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Thomas Andrew Merritt (born June 28, 1970) is an American technology journalist, writer, and broadcaster best known as the host of several
podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...
s. He is a former co-host of ''Tech News Today'' on the TWiT.tv Network, and was previously an
executive editor Executive ( exe., exec., execu.) may refer to: Role or title * Executive, a senior management role in an organization ** Chief executive officer (CEO), one of the highest-ranking corporate officers (executives) or administrators ** Executive dir ...
for CNET and developer and co-host of the daily podcast '' Buzz Out Loud''. As of March 2023, Merritt hosts ''Daily Tech News Show'', ''Cordkillers'' and ''Sword and Laser'', among other programs.


Early life

Merritt was born in
Greenville, Illinois : Greenville is a city in Bond County, Illinois, United States, east of St. Louis. The population as of the 2020 census was 7,083, up from 7,000 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Bond County. Greenville is part of the St. Louis ...
, to Bill Merritt, a food scientist who worked on the
Coffee-Mate Coffee-mate is a lactose-free coffee creamer manufactured by Nestlé, available in powdered, liquid and concentrated liquid forms. It was introduced in 1961 by Carnation. Ingredients Coffee-mate Original is mostly made up of three ingredients: ...
project. Merritt received a BS in
journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree of accuracy. The word, a noun, applies to the journ ...
from the
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...
and pursued graduate work in communications at the
University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...
.


Career

Merritt's career in
radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3  hertz (Hz) and 300  gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...
began in 1986 as a DJ for WGEL, a
country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...
station located in
Greenville, Illinois : Greenville is a city in Bond County, Illinois, United States, east of St. Louis. The population as of the 2020 census was 7,083, up from 7,000 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Bond County. Greenville is part of the St. Louis ...
. In 1993, he worked as an intern for National Public Radio's ''
Morning Edition ''Morning Edition'' is an American radio news program produced and distributed by NPR. It airs weekday mornings (Monday through Friday) and runs for two hours, and many stations repeat one or both hours. The show feeds live from 5:00 to 9:00 a ...
''. From 1999 to 2004, he worked for
TechTV TechTV was an American cable television channel with a focus on technology. It was launched as ZDTV on May 11, 1998, by computer magazine publisher Ziff Davis, Ziff-Davis following two short-lived technology-based programs by the company. Init ...
in San Francisco as an executive web producer and was a radio host with TechTV until 2003.


CNET

Merritt started with CNET in 2004. In addition to his duties as co-host of '' Buzz Out Loud'' with Molly Wood, he also had a regular column and podcast (co-hosted with Rafe Needleman) dealing with consumer technology. He also co-hosted the tech support call-in program ''CNET Live'' with fellow editor Brian Cooley, and was the host of ''CNET Top 5''. On April 16, 2010, Merritt announced that he would be stepping down as co-host of ''Buzz Out Loud'', and that he would be joining the TWiT. Network as a full-time daily host on June 1, 2010. During his last ''Buzz Out Loud'' episode on May 14, 2010, he announced that his main focus at TWiT would be a new daily show, ''Tech News Today''.


