Marcy Wheeler

{{Infobox person

|name = Marcy Wheeler

|image = Marcy Wheeler in 2009.jpg

|image_caption = Wheeler in 2009

|birth_date =

|birth_place =

|death_date =

|death_place =

|other_names = emptywheel

|education = Amherst College (BA)
University of Michigan (MA, PhD)

|occupation = Independent journalist

|years_active = 2007–present

|notable_works = Anatomy of Deceit: How the Bush Administration Used the Media to Sell the Iraq War and Out a Spy (2007)

|website = {{URL|emptywheel.net}}

}}

Marcy Wheeler, long known by the handle "emptywheel",That nickname is derived from "M. T. Wheeler." is an American independent journalist specializing in national security and civil liberties. Wheeler publishes on her own site, Emptywheel,{{Cite web | url=http://www.emptywheel.net/ |title = emptywheel}} established in July 2011. She has reported on United States v. Libby (the trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby) and the investigation of President Donald Trump's connections to Russia, among other national security matters.

Early life

Wheeler grew up with parents who worked for IBM. Wheeler graduated with a BA from Amherst College in 1990. With an interest in the way businesses use language, Wheeler spent the next five years in corporate consulting, specifically teaching employees to compose large documents. She moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan from her native New York City for graduate school in 1995.{{cite news |url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=AARB&p_theme=aarb&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&s_dispstring=Marcy%20Wheeler%20AND%20date(all)&p_field_advanced-0=&p_text_advanced-0=(Marcy%20Wheeler)&xcal_numdocs=20&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&xcal_useweights=no |title=Blogger to Provide Libby Trial Play-by-play: Local Consultant Expert on the Scandal |work=Ann Arbor News |date=January 22, 2007 |url-access=subscription }} Quoted by "skippy", [https://web.archive.org/web/20230324093224/https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2007/1/22/293491/- "empty wheel in the dead trees media"], January 22, 2007, accessed May 26, 2007. In 2000, she earned a Ph.D. in comparative literature from the University of Michigan, writing her dissertation on the feuilleton, a literary-journalistic essay form that is often self-published.{{cite thesis |first=Margaret |last=Wheeler |title=Street Level: Intersections of Modernity in the Czech, Argentine, and French Feuilleton; Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Comparative Literature |hdl=2027.42/132917 |publisher=University of Michigan, Ann Arbor |year=2000 |type=Thesis }}{{cite web |first=Marcy |last=Wheeler |url=http://www.anatomyofdeceit.com/prologue |work=Anatomy of Deceit |title=The Prologue |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070503121010/http://www.anatomyofdeceit.com/prologue |archivedate=2007-05-03 |accessdate=April 28, 2007 }} In her online "Prologue" to Anatomy of Deceit, she observes that the feuilleton essay is an important medium for expressing opinions which might ordinarily be censored due to government displeasure, citing recent examples such as former Czechoslovakian dissident and former Czech President Václav Havel.

Career

Wheeler makes occasional contributions to the commentary and analysis section of The Guardian,{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/profile/marcywheeler |title=Marcy Wheeler |work=The Guardian |accessdate=14 June 2019 }} Daily Kos, The Huffington Post, Democracy Now!, and Michigan Liberal. Between early December 2007 and July 2011 Wheeler published primarily on Jane Hamsher's FireDogLake (FDL) and prior to that on The Next Hurrah.{{cite web |first=Marcy |last=Wheeler |url=https://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/contributoremptywheel/index.html |title=The Next Hurrah Contributor Index: Marcy Wheeler |work=The Next Hurrah |date=December 3, 2007 |accessdate=November 18, 2008 }} Many of Wheeler's 2007 blog entries at The Next Hurrah focused on the congressional hearings into the dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys subsequent to the November 2006 U.S. midterm election.{{cite web |first=Marcy |last=Wheeler |url=http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/04/the_documents_n.html |title=The Documents Not Turned Over |work=The Next Hurrah |date=April 27, 2007 |accessdate=April 28, 2007}}

During United States v. Libby, the trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Wheeler reported on the testimony as one of the few press-accredited bloggers allowed in the courtroom.{{Cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=7181395|title=Libby Trial Reveals Workings of White House, Media|last=Conan|first=Neal|date=February 5, 2007|work=NPR|access-date=2018-07-16|language=en}} In her account, she describes her entries as "not a transcript"; nevertheless, such bloggers' eye-witness accounts served as sources of reliable information about the trial for readers.{{cite news |first=Scott |last=Shane |authorlink=Scott Shane |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/15/washington/15bloggers.html |title=For Bloggers, Libby Trial Is Fun and Fodder |work=The New York Times |date=February 15, 2007 |accessdate=April 28, 2007 }} In his column/blog White House Watch, published in The Washington Post, Dan Froomkin cited the efforts of FiredogLake in live-blogging the Libby trial as "essential reading" (page 3).{{cite news |first=Dan |last=Froomkin |authorlink=Dan Froomkin |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2007/01/24/BL2007012401134.html |title=A Lurid Look Behind the Curtain |work=White House Watch |publisher=The Washington Post |date=January 24, 2007 |accessdate=April 28, 2007 }} During the trial, she appeared on camera in video reports posted online on PoliticsTV.com, along with other accredited Libby trial blogger-correspondents such as TalkLeft creator Jeralyn Merritt and FDL creator Jane Hamsher and FDL principal blogger Christy Hardin Smith.{{cite web |url=http://www.politicstv.com/blog/?cat=10 |archivedate=September 11, 2007|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070911225600/http://www.politicstv.com/blog/?cat=10 |title=Archive for the 'Blogs - Blogger Profiles' Category |work=PoliticsTV.com |accessdate=April 30, 2007 |publisher=PTVMedia.com }}{{cite news |url=http://www.firedoglake.com/index.php?author=2 |title=Biography of Christy Hardin Smith |work=Firedoglake |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080213034142/http://firedoglake.com/author/2/ |archivedate=February 13, 2008 |accessdate=April 29, 2007 }}

