James Lileks is an American
journalist
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...
,
columnist
A columnist is a person who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs. They take the form of a short essay ...
,
author
An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states:
"''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...
, and
blog
A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in Reverse ...
ger living in
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origi ...
. He is the creator of The Gallery of Regrettable Foods website.
Career
Columnist
Lileks began his writing career as a columnist for the ''
Minnesota Daily
The ''Minnesota Daily'' is the campus newspaper of the University of Minnesota, published Monday and Thursday while school is in session, and published weekly on Wednesdays during summer sessions. Published since 1900, the paper is currently the la ...
'' while he was a student at the
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...
. After college, he wrote for ''
City Pages
''City Pages'' was an alternative newspaper serving the Minneapolis–St. Paul metropolitan area. It featured news, film, theatre and restaurant reviews and music criticism, available free every Wednesday. It ceased publication in 2020 due to a ...
'', a Twin Cities alternative tabloid. He served as a general columnist for ''City Pages'' until 1988, when he was hired as a columnist for the ''
St. Paul Pioneer Press
The ''St. Paul Pioneer Press'' is a newspaper based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. It serves the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area. Circulation is heaviest in the east metro, including Ramsey, Dakota, and Washington counties, ...
''. This led to a columnist job with
Newhouse News Service
Advance Publications, Inc., doing business as Advance, is an American media company owned by the descendants of S.I. Newhouse Sr., Donald Newhouse and S.I. Newhouse Jr. It owns a large number of subsidiary companies, including Condé Nast, and ...
and thence ''
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 n ...
'' for a period in the early 1990s. In the mid-1990s, Lileks returned to the Twin Cities for a job with the ''
Star Tribune
The ''Star Tribune'' is the largest newspaper in Minnesota. It originated as the ''Minneapolis Tribune'' in 1867 and the competing ''Minneapolis Daily Star'' in 1920. During the 1930s and 1940s, Minneapolis's competing newspapers were consolida ...
'', retaining his Newhouse column until late 2006. The ''Star Tribune'' discontinued Lileks's column in 2007, eventually naming him editor of the now defunct community website buzz.mn.
Lileks also writes a regular column (''Athwart'') for ''
National Review
''National Review'' is an American conservative editorial magazine, focusing on news and commentary pieces on political, social, and cultural affairs. The magazine was founded by the author William F. Buckley Jr. in 1955. Its editor-in-chief ...
''.
Lileks is currently a columnist for the StarTribu
(his column at StarTribune)
Radio personality
Lileks's first foray into radio came in 1987, while he was a writer with ''City Pages''. He became a regular guest on the Geoff Charles show, an afternoon talk show on
KSTP. When Charles left the Twin Cities, Lileks filled the slot and served as an afternoon-drive host on KSTP for a time in the late 1980s. In the mid-1990s, after returning from Washington DC, Lileks reappeared on KSTP with a new program, ''The Diner'' – a show set in a fictional 1950s-era diner.
The show lasted several years on weekday evenings and then a few more as a weekend-evening program before leaving the air in the late 1990s. As of October 23, 2013, ''The Diner'' was revived on Ricochet.com.
In late 2006, ''The Diner'' was revived in
podcast
A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...
form. Selected original ''Diner'' programs and new original Diners are available on Lileks's website. Lileks is also a weekly guest on the
Hugh Hewitt
Hugh Hewitt (born February 22, 1956) is an American radio talk show host with the Salem Radio Network and an attorney, academic, and author. A conservative, he writes about law, society, politics, and media bias in the United States. Hewitt is ...
show,
Pajamas Media
PJ Media, originally known as Pajamas Media, is an American right-wing subscription-based commentary website. It was founded in 2004, with its majority owner being software entrepreneur, billionaire and angel investor Aubrey Chernick, founder ...
's weekly ''PJM Political'' show on Sirius-XM Satellite Radio's POTUS channel, and a frequent guest and guest host on the
Northern Alliance Radio Network program.
