Jonathan Alter

{{short description|American journalist, author, documentary filmmaker, and television producer}}

{{Infobox writer

| name = Jonathan Alter

| image = On January 16, 2025, the LBJ Library honored the life and legacy of our 39th President, Jimmy Carter, with Jonathan Alter and moderator Mark Updegrove - 6.jpg

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| caption = Jonathan Alter (2025)

| pseudonym =

| birth_name = Jonathan H. Alter

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1957|10|06}}

| birth_place = Chicago, Illinois, U.S.

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Journalist
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| alma_mater = Harvard University

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| genre = Non-fiction

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| spouse = {{married|Emily Lazar|October 18, 1986}}

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| children = 3, including Charlotte Alter Tommy Alter Molly Alter

| parents = Joanne Alter (mother)

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| website = {{URL|http://www.jonathanalter.com/}}

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Jonathan H. Alter (born October 6, 1957) is a liberal{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/24/books/review/Alter-t.html|title=The State of Liberalism|first=Jonathan|last=Alter|newspaper=The New York Times |date=21 October 2010}} American journalist, best-selling author, Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker and television producer who was a columnist and senior editor for Newsweek magazine from 1983 until 2011. Alter has written several books about American presidents, most recently His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, a Life, published in 2020, the first independent biography of Carter and an important source for the broad historical reassessment of his presidency.{{Cite web |last=Board |first=Editorial |date=2024-12-29 |title=The Surprising Greatness of Jimmy Carter |url=https://washingtonmonthly.com/2024/12/29/the-surprising-greatness-of-jimmy-carter/ |access-date=2025-04-23 |website=Washington Monthly |language=en-US}} His newest book, American Reckoning: Inside Trump's Trial—and My Own, was published on October 22, 2024.{{cite web |title=American Reckoning by Jonathan Alter: 9781637746660 {{!}} PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books |url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/783685/american-reckoning-by-jonathan-alter/ |website=PenguinRandomhouse.com |access-date=18 August 2024}} Alter has interviewed nine of the last ten American presidents (all except Ronald Reagan) either before, during or after their presidencies.{{Cite web |last=Zirin |first=James D. |date=2024-10-29 |title=From President to Convict |url=https://washingtonmonthly.com/2024/10/29/from-president-to-convict/ |access-date=2025-04-23 |website=Washington Monthly |language=en-US}}

Alter is a political analyst for NBC News, where since 1996 he has appeared on NBC, MSNBC, and CNBC. In 2021, Alter launched a newsletter called "Old Goats with Jonathan Alter", where he posts columns, videos and interviews with accomplished people who share their wisdom and experience. In 2013 and 2014, Alter served as an executive producer on the Amazon Studios production Alpha House, which starred John Goodman, Mark Consuelos, Clark Johnson, and Matt Malloy. In 2019, he co-produced and co-directed Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists," a documentary about the columnists Jimmy Breslin and Pete Hamill, which received the 2020 Emmy Award for Outstanding Historical Documentary.

Alter's other books are The Center Holds: Obama and His Enemies (2013), The Promise: President Obama, Year One (2010), which went to number three on the New York Times Bestsellers List, Between The Lines: A View Inside American Politics, People and Culture (2008), and The Defining Moment: FDR's Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope (2006), a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.

A veteran of Chicago politics, Alter has known former President Barack Obama and his closest confidantes for as long as nearly any national columnist, having published the first national magazine cover story on Obama in Newsweek{{'}}s 2005 "Who's Next Issue."{{Cite web |title= Newsweek's First Barack Obama Cover Story|website=Newsweek |date=January 19, 2017 |url=https://www.newsweek.com/barack-obama-last-day-first-newsweek-cover-story-123449}}

From 2015 until 2023, Alter hosted a radio show with his children, "Alter Family Politics," as part of Andy Cohen's 24-hour network, Radio Andy, Channel 102 on Sirius XM.{{cite news |url= http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/siriusxm-announces-new-weekly-shows-on-andy-cohens-exclusive-channel-radio-andy-300142202.html |title=SiriusXM Announces New Weekly Shows on Andy Cohen's Exclusive Channel Radio Andy |access-date=6 September 2018 |date=14 September 2015 }}

In 2021, Alter began an online Substack publication for free and paid subscribers entitled, [https://oldgoats@substack.com/ Old Goats with Jonathan Alter], that he characterizes as "ruminating with friends".

