Jonah Jacob Goldberg is an American conservative syndicated columnist and author. Goldberg is known for his contributions on politics and culture to
National Review Online, of which he is editor-at-large. He is the author of
Liberal FascismLiberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning is a bestselling book on the origins and nature of fascist movements by Jonah Goldberg, a conservative syndicated columnist and the editor-at-large of National Review Online...
(2008), which reached #1 on the
New York Times Best Seller list.
He appears on such television programs as
Good Morning AmericaGood Morning America is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now...
,
Nightline,
Hardball with Chris MatthewsHardball with Chris Matthews is a talk show on MSNBC, broadcast weekdays at 5 and 7 PM hosted by Chris Matthews. It originally aired on now-defunct America's Talking and later CNBC. The current title was derived from a book Matthews wrote in 1988, Hardball: How Politics Is Played Told by One Who...
,
Real Time with Bill MaherReal Time with Bill Maher is a talk show that airs weekly on HBO, hosted by comedian and political satirist Bill Maher. Much like his previous show, Politically Incorrect on ABC , Real Time features a panel of guests that discuss current events in politics and the media...
,
Larry King LiveLarry King Live is an American talk show hosted by Larry King on CNN from 1985 to 2010. It was CNN's most watched and longest-running program, with over one million viewers nightly....
,
Your World with Neil CavutoYour World with Neil Cavuto , which debuted as the Cavuto Business Report on the network's launch in 1996, is an American business television program appearing on Fox News Channel.-About the program:...
and most recently the
Glenn Beck ProgramThe Glenn Beck Program is an American talk radio show hosted by commentator Glenn Beck on Premiere Radio Networks. Since its inception as a nationally syndicated show in 2002, the program has become one of the highest rated radio programs...
and
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He is also a frequent participant on
bloggingheads.tvBloggingheads.tv is a political, world events, philosophy, and science video blog discussion site in which the participants take part in an active back and forth conversation via webcam which is then broadcast online to viewers...
.
Early life and career
Goldberg graduated from
Goucher CollegeGoucher College is a private, co-educational, liberal arts college located in the northern Baltimore suburb of Towson in unincorporated Baltimore County, Maryland, on a 287 acre campus. The school has approximately 1,475 undergraduate students studying in 31 majors and six interdisciplinary...
in 1991. His was the second class at Goucher to admit men. He was active in student politics at Goucher and was the co-editor of the school newspaper,
The Quindecim for two years. He and Andreas Benno Kollegger were the first men to run the paper. He later
interned for
Scripps Howard News ServiceThe E. W. Scripps Company is an American media conglomerate founded by Edward W. Scripps on November 2, 1878. The company is headquartered inside the Scripps Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. Its corporate motto is "Give light and the people will find their own way."On October 16, 2007, the company...
,
United Press InternationalUnited Press International is a once-major international news agency, whose newswires, photo, news film and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines and radio and television stations for most of the twentieth century...
, and other news organizations. He also worked for Delilah Communications, a publishing house in New York.
After graduation, he taught English in
PraguePrague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
for under a year before moving to
WashingtonWashington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
to take a job at the
American Enterprise InstituteThe American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research is a conservative think tank founded in 1943. Its stated mission is "to defend the principles and improve the institutions of American freedom and democratic capitalism—limited government, private enterprise, individual liberty and...
. While at AEI he worked for
Ben J. WattenbergBenjamin J. Wattenberg is an American conservative commentator and writer.-Early years:Wattenberg was born in The Bronx, New York, to Jewish parents, and went on to graduate from Hobart College in 1955, majoring in English. From 1955 to 1957 he was in the U.S. Air Force, based in San Antonio. He...
. He was the researcher for Wattenberg's nationally syndicated column and for Wattenberg's book,
Values Matter Most. He also worked on several
PBSThe Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
public affairsPublic affairs, a broadcasting industry term, refers to television programs which focuses on matters of politics and public policy. Among commercial broadcasters, such programs are often only to satisfy Federal Communications Commission regulatory expectations and are not scheduled in prime time...
documentariesDocumentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
, including a two-hour special hosted by
David GergenDavid Richmond Gergen is an American political consultant and former presidential advisor who served during the administrations of Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton. He is currently Director of the Center for Public Leadership and a professor of public service at Harvard Kennedy School. Gergen is...
and Wattenberg. Goldberg also served for three years on the Board of Trustees of Goucher College.