Lileks has also been a monologist for the public affairs program ''
Almanac
An almanac (also spelled ''almanack'' and ''almanach'') is an annual publication listing a set of current information about one or multiple subjects. It includes information like weather forecasts, farmers' planting dates, tide tables, and othe ...
'', carried on Minnesota
PBS television stations.
Website
Lileks's blog, the ''Daily Bleat'', began in 1997. The Bleat covers many topics in his personal life (including his daughter Natalie (referred to as "Gnat" until she became old enough to object) and the family dog, Scout), politics from a conservative viewpoint, and cultural points of interest ranging from art and architecture to movies and music (one perennial topic is the
Minnesota State Fair
The Minnesota State Fair is the state fair of the U.S. state of Minnesota. Also known by its slogan, "The Great Minnesota Get-Together", it is the largest state fair in the United States by average daily attendance and the second-largest state f ...
). Lileks's website also hosts a vast repository of vintage advertisements and other
ephemera
Ephemera are transitory creations which are not meant to be retained or preserved. Its etymological origins extends to Ancient Greece, with the common definition of the word being: "the minor transient documents of everyday life". Ambiguous in ...
from the 1920s to the 1970s.
Other work
Lileks is a regular contributor to the social networking and blogging network
Ricochet.com, and co-hosts the site's flagship
podcast
A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...
with
Rob Long and
Peter Robinson.
''Star Tribune'' controversy and resolution
On May 7, 2007, Lileks announced that his home paper, the ''Minneapolis Star Tribune'', was ending his column in the interest of budget cuts and putting him on a straight local-news beat.
The move, which was forced by cuts in other parts of the ''Star Tribune''s newsroom, drew criticism from many, Mike Argento, president of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, said in reaction to the news:
It's just a reflection of the sad state of the newspaper industry. Many of the people running newspapers don't have a vision. They're concerned with dollars and cents, and the bottom line. They should look at the future, not just slash and burn.
On June 5, 2007, the ''Star Tribune'' changed course and announced Lileks would serve as editor of buzz.mn, a community website. Buzz.mn ceased publication of new content in July 2009.
Bibliography
Fiction
*''Falling up the Stairs'' (
1988
File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Bicenten ...
, )
*''Mr. Obvious'' (
1995
File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...
, )
*''Graveyard Special'' (
2012
File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...
, ASIN B00962GFES)
*''The Casablanca Tango'' (
2014
File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wa ...
, ASIN B00NDLYM70)
Columns
*''Notes of a Nervous Man'' (
1991
File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phi ...
, )
*''Fresh Lies'' (
1995
File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...
, )
Humor
*''The Gallery of Regrettable Food'' (
2001
The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanist ...
, )
*''Interior Desecrations: Hideous Homes from the Horrible '70s'' (
2004
2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO).
Events January
* January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight ...
, )
*''Mommy Knows Worst: Highlights from the Golden Age of Bad Parenting Advice'' (
2005
File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; " Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discover ...
, )
*''Gastroanomalies: Questionable Culinary Creations from the Golden Age of American Cookery'' (
2007
File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple Inc., Apple's first iPhone (1st generation), iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakis ...
, )
*''
RiffTrax
RiffTrax is an American company that produces scripted humorous commentary tracks which are synced to mostly public domain feature films, education shorts, and television episodes. With the talents of former ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (''M ...
'' - special guest riffer for ''
Spider-Man 3
''Spider-Man 3'' is a 2007 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man. It was directed by Sam Raimi from a screenplay by Raimi, his older brother Ivan and Alvin Sargent. It is the final installment in Raimi's ...
''
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lileks, James
Living people
American bloggers
American columnists
American male journalists
Journalists from North Dakota
Minnesota Republicans
Writers from Fargo, North Dakota
Radio personalities from Minneapolis
University of Minnesota alumni
Writers from Minnesota
21st-century American non-fiction writers
Star Tribune people
American male bloggers
Year of birth missing (living people)
21st-century American male writers
21st-century American journalists
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American journalists