Spencer Ackerman

Infobox journalist
name = Spencer Ackerman


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education = Rutgers University
occupation = Journalist, author
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gender = male
status = unmarried
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ethnic = Caucasian - U.S. flagicon|U.S.
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credits = National Security Correspondent for the "Washington Independent"; former reporter for The New Republic; has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News; frequent guest on BloggingHeads.tv
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Spencer Ackerman is a former reporter for The New Republic who now writes about security issues for the "Washington Independent". He has been to Iraq twice.cite news | url=http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB118945161322222870-bXYxKiJLpOaWB_OQ3i8yGp8dqwM_20071012.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top | publisher=The Wall Street Journal | title=D.C.'s New Young Blogging Elite | first=Marie last=Beaudette | date=September 12, 2007 | accessdate=2007-09-12]

Ackerman was previously a blogger and senior correspondent for "The American Prospect" and a reporter for Talking Points Memo. He attended Rutgers University where he was an editor for the Daily Targum student paper. In 2002, he moved to Washington D.C. to become an intern and later an associate editor at "The New Republic" magazine. He initially supported the Iraq War, but became disillusioned and in 2004 started a blog on "The New Republic" website called [http://www.tnr.com/blog/iraqd Iraq'd] which chronicled the dilemma of pro-war liberals. He also wrote, with John B. Judis, an article that started the chain of events that led to the Plame affair. In October 2006 he was fired by "The New Republic" Editor Franklin Foer. Describing it as a "painful" decision, Foer attributed the firing to Ackerman's "insubordination": disparaging the magazine on his personal blog [http://toohotfortnr.blogspot.com Too Hot For TNR] , saying that he would "skullfuck" a terrorist's corpse at an editorial meeting if that was required to "establish his anti-terrorist bona fides" and sending Foer an e-mail where he said -- in what according to Ackerman was intended to be a joke -- he would “make a niche in your skull” with a baseball bat. Ackerman, by contrast, argued that the dismissal was due to “irreconcilable ideological differences”. He believed that his leftward drift as a result of the Iraq War and the actions of the Bush administration was not appreciated by the senior editorial staff. [http://observer.com/20061030/20061030_Michael_Calderone_pageone_offtherec-2.asp] Within 24 hours of being fired by "The New Republic", Ackerman gained his current job at competing magazine, "The American Prospect". Ackerman has no regrets over anything he wrote or said but in retrospect believes that he should have quit. [http://www.jrn.columbia.edu/studentwork/nyrm/hendler_well.html] In the spring of 2007 he was embedded in Iraq.

Ackerman is a fan of comic books and hardcore punk music. He has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, Fox News and BloggingHeads.tv.

References

External links

* [http://attackerman.firedoglake.com Attackerman] - Ackerman's blog at firedoglake
* [http://toohotfortnr.blogspot.com Too Hot For TNR] – Ackerman's personal blog
* [http://bloggingheads.tv/search/?participant1=Ackerman,%20Spencer List of video conversations with Ackerman] on BloggingHeads.tv
* [http://www.tnr.com/showBio.mhtml?pid=181&sa=1 Articles by Ackerman at "The New Republic"]
* [http://www.prospect.org/cs/author?id=1181 Articles by Ackerman at "The American Prospect"]
* [http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2004/11/16/cia/index_np.html Killing the Messenger] by Ackerman in Salon, November 16, 2004