In 1994 he was a founding producer for Wattenberg's
Think Tank with Wattenberg. That same year he moved to New River Media, an independent television production company, which produced "Think Tank" as well as numerous other television programs and projects. Goldberg worked on a large number of television projects across the United States, as well as in Europe and Japan. He wrote, produced, and edited two documentaries,
Gargoyles: Guardians of the Gate and Notre Dame: Witness to History.
He joined
National Review as a
contributing editorA contributing editor is a magazine job title that varies in responsibilities. Most often, a contributing editor is a freelancer who has proven ability and readership draw. The contributing editor regularly contributes articles to the publication but does not actually edit articles, and the title...
in 1998. By the end of that year he was asked to launch
National Review Online (NRO) as a sister publication to
National Review. He served as editor of NRO for several years and later became editor-at-large.
Clinton-Lewinsky scandal
Goldberg's career as a pundit was launched following his mother
Lucianne GoldbergLucianne S. Goldberg née Lucianne Steinberger, also known as Lucianne Cummings is an American literary agent, author and the publisher of the website Lucianne.com. An avowed critic of U.S...
's role in the
Clinton-Lewinsky scandalThe Lewinsky scandal was a political sex scandal emerging in 1998 from a sexual relationship between United States President Bill Clinton and a 25-year-old White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. The news of this extra-marital affair and the resulting investigation eventually led to the impeachment of...
, when he wrote about the "media siege" on his mother's apartment in
The New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
.
Goldberg has spoken of his mother and the Lewinsky scandal:
My mother was the one who advised Linda TrippLinda Rose Tripp was a central figure in the Lewinsky scandal of 1998 and 1999 that led to the impeachment and subsequent acquittal of U.S. President Bill Clinton.-Early life and government employment:...
to record her conversations with Monica LewinskyMonica Samille Lewinsky is an American woman with whom United States President Bill Clinton admitted to having had an "improper relationship" while she worked at the White House in 1995 and 1996...
and to save the dress. I was privy to some of that stuff, and when the administration set about to destroy Lewinsky, Tripp, and my mom, I defended my mom and by extension Tripp... I have zero desire to have those arguments again. I did my bit in the trenches of Clinton's trousers.
These tapes became the focal point of the Lewinsky scandal. Goldberg was privy to the tapes and the conversations his mother had with Tripp because he served as a vice president of his mother's now-defunct literary agency. When the scandal broke, Goldberg defended his mother and Tripp during the ensuing media firestorm.
Current work
Goldberg has twice-weekly column at
National Review Online, which is syndicated to numerous papers across the United States, and at
Townhall.comTownhall.com is a web-based publication primarily dedicated to conservative United States politics. It was previously operated by the Heritage Foundation, but is now owned and operated by Salem Communications...
. He also writes an occasional "Goldberg File" column at National Review that is typically longer, and more culture or interest oriented. Goldberg is also a frequent poster at the
National Review Online blog "The Corner".
In other online media, in addition to appearances on
Bloggingheads.tvBloggingheads.tv is a political, world events, philosophy, and science video blog discussion site in which the participants take part in an active back and forth conversation via webcam which is then broadcast online to viewers...
, Goldberg is a frequent participant in programs produced by the center-right Web site Ricochet.com, including the weekly Ricochet Podcast and The Ricochet Roundtable, which features Goldberg, columnist
Mark SteynMark Steyn is a Canadian-born writer, conservative-leaning political commentator, and cultural critic. He has written five books, including America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It, a New York Times bestseller...
and Ricochet co-founder Rob Long.
Aside from being a member of the
USA TodayUSA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
Board of Contributors, he has written for
The New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
,
The Wall Street JournalThe Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
,
CommentaryCommentary is a monthly American magazine on politics, Judaism, social and cultural issues. It was founded by the American Jewish Committee in 1945. By 1960 its editor was Norman Podhoretz, a liberal at the time who moved sharply to the right in the 1970s and 1980s becoming a strong voice for the...