Wheeler held an unpaid, part-time position as "Senior Policy Analyst"{{cite web|url=https://firstlook.org/theintercept/about|title=About The Intercept|website=The Intercept|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140210072001/https://firstlook.org/theintercept/about|archivedate=10 February 2014|url-status=live|accessdate=10 February 2014}} at The Intercept for several months after its February 2014 launch. She has described that period as a "chaotic time," and said that working there "was a pain in the ass." In particular, she came into conflict with editor-in-chief John Cook, who refused to pay for her work and expertise, was reluctant to publish what she believed was an important surveillance story, and excluded her from the first meeting of all staff reporters—which she construed as Cook's opinion that she was not a worthy journalist. Consequently, she resigned.{{cite web|url=https://www.emptywheel.net/2018/01/03/why-i-left-the-intercept-the-surveillance-story-they-let-go-untold-for-15-months/|title=Why I Left The Intercept: The Surveillance Story They Let Go Untold For 15 Months |last=Wheeler |first=Marcy |date=3 January 2018 |website=emptywheel.net |accessdate=3 January 2018}}

Wheeler became a witness in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of President Donald Trump's possible connections to Russia after outing one of her sources to the FBI in 2017.{{cite news |last=Sullivan |first=Margaret |title=Perspective - A journalist's conscience leads her to reveal her source to the FBI. Here's why. |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=July 8, 2018 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/she-broke-a-cardinal-rule-of-journalism-by-revealing-her-source-to-the-fbi-heres-why/2018/07/06/b3201632-8128-11e8-b9a5-7e1c013f8c33_story.html |access-date=February 10, 2023}}{{cite web|url=https://www.emptywheel.net/2018/07/03/putting-a-face-mine-to-the-risks-posed-by-gop-games-on-mueller-investigation/ |title=Putting a Face (Mine) to the Risks Posed by Gop Games on Mueller Investigation|last=Wheeler|first=Marcy|date=July 3, 2018 |work=emptywheel.net |access-date=March 24, 2023 }} Wheeler stated that she had "concrete evidence he was lying to [her]" and that her source was "doing serious harm to innocent people".

She campaigned for Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean in 2004, and is a former vice chairwoman of the Washtenaw County Democratic Party.

''Anatomy of Deceit''

Wheeler's reputation as a blogger stems from her analysis of the outing of the covert CIA identity of Valerie E. Wilson, also known as Valerie Plame, and the Bush administration's justification for 2003 invasion of Iraq and the Iraq War. Several of her posts led to follow-up stories in the mainstream media. As their first book publication by FDL Books (Vaster Books), "in order to have Marcy [Wheeler]’s work seen by a larger audience," FireDogLake and Daily Kos jointly published her book on the CIA leak scandal, entitled Anatomy of Deceit: How the Bush Administration Used the Media to Sell the Iraq War and Out a Spy, on January 28, 2007.

Awards

Wheeler received a 2009 Sidney Hillman Foundation Journalism Award,{{cite web|url=http://hillmanfoundation.org/hillman-prizes/2009-hillman-awards-ceremony |work=The Sidney Hillman Foundation |title=2009 Hillman Awards Ceremony |accessdate=June 14, 2019 |date=June 16, 2009 }} in the blog category, cited for her body of work, including 2009 coverage of the auto industry crisis, and the evolution of the George W. Bush administration's justification and practice of torture (so-called "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques").

Personal life

Wheeler is married to an engineer.{{cite news |url=https://www.newsweek.com/2013/10/04/woman-who-knows-nsas-secrets-238050.html |title=The woman who knows the NSA's secrets |work=Newsweek |first=Pema |last=Levy |date=October 4, 2013 |accessdate=June 14, 2019 }} She lives in Limerick, Ireland.{{Cite web|url=https://www.emptywheel.net/about/|title=About - emptywheel|access-date=2 August 2023}}

Bibliography

{{cite book |last=Wheeler |first=Marcy |title=Anatomy of Deceit: How the Bush Administration Used the Media to Sell the Iraq War and Out a Spy |location=Berkeley |publisher=Vaster Books [Dist. by Publishers Group West] |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-9791761-0-4}}

Notes

External links

[http://www.emptywheel.net/ Emptywheel blog].
[http://www.politicstv.com/blog/?cat=10 "Archive for the 'Blogs - Blogger Profiles' Category"]. PoliticsTV.com – Inc. video clips of Marcy Wheeler, et al., during the trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, in United States v. Libby.
[http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/contributoremptywheel/index.html Contributors Index: "empty wheel"] (Marcy Wheeler) at The Next Hurrah (blog).
Collection of [https://www.democracynow.org/appearances/marcy_wheeler Marcy Wheeler's commentary on Democracy Now!]