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Alex Pareene

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Alex Pareene
Pareene in New York, May 2012
Born1984/1985
Alma materNew York University
Occupation(s)Journalist, writer, editor
EmployerThe New Republic

Alex Pareene (born 1984 or 1985) is an American journalist, writer, and editor. He was the editor-in-chief of the online news magazine Gawker.[1] Pareene later served as a senior editor at Deadspin and editor-in-chief of Splinter News, before becoming a staff writer at The New Republic. As of 2022, he published a newsletter on Substack called "The AP (Alex Pareene) Newsletter".

Early life

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Pareene grew up in south Minneapolis, Minnesota, and graduated from Minneapolis South High School, where he wrote for the school's newspaper and took part in the extracurricular theater program.[2] He attended New York University to study playwriting, but later dropped out.[3]

Career

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Pareene began his career writing a blog entitled "Buck Hill."[4]

In January 2006 he started writing for the Washington, D.C. political gossip blog Wonkette, then a part of Gawker Media, before he moved to their main web property Gawker in October 2007. In April 2010 he left Gawker to write about politics for the online news magazine Salon.[5][6] In their farewell post, the Gawker staff wrote of Pareene, "His writing is hysterical, his voice is unique, and his political mind is finely tuned into the idiocies and hypocrisies of our crumbling democracy."[5] He later joined First Look Media to launch the blog Racket with Matt Taibbi. In January 2015, he rejoined Gawker Media.[1] He was Gawker's editor-in-chief from October 2015 to August 2016, when the site ended operations.[7][8]

Pareene later served as a senior editor at Deadspin and editor-in-chief of Splinter News, before becoming a staff writer at The New Republic in 2019.[9][10][11] As of 2022, he published a newsletter on Substack called "The AP (Alex Pareene) Newsletter".[12]

Hack List

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At Salon, the rise of personalities who dominate the 24-hour news cycle continued to be one of Pareene's mainstay concerns.[13] Salon published a yearly list composed by Pareene called the Hack 30: The Worst Pundits in America, a list of people described as "the most predictable, banal, intellectually dishonest and all-around hacky newspaper columnists, cable news shouting heads and political opinion-mongers working today."[14][15] The Columbia Journalism Review described the list as a "fun-to-read, blunt, stick-it-in-deep-and-twist-it list of mostly old-world print-y pundits."[16] The list became so popular in media circles that Pareene began composing essay-length posts throughout the year about each person featured in the list to expound upon what he considered to be their hackery.[17]

Donald Trump

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Pareene has been a frequent critic of Donald Trump, both before and after his election as President. At varying times Pareene has referred to Trump as a "fictional television clown tycoon", "a living freak show" and "a weird attention-hungry idiot."[18][19][20]

On August 15, 2012, Trump criticized Pareene on Twitter as a "lightweight reporter" who is a "total joke in political circles".[21][22] Over the previous week Trump had been alluding to a "very, very major" surprise for the 2012 Republican National Convention that would be "unique and interesting".[23][24] Pareene had written that Trump's surprise "is almost definitely just going to be some idiotic video where Trump 'fires' [a Barack Obama] impersonator."[25] One day later, Obama impersonator Kevin Michel posted on his Twitter feed a picture of himself with Trump and advised his followers to "watch the Republican National Convention", prompting some news outlets to conjecture that Trump was upset that Pareene had accurately predicted his surprise.[26][27][28] When interviewed by Politico about Trump's criticism, Pareene responded, "I was hoping the first universally loathed NBC personality to publicly call me out would be the monkey from Animal Practice, but I'll settle for Trump."[29]

Books

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  • A Tea People's History, October 2, 2011, 49 pages, Salon Media Group, ASIN B005S4GS54
  • The Rude Guide To Mitt, April 17, 2012, 51 pages, Salon Media Group, ASIN B007UPDEG0

