl Hartmann (born May 7, 1951) is an American radio personality, author, former psychotherapist, businessman, and progressive political commentator. Hartmann has been hosting a nationally syndicated radio show, ''The Thom Hartmann Pr ...
Program. That project morphed into a Progressive independent investigative reporting network and media outlet, called ''Status Coup''. It was on Status Coup, where he has broken numerous high-profile stories, and captured iconic video images that have been re-broadcast by the major media outlets.
''Status Coup''
In 2018, Jordan Chariton co-founded with Jenn Dize the Progressive independent investigative reporting network and media outlet, called ''Status Coup'', the play-on-words to pull off a journalistic “coup” of the Status quo.
It focuses on in-field and investigative reporting around the country from both internal and external reporters. Chariton and Dize reported on Flint, the 2020 elections,
Nina Turner
Nina Hudson Turner ( Hudson; born December 7, 1967) is an American politician. A member of the Democratic Party, she was a Cleveland City Council member from 2006 to 2008 and a member of the Ohio Senate from 2008 until 2014. Turner was the Demo ...
's Congressional Primary, the
MAGA
Maga or MAGA may refer to:
MAGA
* Make America Great Again, a political slogan famously used by Donald Trump
* Museo MAGA, a modern-art museum in Gallarate, Italy
* ''maga'', the logo of the Cornish Language Partnership, an organisation promot ...
movement,
Black Lives Matter
Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police br ...
protests, and the
Steven Donziger incarceration. In 2021, Dize went on to do her own personal projects on ''Courage News'', while Chariton continued in his role as CEO and reporter.
For Status Coup, Chariton has reported extensively in Flint Michigan continuing to cover the ongoing water crisis and government cover-up, along with on-the-ground coverage that has made national news headlines. In May 2018, he went to Virginia to cover protests against the Mountain Valley Pipeline and Atlantic Coast Pipeline. In 2019 and 2020, he traveled across the country covering the 2020 presidential campaign, focusing on Bernie Sanders' second presidential run, as well as other candidates. As in 2016, several of Chariton’s 2020 campaign interviews with supporters of President Trump went viral.
Other reporting Chariton has done for Status Coup include coverage of gentrification in Seattle because of Amazon, covering the police killing of 25-year-old African American Botham Jean in Dallas, police violence in Chicago, several reporting trips during the Coronavirus pandemic, interviewing struggling tenants facing eviction and laid off workers, reporting in Florida on the controversial “Don’t Say Gay Bill,” in Buffalo on socialist India Walton’s mayoral campaign, in Ohio on Nina Turner's congressional campaign, and a multi-state “Economic Hunger Games” reporting tour where Chariton interviewed workers struggling due to inflation and homeless people. Status Coup also uses freelance reporters in different parts of the U.S.
Flint Water Crisis
Chariton has made over 18 trips to Flint to investigate and report on the
Flint Water Crisis. His reports have appeared in the Detroit Metro Times, TheHill.com, and popular YouTube news channel Breaking Points.
In 2020 and 2021, in a publishing collaboration wit
VICE NewsThe Intercept an
The Guardian Chariton's Status Coup broke four significant investigative stories on the Flint water cover-up in those outlets. One of those stories, which Status Coup's Chariton and Dize co-published wit
The Interceptan
Detroit Metro Times revealed top officials' part of ex-Michigan Governor Rick Snyder's administration had their phones "wiped clean" shortly before the launch of the Flint water criminal investigation. In response to the story, Congressional House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep.
Carolyn Maloney
Carolyn Jane Maloney (née Bosher, February 19, 1946) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for since 2013, and for from 1993 to 2013. The district includes most of Manhattan's East Side, Astoria and Long Island City ...
br>
issued a statement condemning Governor Snyderfor his "choice to put money over the lives of the children in Flint." Sources with the Congressional Oversight committee told Status Coup News it would be investigating the potential destruction of evidence by top Snyder administration officials revealed in the story. Chariton and Status Coup's Flint water investigative reporting has led to Charito
appearing on Flint native Michael Moore's "Rumble" podcasttwice along with other high-profile media appearances.
On April 16, 2020, evidence of corruption and a cover-up in the Flint Water Crisis by former Michigan Governor
Rick Snyder
Richard Dale Snyder (born August 19, 1958) is an American business executive, venture capitalist, attorney, accountant, and politician who served as the 48th governor of Michigan from 2011 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, Snyder previo ...
and his “fixer” Rich Baird was exposed in an article published by
Vice News
Vice News (stylized as VICE News) is Vice Media's current affairs channel, producing daily documentary essays and video through its website and YouTube channel. It promotes itself on its coverage of "under-reported stories". Vice News was create ...