Early life and education

Alter was raised in a Jewish family in Chicago,{{cite news|first=Jonathan|last=Alter |url=http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-04-02/entertainment/ct-prj-0401-baseball-alter-20120330_1_cubs-lefty-fourth-outfielder |newspaper=The Chicago Tribune |title=The fourth outfielder - The day Jonathan Alter played for the Cubs — sort of |date=April 2, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180922055901/http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/books/ct-xpm-2012-04-02-ct-prj-0401-baseball-alter-20120330-story.html| archive-date=September 22, 2018|quote=Just two days after Yom Kippur, it was Jew lefty vs. Jew lefty. I was a Jew lefty, too!}} the son of James Alter (1922–2014),{{cite news|url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-james-alter-obituary-met-20140818-column.html |title=James Alter, Chicago businessman and civic leader, 1922-2014 |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |date=August 18, 2014 |first=Rick |last=Kogan |access-date=December 13, 2014 }} who owned a refrigeration and air-conditioning company, and Joanne (née Hammerman) (1927–2008),{{cite news|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/2008/11/11/joanne-h-alter-1927-2008/ |title=Joanne H. Alter: 1927 - 2008 |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |date=November 11, 2008 |first=Trevor |last=Jensen |access-date=December 13, 2014 }} who was an elected commissioner of the Metropolitan Sanitary District of Greater Chicago and a member of the Democratic National Committee.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/08/24/style/emily-lazar-engaged-to-jonathan-h-alter.html |work=The New York Times |title=Emily Lazar Engaged To Jonathan H. Alter |date=August 24, 1986 |access-date=January 2, 2014}}{{cite news |author=Ben Goldberger |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/11/joanne-alter-gender-trail_n_142981.html |work=The Huffington Post |title=Joanne Alter, Gender Trailblazer In Chicago Politics, Dies |date=December 12, 2008 |access-date=January 2, 2014}} His mother was the first woman in the Chicago area to be elected to public office.{{cite news |url=http://njmonthly.com/articles/best-of-Jersey/writer-in-residence.html |work=New Jersey Monthly |title=Writer in Residence - Newsweek Columnist Jonathan Alter interprets history as it happens. At home, he steeps himself in the past, including the edigree [sic] of his Victorian dream house |author=Eric Levin |date=December 19, 2007 |access-date=January 2, 2014}} He graduated from Phillips Academy in 1975{{cite news| title = Heffner Adds More Guests for Next Two WPAA Live Political Broadcasts| publisher = Phillips Academy website| date = January 24, 2008| url = http://www.andover.edu/About/Newsroom/Pages/HeffnerAddsMoreGuestsforNextTwoWPAALivePoliticalBroadcasts.aspx| access-date = 2011-05-24| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100604162109/https://www.andover.edu/About/Newsroom/Pages/HeffnerAddsMoreGuestsforNextTwoWPAALivePoliticalBroadcasts.aspx| archive-date = June 4, 2010}} and Harvard University in 1979, where he was one of the lead editors on the Harvard Crimson.{{cite book|title=Who's Who in America 1986-1987|volume=1|page=50}}

Career

For a decade in the 1980s, Alter was Newsweek{{'}}s media critic, where he was among the first in the mainstream media to break tradition and hold other news organizations accountable for their coverage,{{Citation needed|date=May 2009}} a precursor to the role later played by blogs. When Newsweek launched his wide-ranging column in 1991, it was the first time the magazine allowed regular political commentary in the magazine, other than on the back page. After Bill Clinton was elected president in 1992, during which time Alter was a consultant to MTV, he was among a small group of reporters and columnists who had regular access to Clinton, though he was far from a reliable supporter, particularly during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. "Alter bites me in the ass sometimes, but at least he knows what we're trying to do," Clinton was quoted as saying in the book Media Circus by The Washington Post{{'}}s Howard Kurtz.

Alter gained international notice on November 7, 2000, the night of the presidential election, when on NBC with Tim Russert and Tom Brokaw, he was the first pundit to predict the months-long recount process.{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CoxJGRsJHI |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121105202844/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CoxJGRsJHI |archive-date=2012-11-05 |url-status=dead|title=Election Night 2000: No Decision | website=YouTube |access-date=12 October 2012}}

