Joshua Micah Jesajan-Dorja Marshall (born February 15, 1969) is an American journalist and blogger who founded ''
Talking Points Memo
''Talking Points Memo'' (''TPM'') is a liberal political news and opinion blog created and run by Josh Marshall that debuted on November 12, 2000. The name is a tongue-in-cheek reference to a "talking points memo" that was often discussed duri ...
.''
A
liberal, he presides over a network of
progressive-oriented sites that operate under the ''
TPM Media
''Talking Points Memo'' (''TPM'') is a liberal political news and opinion blog created and run by Josh Marshall that debuted on November 12, 2000. The name is a tongue-in-cheek reference to a "talking points memo" that was often discussed duri ...
'' banner. In 2008, they averaged 400,000 page views on weekdays
and 750,000 unique visitors per month.
Marshall and his work have been profiled by ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', the ''Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'', the ''Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...
'', ''National Public Radio
National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...
'', ''The New York Times Magazine
''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. The magazi ...
'', the ''Columbia Journalism Review
The ''Columbia Journalism Review'' (''CJR'') is a biannual magazine for professional journalists that has been published by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism since 1961. Its original purpose was "to assess the performance ...
'', '' Bill Moyers Journal'', and '' GQ''. In 2007, Hendrik Hertzberg
Hendrik Hertzberg (born July 23, 1943) is an American journalist, best known as the principal political commentator for ''The New Yorker'' magazine. He has also been a speechwriter for President Jimmy Carter and editor of ''The New Republic'', and ...
, a senior editor at ''The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...
'', compared Marshall to the influential founders of ''Time
Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
'' magazine, saying: "Marshall is in the line of the great light-bulb-over-the-head editors. He's like Briton Hadden
Briton Hadden (February 18, 1898 – February 27, 1929) was the co-founder of ''Time'' magazine with his Yale classmate Henry Luce. He was ''Time''s first editor and the inventor of its revolutionary writing style, known as Timestyle. Thoug ...
or Henry Luce
Henry Robinson Luce (April 3, 1898 – February 28, 1967) was an American magazine magnate who founded ''Time'', ''Life'', '' Fortune'', and ''Sports Illustrated'' magazines. He has been called "the most influential private citizen in the Amer ...
. He's created something new."
Early life and career
Marshall was born in St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...
. Marshall's father was a professor of marine biology. His mother died when he was young.
He is a graduate of the Webb Schools
The Webb Schools (now often simply "Webb") are private schools for grades 9–12 located in Claremont, California. Up until 2022, it was separated into The Webb School of California for boys (established in 1922) and the Vivian Webb School for g ...
of California and Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
and earned a PhD
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...
in American history from Brown University
Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...
. In the mid-1990s, Marshall designed websites for law firms and published an online news site about Internet law, which included interviews with prominent scholars such as Lawrence Lessig
Lester Lawrence "Larry" Lessig III (born June 3, 1961) is an American legal scholar and political activist. He is the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and the former director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvar ...
.
Marshall began writing freelance articles about Internet free speech for ''The American Prospect
''The American Prospect'' is a daily online and bimonthly print American political and public policy magazine dedicated to American modern liberalism and Progressivism in the United States, progressivism. Based in Washington, D.C., ''The America ...
'' in 1997 and was soon hired as an associate editor. He worked for the ''Prospect'' for three years and in 1999 moved to D.C. to become their Washington editor.
He often clashed with the top editors at the ''Prospect'', over both ideology and the direction of the website.
Talking Points Memo
History
Inspired by political bloggers such as Mickey Kaus and Andrew Sullivan, Marshall started ''Talking Points Memo'' during the 2000 Florida election recount. "I really liked what seemed to me to be the freedom of expression of this genre of writing," Marshall told the ''Columbia Journalism Review''. "And, obviously, given the issues that I had with the ''Prospect'', that appealed to me a lot."
He left his job at the ''Prospect'' early in 2001 and continued to blog while writing for '' The Washington Monthly'', ''The Atlantic
''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
It was founded in 185 ...
'', ''The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...
'', '' Salon.com'', and the ''New York Post
The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative
daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates three online sites: NYPost. ...
''. In 2002, Marshall used ''Talking Points Memo'' to report on Trent Lott's controversial comments praising Strom Thurmond's 1948 presidential run as a segregationist
Racial segregation is the separation of people into racial or other ethnic groups in daily life. Segregation can involve the spatial separation of the races, and mandatory use of different institutions, such as schools and hospitals by peopl ...
. According to Harvard Kennedy School
The John F. Kennedy School of Government, commonly referred to as Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), is the school of public policy of Harvard University, a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Harvard Kennedy School offers master's de ...
, Marshall was instrumental in fueling the ensuing scandal that eventually led to Trent Lott's resignation as Senate Minority Leader.
As a result of the Lott story, traffic to ''Talking Points Memo'' spiked from 8,000 to 20,000 page view
In web analytics and website management, a pageview or page view, abbreviated in business to PV and occasionally called page impression, is a request to load a single HTML file (web page) of an Internet site. On the World Wide Web, a page reque ...
s a day. In the fall of 2003, as people focused on the failure to find WMD's in Iraq
Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...