TWiT Network

Before joining TWiT as an employee, Merritt had a long-standing working relationship with former
TechTV TechTV was an American cable television channel with a focus on technology. It was launched as ZDTV on May 11, 1998, by computer magazine publisher Ziff Davis, Ziff-Davis following two short-lived technology-based programs by the company. Init ...
colleague
Leo Laporte Leo Laporte (; born November 29, 1956) is the former host of ''The Tech Guy'' weekly radio show and founder of TWiT.tv, an Internet podcast network focusing on technology. He is also a former TechTV technology host (1998–2008) and a technology a ...
's network, having regularly appeared on ''
This Week in Tech ''This Week in Tech''–casually referred to as ''TWiT'', and briefly known as ''Revenge of the Screen Savers''–is the weekly flagship podcast and namesake of the TWiT.tv network. It is hosted by Leo Laporte and many other former TechTV employ ...
'' as either a guest or as a relief host. His independent general discussion podcast with Roger Chang, ''East Meets West'', was also on TWiT Live. ''Tech News Today'' was launched on June 1, 2010. Merritt was a regular host along with Sarah Lane, Iyaz Akhtar and Jason Howell. On joining TWiT, Merritt brought with him two shows previously produced by the cartoonist Scott Johnson's Frogpants Studios. Originally started on July 7, 2009, ''Fourcast'' had Merritt and Johnson inviting guests to discuss the future and what it might contain in a so-called virtual fireside setting. Meanwhile, ''Current Geek Weekly'' is a weekly discussion of geek culture stories and the companion podcast to the ''Current Geek'' podcasts still produced by Frogpants Studios. Merritt still appeared on the Frogpants Network for a segment called ''Tom's Tech Time'' on Wednesdays on the Scott Johnson/ Brian Ibbott-hosted podcast, ''The Morning Stream''. On November 10, 2010, Merritt officially launched his second new show on TWiT, ''FrameRate''. Focusing on video in its many and varied forms (television, film, Internet), Merritt co-hosted the show with the magician and ''NSFW'' podcast host
Brian Brushwood Brian Allen Brushwood (born January 17, 1975) is an American Magician (illusion), magician, podcaster, author, lecturer, YouTuber and comedian. Brushwood is known for the series ''Scam Nation'' (previously ''Scam School''), a show where he teach ...
. On January 20, 2011, TWiT officially launched ''Triangulation'', a new show with Merritt co-hosting with Leo Laporte and interviewing a notable figure in technology. In July 2012, he stopped co-hosting the show because he "wanted to work on other projects". In addition to these regular shows, Merritt hosted live breaking news coverage of major technology events on TWiT's live stream such as ''
WWDC The Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is an information technology conference held annually by Apple Inc. The conference is currently held at Apple Park in California. The event is used to showcase new software and technologies in the macO ...
'', ''
Google I/O Google I/O, or simply I/O, is an annual developer conference held by Google in Mountain View, California. The name "I/O" is taken from the number googol, with the "I" representing the first digit "1" in a googol and the "O" representing the s ...
'' and the resignation and death of
Steve Jobs Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American businessman, inventor, and investor best known for co-founding the technology company Apple Inc. Jobs was also the founder of NeXT and chairman and majority shareholder o ...
. These ware later released as ''TWiT Live Specials'' podcasts. He has acted as a relief host for Laporte on TWiT, ''Windows Weekly'', ''Security Now'' and other shows when Laporte has been unavailable. On October 22, 2012, Merritt announced that he would be moving to Los Angeles to accommodate his wife's new employment at
YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
, but would continue to present on the TWiT network over
Skype Skype () was a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for IP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also had instant messaging, file transfer, ...
. On December 5, 2013, Leo Laporte announced that Merritt's contract would not be renewed, stating that the decision was based on the need for an in-studio anchor for ''Tech News Today''. Merritt hosted his last edition on December 30, 2013.


