Dan Froomkin is the editor of Press Watch, an independent website previously known as White House Watch. He is a former senior writer and Washington editor for ''

The Intercept ''The Intercept'' is an American left-wing news website founded by Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill, Laura Poitras and funded by billionaire eBay co-founder Pierre Omidyar. Its current editor is Betsy Reed. The publication initially reporte ...

''. Prior to that, he was a writer and editor for ''

The Huffington Post ''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 ...

''.

Personal history and career

Froomkin was raised in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

In 1997, he joined '' washingtonpost.com'', the relatively new online website of the ''Post'', as a senior producer for politics. From 2001 to 2003, he was editor of ''washingtonpost.com''. His column devoted to presidential accountability launched on January 12, 2004. In a career in journalism spanning more than two decades, he had worked at such newspapers as ''

The Winston-Salem Journal The ''Winston-Salem Journal'' is an American, English language daily newspaper primarily serving Winston-Salem and Forsyth County, North Carolina. It also covers Northwestern North Carolina. The paper is owned by Lee Enterprises. ''The Journal ...

'', ''

The Miami Herald The ''Miami Herald'' is an American daily newspaper owned by the McClatchy Company and headquartered in Doral, Florida, a city in western Miami-Dade County and the Miami metropolitan area, several miles west of Downtown Miami.Orange County Register''. He was a Michigan Journalism Fellow and editor of new media for ''

Education Week ''Education Week'' is an independent news organization that has covered K–12 education since 1981. It is owned by Editorial Projects in Education (EPE), a nonprofit organization, and headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland in Greater Washington ...

''. From 2004 to 2009, he wrote a highly successful column for the online version of ''

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 nati ...

'' entitled, ''White House Watch'', and he was the senior Washington correspondent for ''

''. On June 18, 2009, it was reported that his blog would cease to exist and his employment at ''The Washington Post'' was terminated. In July, 2009, he was hired by ''The Huffington Post''. Froomkin subsequently worked as the Washington bureau chief for ''

'', from September, 2014 until May, 2017. In September 2018, Froomkin revived White House Watch as an independent website. Froomkin's brother is

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, i ...

Law Professor Michael Froomkin, a prominent blogger who writes on

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

politics and the law.

Publications

From ''White House Briefing'' to ''White House Watch''

In her editorial, "The Two Washington Posts", published on December 11, 2005, ''Washington Post'' Ombudsman

Deborah Howell Deborah Howell (January 15, 1941 – January 2, 2010) was a long-time newswoman and editor who served for three years as the ombudsman for ''The Washington Post''. Howell is a Board Member In Memoriam at the IWMF (International Women's Media ...

observes that the print newspaper ''

'' and the website ''washingtonpost.com'' are two different entities; although "The Post Web site is owned by the Washington Post Co... it is not run by the newspaper. It is a separate company called Washington Post-

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...

Interactive, or WPNI, with offices in Arlington."

"The Two Washington Posts"
11 Dec. 2005, accessed 27 Apr. 2007. Whereas "The Post provides the vast majority of the Web site's content... the Web site has its own staff of 65 editorial employees and its own features... oreover, ere are cultural differences between the two newsrooms, which could be expected between a traditional newspaper and the more free-wheeling Web site... The two Posts interact every day... utpolitical reporters at The Post don't like WPNI columnist Dan Froomkin's "White House Briefing", which is highly opinionated and liberal. They're afraid that some readers think that Froomkin is a Post White House reporter." Howell continued: :John Harris, national political editor at the print ''Post'', said, "The title invites confusion. It dilutes our only asset—our credibility" as objective news reporters. Froomkin writes the kind of column "that we would never allow a White House reporter to write. I wish it could be done with a different title and display." :Harris is right; some readers do think Froomkin is a White House reporter. But Froomkin works only for the Web site and is very popular—and xecutive Editor of the website JimBrady is not going to fool with that, though he is considering changing the column title and supplementing it with a conservative blogger. :Froomkin said he is "happy to consider other ways to telegraph to people that I'm not a Post White House reporter. I do think that what I'm doing, namely scrutinizing the White House's every move—with an attitude—is in the best traditions of American and Washington Post journalism." :On the other hand, Chris Cillizza, a washingtonpost.com political reporter, appears in The Post frequently. When he writes for the paper, he works for Harris, who is happy to have him. There was some support from readers for Froomkin in editorial correspondence about the matter."Ombudsman 'Briefing'"
Letter to the Editor, ''

'' 17 Dec. 2005, accessed 27 Apr. 2007: A21. bstract; 484 words; online subscription or fee required for full text On January 30, 2007, ''White House Briefing'' was renamed ''White House Watch''.

