Isaac M. Saul () is an American journalist. His work has appeared in publications including
CNN, ''
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 ...
'',
''TIME'' Magazine, the ''
Independent Journal Review
The ''Independent Journal Review'' (IJR) is a conservative American news and opinion website based in Alexandria, Virginia. The publication was founded in 2012 by Alex Skatell. Skatell serves as its CEO, with Camden Stuebe as President and Shus ...
''
and
''The Daily Mail''.
Outside of his work with newspapers, in 2020 he founded ''Tangle'', an online newsletter which aims to give nonpartisan coverage of current events.
Early life and education
Saul was born in
Trenton, New Jersey
Trenton is the capital city, capital city (New Jersey), city of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County, New Jersey, Mercer County. It was the capital of the United States from November 1 to December 24, 1784. . He first became interested in journalism during his time at
Pennsbury High School
Pennsbury High School is a public high school located in Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania in the United States. It is part of Pennsbury School District.
With 3,206 students enrolled for the 2017–2018 school year, Pennsbury High School is the large ...
in Pennsylvania, and got his first job in news while he was an undergraduate student in nonfiction writing at the
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the univers ...
.
Career
Saul later began work at ''
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 ...
'', which he left in 2014, and later worked for
''A Plus''.
During the course of his career as a reporter, Saul has covered issues mainly related to
American politics and
sport
Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, ...
s. His reporting on an encounter that he had with a controversial lawyer named Aaron Schlossberg was featured in a live broadcast on CNN in 2018. He has also worked as an opinion editor for several major magazines and published several editorials stating his opinions on specific political candidates.
Other topics he has covered include religion.
Saul's work in reporting drew particular praise during the
challenges to the 2020 US presidential election, when he helped to discredit some of the
conspiracy theories
A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that invokes a conspiracy by sinister and powerful groups, often political in motivation, when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources:
*
*
*
* The term has a neg ...
and allegations of
voter fraud
Electoral fraud, sometimes referred to as election manipulation, voter fraud or vote rigging, involves illegal interference with the process of an election, either by increasing the vote share of a favored candidate, depressing the vote share of ...
around the election. As part of this effort, he published a running thread of
tweets in which he challenged his readers to find an instance of alleged voter fraud that he could not disprove, a project which received external media coverage. Saul publicly condemned a number of the fraud claims that he had to respond to, saying that "new lies just kept pouring in", and expressed concern that some of the conspiracy theories were wrongly accusing
poll workers of committing election fraud, which could put the lives of these workers in danger. In the end, he had challenged over 32 different conspiracy theories within the first week after the election results were announced.
Also in conjunction with the 2020 election, Saul drew coverage for betting $15,000 with a friend that
Joe Biden would be inaugurated as president, a bet which he won.
In 2024, Saul gave a
TED talk
TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...
in Vancouver on the subject of bipartisan communication and the use of language to signal partisan identity in modern political discourse.
''Tangle''
In July 2019 Saul began a politics newsletter called ''The Shuffle'' which was later renamed to ''Tangle''. The newsletter continued to expand in readership over the coming months, eventually becoming read in as many as thirty countries. On April 19, 2021, Saul announced that he had quit his job as a newspaper editor to work on ''Tangle'' full-time. ''Tangle'' has received substantial media coverage focused on the success of its subscriber-based model
and its efficacy in bridging political divisions. In 2023, the first live ''Tangle'' event, on the state of the
Supreme Court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
, was hosted in Philadelphia.
As of November 2024, ''Tangle'' is believed to have more than 275,000 subscribers in over 55 countries, generating over $2.25 million in revenue every year.
Recognition
In 2016,
Yahoo! News
Yahoo! News is a news website that originated as an internet-based news aggregator by Yahoo!. The site was created by a Yahoo! software engineer named Brad Clawsie in August 1996. Articles originally came from news services such as the Associa ...
named Saul as one of the 16 people who had had the greatest influence on the
2016 US election. He also made the ''
Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...
'' "Next 1000" list of "upstart entrepreneurs redefining the American dream". His media company ''Tangle'' won two
Shorty Awards
The Shorty Awards (also known as “The Shortys”) honors the most innovative work globally in digital and social media by brands, agencies, nonprofits and creators. The Shortys’ mission is to celebrate, inspire and push the boundaries of exce ...
in 2024: Winner in the News & Media category and Audience Award in the same category. Additionally, Saul was featured in a 2024 episode of
This American Life
''This American Life'' (''TAL'') is an American monthly hour-long radio program produced in collaboration with Chicago Public Media and hosted by Ira Glass. It is broadcast on numerous public radio stations in the United States and internatio ...
, which described how reading ''Tangle'' had saved the marriage of a politically divided couple.
Personal life
Outside of his work, Saul is a former competitive
ultimate frisbee
Ultimate, originally known as ultimate Frisbee, is a non-contact team sport played with a frisbee flung by hand. Ultimate was developed in 1968 by AJ Gator in Maplewood, New Jersey. Although ultimate resembles many traditional sports in its ath ...
player. He won multiple Pennsylvania state championships while playing for his Pennsbury High School team, he won two national championships with the University of Pittsburgh team, and he won a national championship with the Pride of New York (PoNY) club team in New York City. He has also played for the
New York Rumble.
Saul has traveled around the world for his work, and spent five months studying in a
yeshiva
A yeshiva (; he, ישיבה, , sitting; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are stu ...
while living in
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
after college.
References
External links
''Tangle'' official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saul, Isaac
1991 births
Living people
American journalists
University of Pittsburgh alumni
Pennsbury High School alumni
People from Trenton, New Jersey
Voter suppression