Lee Smith (journalist)

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{{short description|American journalist}}

{{for|the fictional photojournalist|Civil War (film)}}

Lee Harold Smith (born April 10, 1962) is an American journalist and author.

He was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico and was raised in New York City.{{cite web|url=https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/contributor/lee-smith/|title=Lee Smith|publisher=Hachette Book Group|website=www.hachettebookgroup.com|access-date=September 28, 2024}} He is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and was a senior editor at The Weekly Standard. Smith was formerly editor-in-chief of The Village Voice Literary Supplement, a national monthly literary review. He has written for publications including The New York Times, The Hudson Review, Ecco Press, Atheneum, Grand Street, GQ, and Talk.

At the time of the 9/11 attacks, Smith was working as an editor at The Village Voice and a contributor to Artforum.{{Cite news|last1=Moynihan|first1=Michael|title=The Strong Horse, Lee Smith (book review)|url=https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/the-strong-horse-by-lee-smith/|access-date=January 4, 2018|work=Commentary Magazine|date=February 1, 2010}} By his own account in his book, The Strong Horse: Power, Politics, and the Clash of Arab Civilizations., Smith was dissatisfied with the Orientalist explanations of the Muslim world as presented by Edward Said, whom he had met and spoken with about the region. As a result, he took a job as a foreign correspondent for The Weekly Standard and spent years reporting from the region.{{Cite news|last1=Steavenson|first1=Wendell|title=The Enemy Within (book review)|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/21/books/review/Steavenson-t.html|access-date=January 4, 2018|work=The New York Times | date=February 16, 2010}}

His 2019 book The Plot Against The President is an account of the 2016 US presidential election, and the roles played by the Russian government, US media, and US government agencies in the subsequent allegations of Russian collusion.{{cite web|url=https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/12/review-the-plot-against-the-president-bridges-conservative-generation-gap/|title=The Plot Against the President Bridges the Conservative Generation Gap|work=The National Review|first=Armond|last=White|date=December 9, 2020|access-date=January 25, 2021}} A documentary film, The Plot Against the President, was created based on Smith's book.{{Cite web|last=Flood|first=Brian|date=October 9, 2020|title='The Plot Against the President' documentary explores attempts to link Trump campaign, Russia|url=https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/plot-against-the-president-trump-movie|access-date=October 24, 2020|publisher=Fox News|language=en-US}}

His follow-up book, The Permanent Coup: How Enemies Foreign and Domestic Targeted the American President, was published in 2020.