Alex Pareene

Alex Pareene

Pareene in New York, May 2012
Born United States
Occupation Writer, journalist, blogger

Alex Pareene is an American writer who writes for the online news magazine Gawker.[1]

Career

Pareene began his career writing a Blogspot blog he called "Buck Hill."[2] In January 2006 he started writing for the sardonic 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.[3][4] 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."[3] He later joined First Look Media in hopes to launch the blog Racket with Matt Taibbi. In January 2015, he rejoined Gawker Media.[5]

Hack List

At Salon, the rise of personalities who dominate the 24-hour news cycle continued to be one of Pareene's mainstay concerns.[6] Salon publishes 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."[7][8] 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."[9] 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.[10]

Donald Trump

Pareene has been a frequent critic of reality star Donald Trump, known for his show Celebrity Apprentice where he uses the catchphrase "You're Fired!" to dismiss celebrity contestants competing for charity. At varying times Pareene has referred to Trump as a "fictional television clown tycoon," "a living freak show" and "a weird attention-hungry idiot."[11][12][13]

On August 15, 2012 Trump criticized Pareene on Twitter as a "lightweight reporter" who is a "total joke in political circles."[14][15] 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."[16][17] Pareene had written that Trump's surprise "is almost definitely just going to be some idiotic video where Trump 'fires' [a Barack Obama] impersonator."[18] 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.[19][20][21] 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."[22]

Books

See also

External links

References

  1. ↑ Alex Pareene returns to Gawker Media, Jeremy Barr, Capital New York, January 7, 2015
  2. ↑ LETTER FROM THE EDITORS: POLITICS MAKES STRANGE BLOGFELLOWS, Alex Pareene, Wonkette, January 26, 2006
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 The Definitive Guide to Alex Pareene, Gawker, April 21, 2010; accessed August 23, 2012
  4. ↑ Alex Pareene Leaving Gawker to Join Salon, John Koblin, New York Observer, April 7, 2010; accessed June 7, 2012
  5. ↑ Alex Pareene returns to Gawker Media, Jeremy Barr, Capital New York, January 7, 2015
  6. ↑ If You Want Alex Pareene To Stop Writing Takedowns, Give Him A Cushy Columnist Gig, David Taintor, Talking Points Memo, August 18, 2012
  7. ↑ Meet Salon’s “Hack 30″: “The Worst Pundits In America”, Hillary Busis, Mediaite, November 22nd, 2010; accessed June 7, 2012
  8. ↑ Introducing the Hack 30, Alex Pareene, Salon, November 22, 2010
  9. ↑ Salon’s Top 30 Hacks List Hits Hard, Joel Meares, Columbia Journalism Review, November 29, 2010
  10. ↑ Hackery, deconstructed, Megan Crepeau, Chicago Tribune, April 27, 2012
  11. ↑ Trump insinuates self into Romney campaign, Alex Pareene, Salon, May 24, 2012
  12. ↑ The Washington Post invites Donald Trump to the Correspondents’ Dinner, Alex Pareene, Salon, April 21, 2011
  13. ↑ Rove v. Trump: the unlikely war for soul of GOP, Alex Pareene, Salon, December 6, 2011
  14. ↑ 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
  15. ↑ Media Briefs: Salon Blogger Made Irrelevant by Single, Brilliantly Incisive Tweet, Foster Kamer, New York Observer, August 15, 2012
  16. ↑ 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
  17. ↑ Donald Trump’s “Very, Very Major Big Surprise” at R.N.C. Will Be “Unique and Interesting”, Juli Weiner, Vanity Fair, August 15, 2012
  18. ↑ Donald Trump has big convention surprise planned apparently, Alex Pareene, Salon, August 14, 2012
  19. ↑ Does Donald Trump’s ‘Big Surprise’ For The RNC Involve An Obama Impersonator?, Alex Alvarez, Mediaite, August 16, 2012
  20. ↑ Donald Trump’s ‘Big Surprise’ for Republican National Convention is Unspeakably Lame, Max Read, Gawker, August 16, 2012
  21. ↑ Donald Trump's Republican National Convention Surprise Has Been Ruined For Everybody, Jason Linkins, Huffington Post, August 16, 2012
  22. ↑ Donald Trump punches down, misses, Dyla Byers, Politico, August 15, 2012