Jack Shafer

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jack Shafer (born November 14, 1957) is an American journalist who writes about media for Politico. Prior to joining Politico, he worked for Reuters and also edited and wrote the column "Press Box" for Slate, an online magazine. Before his stay at Slate, Shafer edited two city weeklies, Washington City Paper and SF Weekly. Much of Shafer's writing focuses on what he sees as a lack of precision and rigor in reporting by the mainstream media, which he says "thinks its duty is to keep you cowering in fright."[1] One frequent topic is media coverage of the War on Drugs.

Career[edit]

Libertarianism[edit]

Shafer has written supportively of libertarianism. He wrote, "Traditionally, the state censors and marginalizes voices while private businesses tend to remain tolerant."[2] In 2000, he explained his political views as follows: "I agree with the Libertarian Party platform: much smaller government, much lower taxes, an end to income redistribution, repeal of the drug laws, fewer gun laws, a dismantled welfare state, an end to corporate subsidies, First Amendment absolutism, a scaled-back warfare state. (You get the idea.)"[3]

Consistent with this perspective, on 20 April 2020 Shafer expressed opposition to the Local Journalism Sustainability Act, saying, "You wouldn't put a dead man on a ventilator, would you?"[4]

Investigation of Gerald Posner[edit]

In February 2010, Shafer reported that the chief investigative reporter for The Daily Beast, Gerald Posner, had plagiarized five sentences from an article published by The Miami Herald. Shafer also discovered that Posner had plagiarized content from a Miami Herald blog, a Miami Herald editorial, Texas Lawyer and a health care journalism blog.[5][6] Posner was dismissed from The Daily Beast following an internal review.[7]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Shafer, Jack (December 14, 2010). "Stupid drug story of the week". Slate.com. New York City: The Slate Group. Retrieved April 17, 2018.
  2. ^ Shafer, Jack (December 21, 2010). "Whose internet is it, anyway?". Slate.com. New York City: The Slate Group. Retrieved April 17, 2018.
  3. ^ "How Slatesters Voted". Slate.com. New York City: The Slate Group. November 7, 2000. Retrieved April 17, 2018.
  4. ^ Jack Shafer (20 April 2020). "Don't Waste Stimulus Money on Newspapers: You wouldn't put a dead man on a ventilator, would you?". Politico. ISSN 2381-1595. Wikidata Q99658549..
  5. ^ "Plagiarism at the Daily Beast: Gerald Posner concedes lifting from the Miami Herald". Slate. 2010-02-05. Archived from the original on 2023-04-07.
  6. ^ Posner Plagiarism
  7. ^ "Making sense of the blog statement by former Daily Beast reporter Gerald Posner". Slate. 2010-02-11. Archived from the original on 2023-06-08.

External links[edit]