Two months after the September 11 attacks, Alter wrote an article for Newsweek called "Time to think about torture" which became one of his best-known articles.{{cite book |last=Gordon |first=Rebecca |date=2014-05-22 |title=Mainstreaming Torture: Ethical Approaches in the Post-9/11 United States |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bSj-AgAAQBAJ&q=Jonathan%20Alter&pg=PA183 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=183 |isbn=978-0-19-933643-2 |access-date=2015-04-15 |quote=Although he has since published a well-received history of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's first hundred days in office and two books on Barack Obama's presidency, Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter is probably still best known as the first person to suggest in popular media that the attacks of September 11 meant someone ought to be tortured.}} In the column, he suggested that the U.S. might need to "rethink ... old assumptions about law enforcement". Stating that "some torture clearly works", he suggested the nation should "keep an open mind about certain measures to fight terrorism, like court-sanctioned psychological interrogation", and consider transferring some prisoners to other countries with less stringent rules on torture.{{cite news |author=Jonathan Alter |url=http://www.newsweek.com/id/76304 |title=Time to think about torture |work=Newsweek |date=2001-11-05 |access-date=2011-05-24}} While Alter did not explicitly advocate physical torture, he later wrote in his book Between the Lines that he regretted writing the article.{{Cite book |title= Between the Lines: A View Inside American Politics, People, and Culture| isbn=978-0681497559 | last1=Alter | first1=Jonathan | date=2008 | publisher=State Street Press }}

Alter was a fierce critic of President George W. Bush, emphasizing what he considered Bush's lack of accountability and his position on embryonic stem cell research. Alter, a cancer survivor, has written about his own bout with lymphoma and experience with an autologous adult stem cell transplant.{{cite news |author=Jonathan Alter |url=http://www.newsweek.com/2007/04/08/my-life-with-cancer.html |title=My Life with Cancer |work=Newsweek |date=April 9, 2007 |access-date=2011-05-24}} Despite calling Bush's tone "destructive to American interests," Alter supported Bush's invasion of Iraq, writing in February 2003, "Osama Bin Laden hit us on 9/11 because he thought we were soft and would not respond. Weakness now would further embolden Saddam Hussein."{{Cite web|url=https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2003/02/who-s-for-war-who-s-against-it-and-why.html|title=Roll Call Who's for war, who's against it, and why (February 19, 2003)|website=Slate|date=February 19, 2003 |access-date=2019-06-23}}

On NBC's Today Show, Alter was the correspondent for several stories about the effect of the Iraq War on returning veterans. The Defining Moment, which was reviewed respectfully, surprised some critics with its analysis which concluded that the United States had come very close to dictatorship before Franklin D. Roosevelt became president, painting him as the savior of American democracy and capitalism. During an interview with 60 Minutes on November 14, 2008, then-President-elect Barack Obama said he had recently been reading The Defining Moment and hoped to apply some of Roosevelt's strategies that were outlined in the book into his own administration.{{cite news|last=Reardon |first=Patrick T. |url=http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2008/nov/18/books/chi-fdr-barack-obama-books-1118 |title=FDR books on Obama's nightstand |work=The Chicago Tribune |date=November 18, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090216140936/http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2008/nov/18/books/chi-fdr-barack-obama-books-1118 |archive-date=February 16, 2009 }} In 2020, then President-elect Joe Biden said that he was learning about the fragility of democracy from The Defining Moment.{{Cite web |last=WRAL |date=2020-12-06 |title=Biden's media diet: Newspapers, magazines, books, and Apple News |url=https://www.wral.com/story/bidens-media-diet-newspapers-magazines-books-and-apple-news/19417428/ |access-date=2025-04-23 |website=WRAL.com |language=en}}

A longtime proponent of education reform, Alter played a major role in the Academy Award-nominated documentary Waiting for "Superman".{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1566648/ |title=Waiting for Superman (2010) |website=IMDb}} He also sits on the Board of Directors of The 74, an education news website.{{Cite web|url=https://www.the74million.org/page/supporters|title=Supporters|website=The74|access-date=2016-04-04}}

In 2008, Alter was the commencement speaker at Utica College, and in 2009, at Western Connecticut State University, which awarded him an honorary doctorate.Alter, Jonathan. [http://wcsu.edu/commencement/alter_speech.asp Speech] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720112627/http://wcsu.edu/commencement/alter_speech.asp |date=July 20, 2011 }}, May 24, 2009. Retrieved 2011-05-24. He also has received honorary degrees from Montclair State University (2009), and William Paterson University (2019). In 1993, Alter was a fellow of The Japan Society, in 1997 he was the Ferris Visiting Professor at Princeton University, in 2009 he was a visiting professor at Arizona State University, in 2016 Alter was an Adjunct Professor at Montclair State University and in 2024 he was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship. Most recently he was named a Visiting Scholar at the American Academy in Rome.