,
The Public InterestThe Public Interest was a quarterly public policy journal founded by established New York intellectuals Daniel Bell and Irving Kristol in 1965. It was a leading neoconservative journal on political economy and culture, aimed at a readership of journalists, scholars, and policy makers...
,
The Wilson Quarterly,
The Weekly StandardThe Weekly Standard is an American neoconservative opinion magazine published 48 times per year. Its founding publisher, News Corporation, debuted the title September 18, 1995. Currently edited by founder William Kristol and Fred Barnes, the Standard has been described as a "redoubt of...
,
The New York Post, and
SlateSlate is a US-based English language online current affairs and culture magazine created in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. On 21 December 2004 it was purchased by the Washington Post Company...
.
The Los Angeles Times added Goldberg to its editorial lineup in 2005.
His book
Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, from Mussolini to the Politics of MeaningLiberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning is a bestselling book on the origins and nature of fascist movements by Jonah Goldberg, a conservative syndicated columnist and the editor-at-large of National Review Online...
(ISBN 0-385-51184-1) was published in January 2008. It reached #1 on the
New York Times Best Seller listThe New York Times Best Seller list is widely considered the preeminent list of best-selling books in the United States. It is published weekly in The New York Times Book Review magazine, which is published in the Sunday edition of The New York Times and as a stand-alone publication...
of
hardcoverA hardcover, hardback or hardbound is a book bound with rigid protective covers...
nonfictionNon-fiction is the form of any narrative, account, or other communicative work whose assertions and descriptions are understood to be fact...
in its seventh week on the list. While in preparation, the book had a number of different subtitles, including "The Totalitarian Temptation From Hegel to
Whole FoodsWhole foods are foods that are unprocessed and unrefined, or processed and refined as little as possible, before being consumed. Whole foods typically do not contain added ingredients, such as salt, carbohydrates, or fat. Examples of whole foods include unpolished grains, beans, fruits, vegetables...
" and "The Totalitarian Temptation From Mussolini to
Hillary ClintonHillary Diane Rodham Clinton is the 67th United States Secretary of State, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama. She was a United States Senator for New York from 2001 to 2009. As the wife of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, she was the First Lady of the...
". After being published in paperback, the subtitle was changed to
The Secret History of the American Left, from Mussolini to the Politics of Change. Some historians have denounced the book as being "poor scholarship," "propaganda," and not "scholarly." Other reviewers described the book as "provocative" and "a wealth of challenging insights, backed up by thorough research".
Frequent topics
Some frequent topics of his articles include
censorshipthumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
,
meritocracyMeritocracy, in the first, most administrative sense, is a system of government or other administration wherein appointments and responsibilities are objectively assigned to individuals based upon their "merits", namely intelligence, credentials, and education, determined through evaluations or...
,
libertyLiberty is a moral and political principle, or Right, that identifies the condition in which human beings are able to govern themselves, to behave according to their own free will, and take responsibility for their actions...
,
federalismFederalism is a political concept in which a group of members are bound together by covenant with a governing representative head. The term "federalism" is also used to describe a system of the government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and...
and interpretation of the
ConstitutionThe Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.The first three...
, his attacks on the ethics and morals of liberals and
DemocratsThe Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
, and his disagreements with
libertariansLibertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
also appear often in his writings. He is a supporter of the
Iraq War and has advocated for American military intervention elsewhere in the world. He has defended historical
colonialismColonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
in places such as Africa as more beneficial than it is generally given credit for; in one column, he suggested that U.S. imperialism on the continent could help solve its persistent problems. When he wrote in October 2006 that invading
IraqIraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
was a mistake, he called it a "noble" mistake and still maintained that liberal opponents to the war policy wanted America to fail:
"In other words, their objection isn't to war per se; it's to wars that advance U.S. interests... I must confess, one of the things that made me reluctant to conclude that the Iraq war was a mistake was my distaste for the shabbiness of the arguments on the antiwar side."
He popularized and expanded on a commentary by the late
TimeTime is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
writer
William Henry IIIWilliam A. Henry III was an award-winning American cultural critic and author.-Career:Henry lived in North Plainfield, New Jersey as a young man. Henry graduated from Yale in 1971 and began his career in journalism in Boston, writing for the Boston Globe. His coverage of school desegregation in...