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Alex Pareene returns to Gawker Media", Jeremy Barr, Capital New York, January 7, 2015
  2. ^ Gihring, Tim (February 7, 2017). "Sex, lies, and Hulk Hogan: How a South High grad is riding the storm of Trump-era journalism". MinnPost. Retrieved February 7, 2017.
  3. ^ "Sex, lies, and Hulk Hogan: How a South High grad is riding the storm of Trump-era journalism". MinnPost. February 7, 2017. Retrieved November 8, 2019.
  4. ^ "LETTER FROM THE EDITORS: POLITICS MAKES STRANGE BLOGFELLOWS" Archived 2013-02-09 at archive.today, Alex Pareene, Wonkette, January 26, 2006
  5. ^ a b The Definitive Guide to Alex Pareene Archived July 4, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, Gawker, April 21, 2010; accessed August 23, 2012
  6. ^ Alex Pareene Leaving Gawker to Join Salon, John Koblin, The New York Observer, April 7, 2010; accessed June 7, 2012
  7. ^ "Gawker names Alex Pareene as new editor-in-chief", Jasper Jackson, The Guardian, October 28, 2015; accessed June 7, 2020
  8. ^ "What's next for Gawker writers?", Tom Kludt, CNN Business, August 19, 2016; accessed June 7, 2020
  9. ^ "Alex Pareene Will Head Up a New Politics Team at Fusion", Corinne Grinapol, Adweek, March 30, 2017; accessed June 7, 2020
  10. ^ "Univision Moves Fusion’s Digital News To New Site With New Brand: Splinter", David Lieberman, Deadline Hollywood, July 7, 2017; accessed June 7, 2020
  11. ^ "The New Republic Continues Expansion with Editorial Hires", Press release, The New Republic, April 18, 2019; accessed June 7, 2020
  12. ^ "Welcome to The AP (Alex Pareene) Newsletter", August 20, 2021; accessed April 20, 2022
  13. ^ "If You Want Alex Pareene To Stop Writing Takedowns, Give Him A Cushy Columnist Gig", David Taintor, Talking Points Memo, August 18, 2012
  14. ^ "Meet Salon’s “Hack 30″: “The Worst Pundits In America”", Hillary Busis, Mediaite, November 22, 2010; accessed June 7, 2012
  15. ^ "Introducing the Hack 30", Alex Pareene, Salon, November 22, 2010
  16. ^ "Salon’s Top 30 Hacks List Hits Hard", Joel Meares, Columbia Journalism Review, November 29, 2010
  17. ^ "Hackery, deconstructed", Megan Crepeau, Chicago Tribune, April 27, 2012
  18. ^ "Trump insinuates self into Romney campaign", Alex Pareene, Salon, May 24, 2012
  19. ^ "The Washington Post invites Donald Trump to the Correspondents’ Dinner", Alex Pareene, Salon, April 21, 2011
  20. ^ "Rove v. Trump: the unlikely war for soul of GOP", Alex Pareene, Salon, December 6, 2011
  21. ^ "Donald Trump Not a Fan of ‘Loser Salon,’ Which Is His Name for Salon", Dan Amira, New York, August 15, 2012; accessed August 23, 2012
  22. ^ "Media Briefs: Salon Blogger Made Irrelevant by Single, Brilliantly Incisive Tweet", Foster Kamer, The New York Observer, August 15, 2012
  23. ^ "Trump to Romney: You've got to 'fight fire with fire' with Pres. Obama", Interview with Greta Van Susteren, Fox News, August 7, 2012; accessed August 23, 2012
  24. ^ Donald Trump’s “Very, Very Major Big Surprise” at R.N.C. Will Be “Unique and Interesting”, Juli Weiner, Vanity Fair, August 15, 2012
  25. ^ "Donald Trump has big convention surprise planned apparently", Alex Pareene, Salon, August 14, 2012
  26. ^ "Does Donald Trump’s ‘Big Surprise’ For The RNC Involve An Obama Impersonator?", Alex Alvarez, Mediaite, August 16, 2012
  27. ^ "Donald Trump’s ‘Big Surprise’ for Republican National Convention is Unspeakably Lame" Archived August 19, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, Max Read, Gawker, August 16, 2012
  28. ^ "Donald Trump's Republican National Convention Surprise Has Been Ruined For Everybody", Jason Linkins, Huffington Post, August 16, 2012
  29. ^ "Donald Trump punches down, misses", Dyla Byers, Politico, August 15, 2012
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