Donie O'Sullivan (born 24 March 1991) is a senior correspondent working for

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

in New York City. Born in Ireland, he holds both Irish and US citizenship.

Early life

Originally from

Cahersiveen Cahersiveen (), sometimes Cahirciveen, is a town in the south-west of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, in County Kerry. As of the 2022 census of Ireland, 2022 census, it had a population of 1,297. Geography Cahersiveen is on the slopes of 376-met ...

in County Kerry, O'Sullivan attended Coláiste na Sceilge, graduating in 2009. He graduated from

University College Dublin University College Dublin (), commonly referred to as UCD, is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 38,417 students, it is Ireland's largest ...

in 2012 with a degree in history and politics, and has a masters in

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

from

Queen's University Belfast The Queen's University of Belfast, commonly known as Queen's University Belfast (; abbreviated Queen's or QUB), is a public research university in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. The university received its charter in 1845 as part of ...

Career

He worked for

Storyful Storyful (stylized as ''storyful.'') is a social media intelligence company headquartered in Dublin, Ireland that is a subsidiary of News Corp, offering services such as social news monitoring, video licensing, and reputation risk management too ...

in Dublin and New York, and joined CNN in 2016. O'Sullivan has covered the impact of social media on politics and reported on the

2021 United States Capitol attack On January 6, 2021, the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., was attacked by a mob of supporters of Donald Trump, President Donald Trump in an attempted self-coup,Multiple sources: * * * * * * * * * * * * * two months afte ...

. When

Mike Lindell Michael James Lindell ( ; born June 28, 1961), also known as the My Pillow Guy and Mike Pillow, is an American businessman, political activist, and conspiracy theorist. He is the founder and CEO of My Pillow, a pillow, bedding, and slipper man ...

held a three-day "Cyber Symposium" in August 2021, with a promise that he would present "irrefutable evidence" of election fraud, O'Sullivan attended and brought cybersecurity expert

Harri Hursti Harri Harras Hursti (born 10 July 1968 in Helsinki, Finland) is a Finnish computer programmer and former chairman of the board and co-founder of ROMmon, where he supervised in the development of the world's smallest 2-gigabit traffic analysis p ...

to the conference; Hursti said that Lindell's purported evidence was a "pile of nothing" and found no proof of election fraud. In 2021, O'Sullivan's work on a story about a

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

" patient-zero conspiracy theory" (broadcast by CNN in 2020) was nominated for a

News & Documentary Emmy Award The News & Documentary Emmy Awards, or News & Documentary 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 Scien ...

. ''Donie O'Sullivan: Capitol Man'', a documentary covering O'Sullivan's own life and move from "a small town in Kerry to become an international household name", was commissioned by

RTÉ Television RTÉ Television is a department of Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ), Ireland's public service broadcaster. Its first channel was Telefís Éireann, which began broadcasting on 31 December 1961. Since the 1960s, RTÉ Television has added chan ...

, and broadcast in Ireland in January 2022. In December 2022, O'Sullivan's Twitter account was among several journalists' accounts that were suspended after covering Twitter's owner

Elon Musk Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a businessman. He is known for his leadership of Tesla, SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter), and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk has been considered the wealthiest person in th ...

during the Twitter suspensions of December 2022. Musk accused O’Sullivan of violating Twitter's policy on

doxing Doxing or doxxing is the act of publicly providing personally identifiable information Personal data, also known as personal information or personally identifiable information (PII), is any information related to an identifiable person. The ...

. In September 2023, he worked on an episode of the CNN series ''The Whole Story With Anderson Cooper'', Titled ''Waiting for JFK: Report from the Fringe'', the episode focused on the toll conspiracy theories were having on American families. During the 2024 US presidential campaign, O'Sullivan led reporting for three hour-long CNN specials titled "''MisinfoNation''," as part of ''The Whole Story With Anderson Cooper.'' O'Sullivan was promoted to senior correspondent at CNN in July 2024.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:OSullivan, Donie Living people 1991 births CNN people Irish expatriates in the United States Irish journalists People from Cahersiveen Year of birth missing (living people) Alumni of Queen's University Belfast