In April 2011, Alter left Newsweek, joining Bloomberg within days.{{cite web |url=http://www.politico.com/blogs/onmedia/0411/Jonathan_Alter_out_at_Newsweek.html |title=Jonathan Alter out at Newsweek |publisher=politico.com |date=2011-04-11 |access-date=2011-05-24}} Following Bloomberg, he wrote for The New Yorker, The Daily Beast, Vanity Fair, Washington Monthly and other publications. In 2024 he was a Contributing Opinion Writer for The New York Times, assigned to write about the Trump felony trial and the 2024 presidential campaign.

Alter was an executive producer of the Amazon Studios show Alpha House, starring John Goodman. Written by Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau, the comedy series revolves around four Republican U.S. Senators who live together in a townhouse on Capitol Hill. After developing the script with Trudeau, Alter sold the pilot to Amazon, which picked up the show as its first original series.{{cite magazine|last=Felsenthal|first=Carol|title= Jonathan Alter on the Making of Alpha House |url=http://www.chicagomag.com/city-life/November-2013/Chicagoan-Jonathan-Alter-Teams-with-Garry-Trudeau-to-Make-Alpha-House/|magazine=Chicago Magazine|date=21 November 2013 |access-date=2014-08-04}} The show ran for two seasons, with a total of 21 episodes.

The 2019 HBO film Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists was co-produced and co-directed by Alter, with Steve McCarthy and John Block. The documentary was the winner of the 2020 Emmy Award for Outstanding Historical Documentary, and is available on HBO Max.{{Cite web |title=Steve McCarthy and Team Win Emmy for HBO Documentary |url=https://www.montclair.edu/newscenter/2020/09/23/steve-mccarthy-and-team-win-emmy-for-hbo-documentary/ |access-date=2024-09-12 |language=en-US}}

Personal life

Alter lives in Montclair, New Jersey, with his wife, Emily Lazar, a former executive producer of the Comedy Central show The Colbert Report, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and a longtime television news talent producer. Their three children are: Charlotte Alter (b. 1989), a senior national correspondent for Time Magazine, Tommy (b. 1991), a Emmy-winning producer and co-founder with JJ Redick of ThreeFourTwo Productions, where he hosts the hit basketball podcast "The Young Man and the Three," and Molly (b. 1993), a partner in Northzone selected in 2020 as one of Forbes' "30 Under 30" in venture capital.

Alter's family has had wide-ranging influence in politics. His mother, Joanne, was the first woman elected to public office in Cook County, Illinois. His sister Jamie Alter Lynton, a journalist and brother-in-law Michael Lynton, the former CEO of Sony Corporation of America, were two of the most politically active Obama fundraisers in California. His cousin, Charles Rivkin, is a creator of the Muppets franchise,{{cite news |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/2010/02/28/robert-rivkin-takes-on-challenge-of-toyota-inquest-with-transportation-department/ |title=Robert Rivkin takes on challenge of Toyota inquest with Transportation Department |work=Chicago Tribune}} a former United States Ambassador to France; and the chair of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA); another cousin, Robert S. Rivkin, is a former deputy mayor of Chicago. Rivkin's wife Cindy S. Moelis is the former head of the White House Fellows Program and one of former First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama's closest friends. Alter is a former member of the Board of Directors of DonorsChoose,[http://www.donorschoose.org/about/meet_the_team.html#nationalboard Donorschoose.org] National board of directors. Retrieved 2011-05-24. which allows teachers to post online proposals for classroom materials, and a current board member of The Blue Card,[http://www.bluecardfund.org/docs/IMG1111.pdf Bluecardfund.org] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110910212019/http://www.bluecardfund.org/docs/IMG1111.pdf |date=2011-09-10 }} pdf file of Board of Directors. Retrieved 2011-05-24. a national Jewish organization assisting Holocaust survivors, the Century Foundation, and the Bone Marrow Foundation. He chairs the board of the J. Anthony Lukas Prize Project, which offers awards for non-fiction authors.

References

External links

{{official}}
[http://www.jonathanalter.com/ Jonathan Alter's website]
{{substack pub|oldgoats|Old Goats}}
[http://bloggingheads.tv/search/?participant1=Alter,%20Jonathan Video debates/discussions featuring Alter] on Bloggingheads.tv
{{C-SPAN}}

Category:1957 births

Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers

Category:21st-century American non-fiction writers

Category:21st-century American historians

Category:21st-century American male writers

Category:American columnists

Category:American male bloggers

Category:American bloggers

Category:American male journalists

Category:American male non-fiction writers

Category:American media critics

Category:American political writers