''Nieman Watchdog: Questions the press should ask''

Froomkin was also the deputy editor of ''Nieman Watchdog: Questions the press should ask'', a

blog A blog (a 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 chronological order s ...

hosted by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

that "seeks to encourage more informed reporting by soliciting probing questions from experts".

Firing from ''The Washington Post''

On June 18, 2009, it was reported that Froomkin was being fired by ''The Washington Post''. Froomkin confirmed this in a June 19 entry on ''White House Watch'': "As Washington Post ombudsman Andy Alexander and others reported yesterday, ''The Washington Post'' has terminated my contract. So sometime in late June or early July, I'll be writing my last blog post here." Almost immediately, Froomkin was hired by ''The Huffington Post'', where he continued to write and edit. His last original column for that publication was September 25, 2013. He joined ''

'' on September 4, 2014. On May 9, 2017, ''The Intercept'' announced he was leaving. The Intercept's editor praised Froomkin upon his leaving, writing: "Dan was integral to The Intercept from the start, building up a scrappy and smart bureau from scratch and infusing our independent voice on politics with his skepticism, wisdom, and wit. Dan never wavered in his fierce commitment to the ''Intercept’s'' core mission of producing original accountability journalism.

Revival of White House Watch

In September 2018, Froomkin revived White House Watch as an independent website.

''Presswatchers''

On June 8, 2022, in her assertion that many do not understand that an "existential fight for rule of law" is at stake in the hearings of the Select Committee on the January 6 attack on the capitol, Heather Cox Richardson noted that in his publication, ''Presswatchers'', Froomkin had "explored how U.S. news organizations have failed to communicate to readers that we are on a knife edge between democracy and authoritarianism", and noted his plea for journalists to "frame the events in the larger context of Republican attempts to overturn our democracy". On August 26, 2022 Press Watch published an article in its newsletter, Presswatchers, and online, by Froomkin in the same vein, exploring how media again are failing to communicate to their readers effectively regarding dangers evident in the policies, actions, and campaigning messages of the governor of Florida,

Ron DeSantis Ronald Dion DeSantis (; born September 14, 1978) is an American politician serving as the 46th governor of Florida since January 2019. A member of the Republican Party, DeSantis represented Florida's 6th district in the U.S. House of Repres ...

, that emulate and exceed those used by Trump to move the country into authoritarianism and toward fascism.Froomkin, Dan,
Coverage of Ron DeSantis shows the media has learned nothing from Trump
', August 26, 2022 He conjectures that the media are failing to exercise their appropriate role in a democracy by reporting in a "neutral" style in order to appear "fair" by attempting to "balance" coverage, using euphemisms that fail to convey how dangerous what should be reported is, and even allowing the politician to dictate terms of engagement that are unprecedented in professional reporting, such as banning access to reporters who report things the candidate dislikes or limiting access only to those agreeing to allow critical review of what the media intends to produce before publication or broadcast. He asserts that DeSantis is "gaming" political journalists just as Trump had, which leads to a "normalizing" of dangerous actions and trends that should be reported as being dangerous and, that this should be reported consistently in order to keep readers from becoming complacent rather than increasingly concerned. Froomkin labels this failure as "journalistic malpractice" and that it may be found even in highly respected media such as the

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

, the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

, and others, as well as, among national broadcast media. He describes many examples and contrasts that with the frank reporting of media such as the

Cleveland Plain Dealer ''The Plain Dealer'' is the major newspaper of Cleveland, Ohio, United States. In fall 2019, it ranked 23rd in U.S. newspaper circulation, a significant drop since March 2013, when its circulation ranked 17th daily and 15th on Sunday. As of M ...

. He makes many recommendations to the media and reminds them that their very existence may become the casualty of their own role in a "normalization" effect.

Notes

External links

Nieman Watchdog:Questions the press should ask
Blog hosted by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University edited by Dan Froomkin
The Washington Post official website

White House Watch
Dan Froomkin's column and blog hosted by Washingtonpost/Newsweek Interactive

Dan Froomkin's personal website

Archive of posts at Huffington Post

Froomkin's debut post at The Intercept

Presswatchers site, Press Watch
{{DEFAULTSORT:Froomkin, Dan American male journalists Yale University alumni Harvard University people Sidwell Friends School alumni HuffPost writers and columnists Living people University of Michigan fellows Year of birth missing (living people)