. Henry had written on the subject of
multiculturalismMulticulturalism is the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g...
and cultural equality, stating that "[i]t is scarcely the same thing to put a man on the moon as to put a bone in your nose." Goldberg stated that "[m]ulticulturalism — which is simply
egalitarianismEgalitarianism is a trend of thought that favors equality of some sort among moral agents, whether persons or animals. Emphasis is placed upon the fact that equality contains the idea of equity of quality...
wrapped in rainbow-colored paper — has elevated the notion that all ideas are equal, all systems equivalent, all cultures of comparable worth."
Francophobia and anti-Europeanism
Goldberg has publicly admitted to disliking France or, as he writes, being in the "frog-bashing business", using the derogatory term "frog" to designate the
FrenchThe French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
: "the frog-bashing business has changed a lot since I first started just a few years ago". He has also called for "the total destruction of France"; he later clarified his statement as meaning "the destruction of France as an idea". Some commentators, like Brian Dunaway, consider that Goldberg's attitude towards the French is
francophobicFrancophobia or Gallophobia are terms that refer to a dislike or hatred toward France, the People of France, the Government of France, or the Francophonie...
: "The poor souls that visit Goldberg’s columns know that he has made Francophobia a favorite pastime". Other commentators, such as
Timothy Garton AshTimothy Garton Ash is a British historian, author and commentator. He is currently serving as Professor of European Studies at Oxford University. Much of his work has been concerned with the late modern and contemporary history of Central and Eastern Europe...
, explain Goldberg's attitude, among others, by a deeply rooted "
anti-EuropeanismAnti-Europeanism refers to rejection of the culture of Europe and Europeanisation, sentiments, opinions and discrimination against European ethnic groups, and criticism of policies of European governments and the European Union...
" in the United States.
Relations with other writers and public figures
On the political left, Goldberg has publicly feuded with
Juan ColeJohn Ricardo I. "Juan" Cole is an American scholar, public intellectual, and historian of the modern Middle East and South Asia. He is Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan. As a commentator on Middle Eastern affairs, he has appeared in print and on...
over U.S. Iraq policy and
Air America RadioAir America was an American radio network specializing in progressive talk programming...
commentators such as
Janeane GarofaloJaneane Garofalo is an American stand-up comedian, actress, political activist and writer. She is the former co-host on the now defunct Air America Radio's The Majority Report. Garofalo continues to circulate regularly within New York City's local comedy and performance art scene.-Early...
, who has accused him of being a
chickenhawkChickenhawk is a political epithet used in the United States to criticize a politician, bureaucrat, or commentator who strongly supports a war or other military action, yet who actively avoided military service when of age.The term is meant to indicate that the person in question is cowardly or...
on the Iraq War. On February 8, 2005 Goldberg offered Cole a wager of $1,000
"that Iraq won't have a civil warA civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....
, that it will have a viable constitution, and that a majority of IraqisThe Iraqi people or Mesopotamian people are natives or inhabitants of the country of Iraq, known since antiquity as Mesopotamia , with a large diaspora throughout the Arab World, Europe, the Americas, and...
and AmericansThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
will, in two years time, agree that the war was worth it". Cole refused to accept and the wager was never made. Goldberg later conceded that if Cole had accepted the bet, Cole would have won.
Goldberg and
Peter Beinart-Early life and education:Beinart was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the son of South African immigrants. His mother, Doreen, works at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, and his father, Julian Beinart, is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His stepfather is theatre...
of
The New RepublicThe magazine has also published two articles concerning income inequality, largely criticizing conservative economists for their attempts to deny the existence or negative effect increasing income inequality is having on the United States...
host a conservative vs. liberal webtv show,
What's your Problem?, which originally could be found on
National Review Online but has appeared on
Bloggingheads.tvBloggingheads.tv is a political, world events, philosophy, and science video blog discussion site in which the participants take part in an active back and forth conversation via webcam which is then broadcast online to viewers...
as of 2008.
