David Neiwert

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{{Short description|American journalist}}

{{Infobox writer

| name = David Neiwert

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| birth_place = Idaho Falls, Idaho, U.S.

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| employer = Southern Poverty Law Center (before 2019)
Daily Kos (2019–present)

| alma_mater = University of Idaho (BA)

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| subject = Domestic terrorism in the United States

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| notableworks = Alt-America

| spouse = Lisa Dowling (m. 1989)

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| children = 1

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| awards = National Press Club Award for Distinguished Online Journalism (2000)

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David Neiwert is an American freelance journalist and blogger. He received the National Press Club Award for Distinguished Online Journalism in 2000 for a domestic terrorism series he produced for MSNBC's website.{{cite news |access-date=December 24, 2019 |agency=National Press Club |issue=L |publisher=The Record |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100617045942/https://www.press.org/about/record/2000-01record/record-6-22-00.htm |archive-date=June 17, 2010|url=https://www.press.org/about/record/2000-01record/record-6-22-00.htm|title=Club Selects Winners of This Year's Journalism Awards}} Neiwert has concentrated in part on extremism in the Northwest.{{cite news |last1=Tavernise |first1=Sabrina |last2=Benner |first2=Katie |last3=Apuzzo |first3=Matt |last4=Perlroth |first4=Nicole |title=Shootings Renew Debate Over How to Combat Domestic Terrorism |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/05/us/politics/domestic-terrorism-shootings.html |work=The New York Times |date=August 5, 2019}}

Work

He worked at newspapers around the Pacific Northwest from 1978 to 1996, notably in Idaho (at Sandpoint, Blackfoot, Lewiston, Moscow, and Twin Falls); Montana (Missoula); and in western Washington (Kent, Bellevue, and Seattle). He went to work at MSNBC.com in 1996 as a writer-producer, where he continued through late 2000. Since then, he has focused on writing books and producing his blog Orcinus, which tends to report on the crossover between the mainstream and the far right. The blog won early recognition in the liberal blogosphere in the form of consecutive Koufax Awards for Best Series in 2003 and 2004.{{Citation needed|date=January 2009}}

The Northwest Progressive Institute named its annual awards to the region's best liberal bloggers after Neiwert.[http://www.nwprogressive.org/portal/special/NeiwertAwards06.html NPI's David Neiwert Awards] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080208102735/http://www.nwprogressive.org/portal/special/NeiwertAwards06.html |date=February 8, 2008 }}, March 1, 2007 He edited the political blog Crooks And Liars from 2008 to 2012. As of 2018, Neiwert worked with the Southern Poverty Law Center as their Pacific Northwest correspondent.{{cite news |last1=Lynskey |first1=Dorian |title=How dangerous is Jordan B Peterson, the rightwing professor who 'hit a hornets' nest'? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/feb/07/how-dangerous-is-jordan-b-peterson-the-rightwing-professor-who-hit-a-hornets-nest |access-date=May 29, 2020 |work=The Guardian |date=February 7, 2018}} His book, And Hell Followed With Her: Crossing the Dark Side of the American Border, won the [https://app.box.com/s/n5jar49ckpbzltfv2umc 2014 International Latino Book Award] for general nonfiction.

In January 2019, Neiwert left the SPLC blog Hatewatch to join Daily Kos as a correspondent.{{cite web |last1=Wilson |first1=James |title='We've dug ourselves a really deep hole': David Neiwert on the rise of the far right |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/27/american-exceptionalism-has-to-die-david-neiwert-on-the-rise-of-the-far-right |website=The Guardian |access-date=December 25, 2019 |date=January 27, 2019}}