Freelance podcasts

Since February 4, 2008, Merritt has hosted ''Sword & Laser'', a science fiction and fantasy book club podcast, co-hosted with his former CNET colleague, Veronica Belmont. On June 22, 2010, he launched a new show for ''Tom's Top 5'', originally for
Revision3 Revision3 was a San Francisco, California, San Francisco–based Multi-channel network, multi-channel television network that created, produced and distributed streaming television shows on niche topics. Founded in 2005, it operated as a subsidia ...
. The show counted down a new Top 5 list every week released on Tuesday until November 1, 2011. He then did a similar show, ''CNET Top 5'', for
TechRepublic TechRepublic is an online trade publication and social community for IT professionals, providing advice on best practices and tools for the needs of IT decision-makers. It was founded in 1997 in Louisville, Kentucky, by Tom Cottingham and Kim S ...
(part of CNET). Merritt appeared in two early episodes of his ''Frame Rate'' co-host
Brian Brushwood Brian Allen Brushwood (born January 17, 1975) is an American Magician (illusion), magician, podcaster, author, lecturer, YouTuber and comedian. Brushwood is known for the series ''Scam Nation'' (previously ''Scam School''), a show where he teach ...
's Revision3 show ''Scam School''. On March 3, 2013, Merritt and Molly Wood began the ''It's a Thing'' podcast, described as a show grown from the brain of Molly Wood, derived from a regular segment on the CNET podcast ''Gadgettes''. In early January 2014, following his departure from TWiT, Merritt began co-hosting a podcast with
Brian Brushwood Brian Allen Brushwood (born January 17, 1975) is an American Magician (illusion), magician, podcaster, author, lecturer, YouTuber and comedian. Brushwood is known for the series ''Scam Nation'' (previously ''Scam School''), a show where he teach ...
called ''Cordkillers'', while also starting a new podcast, ''Daily Tech News Show'' (DTNS).


Books

Merritt has written several books, mostly sci-fi novels. ''Boiling Point'', which he later narrated as an audiobook, describes a near future United States civil war. Chapters of ''United Moon Colonies'' (2006) were posted on his blog. Both books were published on Lulu.com with a Creative Commons license.


Foxconn

In 2012, newspapers reported calls by consumer groups to boycott
Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...
products in response to accounts of worker suicides and dangerous working conditions at the
Foxconn Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd. (), Trade name, doing business as Hon Hai Technology Group () in Taiwan, Foxconn Technology Group () in China, and Foxconn () internationally, is a Taiwanese multinational corporation, multinational electron ...
plant in China. Merritt, who has followed tech news since 2005, responded by saying, "Boycotts of Apple might be good to nudge Apple into doing something to improve conditions, but, you're going to have to boycott buying electronics if you really wanted to punish China. I'm not sure that that's called for, necessarily." Citing a ''Forbes'' infographic showing Foxconn with, reportedly, fewer suicides per million workers (18) than the number of suicides per million Chinese citizens (220), Merritt suggested it might be worth investigating whether the lower rate at Foxconn may be due to "the fact that people who are gainfully employed are in some way less likely to commit suicide". There may be other reasons besides the working conditions at the plant for worker suicides. Instead of boycotts, he advocated addressing the dangerous working conditions in a broader context. Comparing the conditions at Foxconn to American coal mines of the 1800s and early 1900s, he added, "There may be similar types of abuses going on at Foxconn, but we have those kinds of conditions arise because the conditions that the workers are in before they take the job are worse. That doesn't excuse the conditions, but you don't just want to get rid of the factory. You don't want to just get rid of the coal mine and send people back into abject poverty. What you want to do is put pressure on the coal mine or the factory or whatever to begin to change their ways and improve those conditions so that everybody wins."


Bibliography

* ''Pilot-X'' 2017 * ''Boiling Point'' (Revised Edition) 1997 * ''United Moon Colonies: Chronicles of the Clone Incident'' 2007 * ''Chronology of Tech History'' 2012 * ''Lot Beta'' 2013 * ''Citadel 32: A Tale of the Aggregate'' 2015


Personal life

Merritt is married to Eileen Rivera and they live in
Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
, with their dogs Sawyer and Rey (another dog, Jango, died of natural causes on January 25, 2017), and formerly lived in Marin County and Oakland. He is a fan of
Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...
's
St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Centra ...
.


References


External links


Tom Merritt.comSubBrilliant NewsEast Meets West Podcast with Roger ChangThe Sword & Laser Podcast with Veronica BelmontThe Current Geek & Current Geek Weekly Podcast with Scott Johnson
*
The Real Deal podcast
{{DEFAULTSORT:Merritt, Tom CNET 1970 births Living people TechTV people 21st-century American businesspeople People from Marin County, California People from Greenville, Illinois TWiT.tv people Technology commentators