Goldberg and others at
National Review Online (including editor
Rich LowryRichard A. Lowry is the editor of National Review, a conservative American news magazine, and a syndicated columnist.-Career:...
) broke with conservative writer
Ann CoulterAnn Hart Coulter is an American lawyer, conservative social and political commentator, author, and syndicated columnist. She frequently appears on television, radio, and as a speaker at public events and private events...
over statements she made about the
September 11, 2001 attacksThe September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
that they considered irresponsible. Coulter stopped writing for
National Review Online after the publishing of her column on September 13, 2001, opining that
"We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to ChristianityChristianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
".
The Media
Regarding Fox News, Goldberg said, "Look, I think liberals have reasonable gripes with Fox News. It does lean to the right, primarily in its opinion programming but also in its story selection (which is fine by me) and elsewhere. But it's worth remembering that Fox is less a bastion of ideological conservatism and more a
populistPopulism can be defined as an ideology, political philosophy, or type of discourse. Generally, a common theme compares "the people" against "the elite", and urges social and political system changes. It can also be defined as a rhetorical style employed by members of various political or social...
,
tabloidTabloid journalism tends to emphasize topics such as sensational crime stories, astrology, gossip columns about the personal lives of celebrities and sports stars, and junk food news...
y network."
Goldberg has criticized liberals for disliking Fox News, claiming they have no "problem with the editorializing of
MSNBCMSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...
's
Keith OlbermannKeith Theodore Olbermann is an American political commentator and writer. He has been the chief news officer of the Current TV network and the host of Current TV's weeknight political commentary program, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, since June 20, 2011...
or
Chris MatthewsChristopher John "Chris" Matthews is an American news anchor and political commentator, known for his nightly hour-long talk show, Hardball with Chris Matthews, which is televised on the American cable television channel MSNBC...
, they think it's just plain wrong for conservatives to play that game." Goldberg has referred to Olbermann as "MSNBC’s answer to a question no one asked."
Humor and lighter topics
The "Goldberg File" frequently involves humor, often at the expense of liberals.
Alec BaldwinAlexander Rae "Alec" Baldwin III is an American actor who has appeared on film, stage, and television.Baldwin first gained recognition through television for his work in the soap opera Knots Landing in the role of Joshua Rush. He was a cast member for two seasons before his character was killed off...
, who Goldberg insinuates cannot read, has been a frequent target of such jibes. Goldberg also makes occasional allusions to
Star TrekStar Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
. More recently,
Battlestar GalacticaBattlestar Galactica is an American science fiction franchise created by Glen A. Larson. The franchise began with the Battlestar Galactica TV series in 1978, and was followed by a brief sequel TV series in 1980, a line of book adaptations, original novels, comic books, a board game, and video games...
has become a favorite topic. Goldberg also likes to link to "timewaster" online games in his postings at "The Corner". Goldberg sometimes amuses himself by pretending he is Newt gingrich, his all-time favorite bloviator.
Family
Jonah Goldberg is married to
Jessica GavoraJessica Lynn Gavora is an American conservative writer on politics and culture, a speechwriter, and a former policy advisor at the U.S. Department of Justice.-Early life and education:...
, former chief speechwriter and a senior policy adviser to former
Attorney GeneralIn most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...
John AshcroftJohn David Ashcroft is a United States politician who served as the 79th United States Attorney General, from 2001 until 2005, appointed by President George W. Bush. Ashcroft previously served as the 50th Governor of Missouri and a U.S...
, and they have a daughter. Their dog Cosmo, "of indeterminate parentage and upbringing", also contributes articles to
National Review.
Goldberg's brother, Joshua Goldberg, died on February 10, 2011 from injuries he sustained in a fall. Their late father,
Sidney Goldberg (1931–2005), was Jewish, and their mother,
Lucianne GoldbergLucianne S. Goldberg née Lucianne Steinberger, also known as Lucianne Cummings is an American literary agent, author and the publisher of the website Lucianne.com. An avowed critic of U.S...
, is
EpiscopalianThe Episcopal Church is a mainline Anglican Christian church found mainly in the United States , but also in Honduras, Taiwan, Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, the British Virgin Islands and parts of Europe...
.
External links