. The article was written by Jordan Chariton and Jenn Dize, the co-founders of ''Status Coup'', with photos by Brittany Greeson. The responses from Michigan state authorities denied that a deadline was approaching, and said that criminal prosecutions would follow.
In January 2021, there were charges brought against nine officials, including former Governor Snyder. Chariton was interviewed by Detroit television station WDIV Local 4, on their ''Flashpoint'' program.
2020 Iowa Caucus
In December 2020, Chariton broke a story for The Intercept about the
2020 Iowa Democratic presidential caucuses
The 2020 Iowa Democratic presidential caucuses, the first nominating contest in the Democratic Party primaries for the 2020 presidential election, took place on February 3, 2020. Pete Buttigieg received the most state delegate equivalents (SDE ...
Primary election investigation. His reporting revealed how the
Democratic National Committee (DNC) was not cooperating with investigations into the questionable coding and their access to raw data and vote results.
Second Amendment rally livestream
As reported by Forbes and the New York Post, Youtube removed a Status Coup livestream of a peaceful Second Amendment rally in January 2021 after the online platform alleged the footage was a violation of its firearms policy.
The footage was restored by Youtube after Chariton protested the move on Twitter.
Storming of the United States Capitol
On January 6, 2021,
the United States Capitol was stormed by supporters of then President Trump. Jon Farina, shooting live footage for Status Coup
captured the historic footagefrom inside the U.S. Capitol showing Capitol Police officer Daniel Hodges' full body and head being rammed into a door by supporters of President Donald Trump. The Status Coup footage was licensed and reused by multiple media organizations including CNN, NBC News, ABC News, CBS News, BBC News, Showtime, PBS, ITV, ITN, LeMonde, ProPublica, MSNBC, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Associated Press and The New York Times.
Similar to what happened with the Status Coup's livestream of the Second Amendment rally, Youtube later took down Status Coup's own footage of the Storming of the Capitol, stating that it was "advancing claims of election fraud" while the same footage licensed to the other media organizations was still up on the platform.
Chariton said the situation made him angry and perplexed that YouTube could not distinguish between footage documenting a historical event and people purposefully spreading misinformation regarding the 2020 US election.
He described Youtube's move as "alarming and dangerous" and hoped that other media organizations would speak out against "the onslaught of censorship against leftist channels."
Chariton said that it was part of a wider trend to remove "independent and progressive channels" which advertisers found unfavourable, done by Youtube under the pretext of "removing extremist right-wing content".
He stated "it is corporate censorship by YouTube" aimed at appeasing "corporate advertisers".
Chariton has shifted his previous stance supporting the removal of outlets for disseminating conspiracy theories to one having the "right" to say controversial views or information "dressed up as journalism" as long as calls for violence are not made.
He opposes Big Tech platforms "making decisions to avoid regulation determining through their algorithm what is and isn't trustworthy news".
Labor Movement
Chariton has covered the resurgence of the American labor movement, focusing on union drives and worker strikes around the country. In 2020 and 2021, Chariton covered the union drive of Amazon workers at the
JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island, interviewing workers at the warehouse many times and breaking stories on Amazon's union busting. JFK8 workers went on to win a historic union victory, becoming Amazon's first unionized warehouse. Chariton was in Buffalo, NY, for the Buffalo Starbucks' historic union campaign and victory, interviewing workers on-the-ground in Buffalo ahead of their victory. Chariton covered the historic, and successful, strike waged by John Deere workers, interviewing workers at picket lines in Iowa and Illinois. Chariton has also reported on strikes launched by coal miners in Alabama, Frito Lay workers in Kansas, and Nabisco workers in Oregon, which was cited and linked to by CBS News.
Controversies
In November 2017, HuffPost contributor, Christian Chiakulas, accused Chariton in a HuffPost blog of sexually assaulting activist and reporter, Carly Hammond, who worked with him at his former news organization, Truth Against the Machine.
The accusation impacted Chariton's standing at ''The Young Turks,'' from which he was put on leave following the article.
Chariton said he was stunned at the accusation, and two eyewitnesses came forward backing up Chariton’s account. HuffPost, which did not vet the blog post before publishing it, took it down within 24 hours and Chiakulas later walked back the accusation, saying: “The reasons I wrote the story are hard to explain — the circumstances around which it were written are complicated...I rushed out that article and was thrust into the middle of this. In hindsight, it was a bad way to go about it.”
TYT wanted to distance themselves from the incident in order to protect their image, and fired Chariton when he refused to resign over the false accusation. However, TYT later revised their initial public statement on January 12, 2018, saying, "This chapter is now closed."
Chariton settled the matter with TYT.
On January 18, 2018, ''HuffPost'' fully removed their contributor blogging platform due to misuse and unverifiable postings.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chariton, Jordan
1986 births
Living people
American investigative journalists
The Young Turks people
University of Tampa alumni
American political commentators
American activist journalists