, there was a new surge of traffic to the site; "I remember there being peak days of 60,000-page views, which was really incredible."[ Marshall started selling ads on his site and by the end of 2004 was earning $10,000 a month,] making him one of a handful of what ''The New York Times Magazine'' dubbed "elite bloggers" who earned enough money to make blogging a full-time occupation.
During the 2008 US election campaign, many independent news sites and political blogs saw a wave of "explosive growth". ''Talking Points Memo'' experienced the largest surge in traffic, growing from 32,000 unique visitor
A unique user is a term in web analytics that refers to data of a Pageview of a unique IP, whose presence is only counted once, regardless of the number of pages they visit. This definition does not count repeat or returning users for a standard pe ...
s in September 2007 to 458,000 unique visitors in September 2008, a 1,321% year-to-year increase in the size of its audience.
Launching TPM Media
In 2005, Marshall launched '' TPMCafe''. This site features a collection of blogs about a wide range of domestic and foreign policy issues written by academics, journalists and former public officials among others.
Marshall expanded his operation again in 2006, launching '' TPMmuckraker''. The site focuses on political corruption, and was originally staffed by Paul Kiel and Justin Rood. Rood has since moved on to '' ABC'' and its blog '' The Blotter''. Kiel has recently been joined by two new staff reporter-bloggers, Laura McGann and Spencer Ackerman. ''TPMmuckraker'' has attempted to organize its readers to plow through and read document dumps by governmental entities engaging in cover-ups.
''TPM Media'' operates out of an office in Manhattan and currently employs seven reporters, including two in Washington.[
]
U.S. attorney controversy
In 2007, Marshall was instrumental in exposing another national controversy — the politically motivated dismissal of U.S. attorneys by the Bush administration. Marshall won The Polk Award for Legal Reporting for his coverage of the story, which "led the news media" and "connected the dots and found a pattern of federal prosecutors being forced from office for failing to do the Bush Administration's bidding." ''Columbia Journalism Review
The ''Columbia Journalism Review'' (''CJR'') is a biannual magazine for professional journalists that has been published by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism since 1961. Its original purpose was "to assess the performance ...
'' also credited Marshall's news organization for being "almost single-handedly responsible for bringing the story of the fired U.S. Attorneys to a boil." The ensuing scandal resulted in the resignations of several high-level government officials; the Polk award in particular honored Marshall for his "tenacious investigative reporting" which "sparked interest by the traditional news media and led to the resignation of Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general (: attorneys general) or attorney-general (AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have executive responsibility for law enf ...
Alberto Gonzales."
After a weekend writer noticed that the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas
Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...
was being replaced with a former adviser to Karl Rove, Marshall discovered that U.S. Attorney Carol Lam was also being asked to resign. Lam had successfully prosecuted Republican California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
Representative Duke Cunningham on bribery charges and was amid a criminal investigation into a congressional scandal of historic proportions. "I was stunned by it," Marshall told the ''Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...
''. "Normally, in a case like that, the prosecutor would be untouchable."
National newspapers were slow to pick up the story. ''Time
Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
'' magazine's Washington bureau chief Jay Carney accused Marshall of "seeing broad partisan conspiracies where none likely exist." By the time ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' first reported on Lam's firing (on page 17), Marshall and his news sites had already posted 15 articles on the story.
Two months after posting his accusatory article, Carney apologized to Marshall. "Josh Marshall at TalkingPointsMemo and everyone else out there whose instincts told them there was something deeply wrong and even sinister about the firings...deserve tremendous credit." Carney went on to write, "I was wrong. Very nice work, and thanks for holding my feet to the fire."
For doggedly pursuing the story, Arianna Huffington nominated Joshua Marshall and the ''Talking Points Memo'' team to the Time 100
''Time'' 100 is a list of the top 100 most influential people, assembled by the American news magazine ''Time''. First published in 1999 as the result of a debate among American academics, politicians, and journalists, the list is now a highly ...
.
Personal life
Marshall married Millet Israeli in March 2005, and the couple live in New York City with their sons Sam and Daniel.
Prizes and honors
* George Polk Award for Legal Reporting, 2007
* ''The Week
''The Week'' is a weekly news magazine with editions in the United Kingdom and United States. The British publication was founded in 1995 and the American edition in 2001. An Australian edition was published from 2008 to 2012. A children's edi ...
'' Opinion Awards, Blogger of the Year, 2003 & 2007
* '' GQ'' Men of the Year, Muckraker, 2007
References
External links
''Talking Points Memo''
*
Marshall's biography
at ''Talking Points Memo''.
Video discussion/debate with Marshall
and David Corn on Bloggingheads.tv
Video discussion/debate with Marshall
and Mickey Kaus on Bloggingheads.tv
*
C-SPAN ''Q&A'' interview with Marshall, February 12, 2012
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marshall, Josh
1969 births
American bloggers
American political writers
20th-century American Jews
Brown University alumni
Living people
Princeton University alumni
American male journalists
21st-century American non-fiction writers
American male bloggers
21st-century American Jews