Neiwert's 2020 book Red Pill, Blue Pill discusses how radicalization and conspiracy theories may be opposed on the individual level.{{cite news |last1=Sommer |first1=Will |title=Inside the Completely Nutso Universe of QAnon |url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/what-is-qanon-a-deep-look-inside-the-nutso-conspiracy-theory-infecting-our-politics |access-date=December 29, 2020 |work=The Daily Beast |date=August 21, 2020 |language=en}}{{cite news |last1=Phillip |first1=Nicole |title=Help, I Think My Hairdresser Is a QAnon Believer! |url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/help-qanon-just-came-between-me-and-my-hairdresser |access-date=December 29, 2020 |work=The Daily Beast |date=September 30, 2020 |language=en}}

Personal life

Neiwert was raised in Idaho Falls, Idaho. He comes from a German-American background and was brought up in Methodist Christianity. According to Neiwert, sympathy for the John Birch Society was widespread amongst the population he grew up surrounded by and is "probably part of why I'm immune to conspiracism."

Neiwert attended the University of Idaho, where he obtained his B.A. in English (1984), as well as the University of Montana (1987–88), where he studied creative writing. He notes that he contributed to Republican political campaigns during this time.

He has been married since 1989 to Lisa Dowling of Helena, Montana. They live together in Seattle with their son.{{citation needed|date=February 2016}}

Bibliography

  • In God's Country: The Patriot Movement and the Pacific Northwest, 1999 ({{ISBN|978-0874221756}})
  • Death on the Fourth of July: The Story of a Killing, a Trial, and Hate Crime in America, 2004 ({{ISBN|978-1403969002}})
  • Strawberry Days: How Internment Destroyed a Japanese American Community, 2005 ({{ISBN|978-1403967923}}){{cite web | title=New book digs deeply into Seattle area's WWII-era racism | website=seattlepi.com | date=July 8, 2005 | url=http://www.seattlepi.com/entertainment/books/article/New-book-digs-deeply-into-Seattle-area-s-WWII-era-1177809.php | access-date=November 1, 2017}}{{cite web | last=Neiwert | first=David A. | title=Entertainment & the Arts - "Strawberry Days": Uprooting more than lives | website=Seattle Times Newspaper | date=July 8, 2005 | url=https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/20050708/strawberry10/strawberry-days-uprooting-more-than-lives | access-date=November 1, 2017}}
  • The Eliminationists: How Hate Talk Radicalized the American Right, 2009 ({{ISBN|978-0981576985}}){{cite web |last = Ventura|first= Elbert|url= http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=how_hate_groups_went_mainstream|title = How Hate Groups Went Mainstream|publisher = The American Prospect}}{{cite web|last = Eshleman|first = Michael O.|title = Professional Media |url = http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/reviews/professionalmedia/854781-284/social_sciences.html.csp |publisher = Library Journal}}{{cite web|title = Nonfiction review| url = http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-9815769-8-5 |publisher =Publishers Weekly}}
  • And Hell Followed With Her: Crossing the Dark Side of the American Border, 2013 ({{ISBN|978-1568587257}}){{cite web | last=Perlstein | first=Rick | title=The Minutemen and the Mainstream Media | website=The Nation | date=April 3, 2013 | url=https://www.thenation.com/article/minutemen-and-mainstream-media/ | access-date=November 1, 2017}}{{cite web | last=Patriquin | first=Martin | title=On out-of-control border patrollers | website=Macleans.ca | date=May 3, 2013 | url=http://www.macleans.ca/culture/books/and-hell-followed-with-her-crossing-the-dark-side-of-the-american-border/ | access-date=November 1, 2017}}
  • Of Orcas and Men: What Killer Whales Can Teach Us, 2015 ({{ISBN|978-1468308655}})
  • Alt-America: The Rise of the Radical Right in the Age of Trump, 2017 ({{ISBN|978-1-78663-423-8}})
  • Red Pill, Blue Pill: How to Counteract the Conspiracy Theories That Are Killing Us, 2020 ({{ISBN|9781633886261}})
  • The Age of Insurrection: The Radical Right's Assault on American Democracy, 2023 {{ISBN|978-1-68589-037-7}})

See also

References

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