Andrea Peyser is a columnist for the ''

New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established ...

'', known for her coverage of many

scandals A scandal can be broadly defined as the strong social reactions of outrage, anger, or surprise, when accusations or rumours circulate or appear for some reason, regarding a person or persons who are perceived to have transgressed in some way. Th ...

involving public figures. Her two books are ''Mother Love, Deadly Love: The Susan Smith Murders'' (1995) and ''Celebutards: The Hollywood Hacks, Limousine Liberals and Pandering Politicians Who Are Destroying America'' (2009).

Early life and education

Peyser was born to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family, the daughter of Austrian-born Ruth (''née'' Sophie Staendig) and German-born mathematician Gideon Peyser. Her parents met while serving in the

Israeli army The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branch ...

and later settled in New York City in the 1950s. Andrea grew up in

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

, with an older sister, Rhona (who died in 2002) and graduated from Bayside High School. She attended the

State University of New York at New Paltz The State University of New York at New Paltz (SUNY New Paltz or New Paltz) is a public university in New Paltz, New York. It traces its origins to the New Paltz Classical School, a secondary institution founded in 1828 and reorganized as an ac ...

and

Albany Albany, derived from the Gaelic for Scotland, most commonly refers to: *Albany, New York, the capital of the State of New York and largest city of this name *Albany, Western Australia, port city in the Great Southern Albany may also refer to: ...

Career

Peyser's first job in journalism after graduating from college was a temporary assignment for the

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York Ci ...

, bureau of the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. n ...

.Biography - AndreaPeyser.com
Retrieved June 8, 2011 (most facts in biography are also related in news articles) She then moved to the

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the ...

bureau, followed by a brief time at

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the ...

, and then moved to ''

The Tampa Tribune ''The Tampa Tribune'' was a daily newspaper published in Tampa, Florida. Along with the competing ''Tampa Bay Times'', the ''Tampa Tribune'' was one of two major newspapers published in the Tampa Bay area. The newspaper also published a ''St. Pe ...

''. Peyser was hired by the ''New York Post'' in 1989,Eaton, Phoebe (26 April 2004)
The Madame Defarge of the New York Post
''

New York (magazine) ''New York'' is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, and with a particular emphasis on New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to ''The New Yorker' ...

'', Retrieved June 8, 2011 and became a columnist after her coverage of an alleged sex scandal concerning the

New York Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. They are one of two major leagu ...

during spring training in the early 1990s.Horowitz, Jason (7 June 2011)
New York Post columnist spares none when politicians fall from grace
''Washington Post''Testerman, Jeff (12 April 1992)

''St. Petersburg Times'' ("For the Mets, the last straw was the reporting of New York Post columnist Andrea Peyser ...") In 1995 she released, ''"Mother Love, Deadly Love: The Susan Smith Murders' (HarperCollins). ''

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 ...

'' has described Peyser as an "object of fascination among some media observers in New York, who count her unforgiving, exuberantly spiteful columns as a guilty pleasure." ''

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

'' magazine described her as "the

Madame Defarge Madame Thérèse Defarge is a fictional character and the main antagonist of the 1859 novel ''A Tale of Two Cities'' by Charles Dickens. She is a ringleader of the tricoteuses, a tireless worker for the French Revolution, memorably knitting besid ...

of the ''New York Post''" in a 2004 profile. Her 2002 column titled "The confessions of the Jogger 5 do not lie" appears in the Ken Burns documentary '' The Central Park Five''. The convictions of the five juveniles who confessed in the 1989

Central Park jogger case The Central Park jogger case (events also referenced as the Central Park Five Case) was a criminal case over the aggravated assault and rape of a white woman in Central Park in Manhattan, New York, on April 19, 1989, occurring at the same time a ...

were vacated after another man's confession was substantiated by DNA evidence. In 2009, she came out with ''"Celebutards: The Hollywood Hacks, Limousine Liberals and Pandering Politicians Who Are Destroying America'' through the publisher, Kensington.

Criticism

In October 2001, Peyser's employer, ''New York Post'' owner

Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...

, offered a rare personal apology over Peyser's reference to

correspondent

Christiane Amanpour Christiane Maria Heideh AmanpourStated on '' Finding Your Roots'', 22 January 2019 (; fa, کریستیان امان‌پور, Kristiane Amānpur; born 12 January 1958) is a British-Iranian journalist and television host. Amanpour is the Chief ...

in a September 21 column as a "CNN war slut". In May 2012, ''The Observer'' and ''New York'' magazine noted that in eight years she has celebrated the possibility of nine different people getting raped in jail. In December 2013, Peyser was criticized for her commentary on the state funeral of

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African anti-apartheid activist who served as the first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country's first black head of state and the ...

. In her column, Peyser wrote that

President Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

behaved like a "hormone-ravaged frat boy on a road trip to a strip bar". She concluded by saying that President Obama "has some 'splaining to do", an expression of

Ricky Ricardo Lucy and Ricky Ricardo, also known simply as Lucy and Ricky or the Ricardos, are fictional characters from the American television sitcom ''I Love Lucy'', portrayed respectively by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. The Ricardos also appear in ''The ...

from the ''

I Love Lucy ''I Love Lucy'' is an American television sitcom that originally aired on CBS from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, with a total of 180 half-hour episodes, spanning six seasons. The show starred Lucille Ball, her husband, Desi Arnaz, along with ...

'' show.

Family and personal

She is married to Mark D. Phillips, a photojournalist and website designer. They have a daughter, Eliza, and live in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Kings County is the most populous Administrative divisions of New York (state)#County, county in the State of New York, ...

. After a few months absence from the ''Post'', in November 2017 Peyser publicly disclosed that she has multiple sclerosis, which she was diagnosed with in 2008.(8 November 2017)
Where I've been and why I'm not leaving
''New York Post''

References

External links

Personal site: andreapeyser.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Peyser, Andrea Living people American women journalists American people of Israeli descent American people of Austrian descent American people of German descent New York Post people Place of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people) Associated Press reporters Writers from Queens, New York Jewish American writers State University of New York at New Paltz alumni Bayside High School (Queens) alumni 21st-century American Jews 21st-century American women