Andrew Feinberg
Andrew Grant Feinberg | |
---|---|
Born | Washington, D.C., U.S. | July 22, 1982
Education | BA, University of Wisconsin–Madison |
Employer | The Independent |
Andrew Feinberg is an American journalist and
Early life
Feinberg was born to a Jewish family in Washington, DC and grew up in Bethesda, Maryland where he attended
Career
Feinberg began his career at Warren Communications News where he covered telecommunications and Internet policy for Communications Daily and Washington Internet Daily. He was the first reporter to break the story of House Democrats' 2008 attempt to restrict and regulate the use of social media by Members of Congress.[3]
In 2012 Feinberg joined The Hill as a staff writer covering technology and telecommunications policy.[4] Over the years his work has appeared in publications including Washington Business Journal, Politico Magazine, Silicon Angle, and Mashable.
Sputnik News
Seeking a full-time reporting position, Feinberg interviewed with
On May 26, 2017, Feinberg announced on Twitter that he was no longer working for Sputnik. In an interview with Erik Wemple of The Washington Post, he explained that Sputnik's management was angry because they prefer that their reporters remain anonymous. He also said that Sputnik editors wanted him to bring up the Seth Rich conspiracy theory at White House press briefings and to write about it for their news wire.[5][7]
Feinberg stated that Sputnik's management had been upset with the publicity he received after another Washington Post article said how he aggressively questioned White House OMB Director Mick Mulvaney over plans to restrict the Earned Income Tax Credit to families with parents who are in the United States legally, even if undocumented/illegal immigrants have American citizen children and pay enough taxes to be eligible for the EITC. The exchange was covered by Dana Milbank of The Washington Post.[8]
In an interview with Brian Stelter of CNN, Feinberg noted that another source of tension with Sputnik's management was their insistence on pre-approving questions he would ask at White House press briefings, and that they would often order him to ask questions that were based on completely false premises to push narratives that "don't comport with reality."[9] After a lawsuit by private investigator Rod Wheeler against Fox News alleged that members of the Trump administration had a hand crafting a story (which was later retracted) which pushed the Seth Rich murder-conspiracy theory, Feinberg told Joy-Ann Reid of MSNBC that it was "troubling" that both the White House and a Russian propaganda service were both attempting to promote the discredited story.[10]
Shortly after publication of a Politico article in which he documented his experiences,[5] Yahoo News reported that on September 11, 2017, Feinberg met with an FBI Special Agent and an Assistant US Attorney from the National Security Division of the US Department of Justice at their request as part of an investigation into whether Sputnik should be required to register as foreign propaganda under the 1938 Foreign Agents Registration Act. At that meeting, during which he provided information on "internal structure, editorial processes, and funding",[11] Feinberg turned over a flash drive containing over 6,000 internal emails—every message he'd sent or received during his tenure at Sputnik[12]—including messages pertaining to the percentage of funding Sputnik receives from Russia's government and his editors insistence that he pre-clear all White House briefing questions with them.
Kremlin Press Secretary
Feinberg dismissed concerns that such an investigation posed any threat to press freedom, telling the Columbia Journalism Review that “Sputnik does not operate like any news organization I have worked for or I have ever seen.”[14]
Current work
Feinberg has been a regular contributor to
On March 28, 2020, Feinberg announced that he was joining Newsweek as the publication's White House correspondent,[18] but his contributions to the website stopped after approximately a month. In August 2020, after the site published an op-ed claiming that Senator Kamala Harris was not eligible to be Vice President because her parents were both immigrants, Feinberg alluded to disagreements with management in which he was told certain White House officials were "off-limits."[19]
Days after the
His report was cited by House Democrats during Donald Trump's second impeachment trial, including in the House managers' trial brief[21] and during a presentation on the Senate floor by Del. Stacey Plaskett.[22]
On June 7, 2023, Feinberg was the first journalist to report that Special Counsel Jack Smith would ask a grand jury to indict Donald Trump as early as Thursday, June 8.[23]
Clashes with Kellyanne Conway during the Trump administration
Feinberg gained a measure of public attention during the Trump administration for a series of interactions with Kellyanne Conway, who then served as Counselor to the President, during question-and-answer sessions with reporters.
During one such interaction on May 29, 2019,
Six weeks later, Feinberg asked Conway what countries President Trump was suggesting that members of "The Squad" should return to during a media availability at the White House. She responded by demanding to know his ethnic background.[26]
Conway's retort was widely condemned, with CNN's Chris Cilizza calling the exchange "outrageous" and "unreal."[27] Feinberg later told CNN's Don Lemon that he had "no earthly clue what either her question or the answer [he] could have given to that question had to do with what the President said or to what country she was referring.”[28]
References
- ^ "» CV Writings on Internets by Andrew Feinberg". andrewfeinberg.com. Archived from the original on 2017-06-16. Retrieved 2017-05-14.
- ^ "Clark, Eight Badgers Take Part in Under-23 Rowing Selection Camp". University of Wisconsin. Retrieved 2017-05-14.
- ^ Brazell, Aaron (2008-07-08). "Congress Moves to Close Member Access to Social Media". Technosailor.com. Retrieved 2017-05-14.
- ^ "The Hill Gets a New Tech Reporter". Retrieved 2017-05-14.
- ^ a b c "My Life at a Russian Propaganda Network". POLITICO Magazine. Retrieved 2017-08-24.
- ^ "Russia's state news service applies for White House pass". POLITICO. Retrieved 2017-05-14.
- ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2017-06-07.
- ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2017-05-25.
- ^ Reporter blows the whistle on Putin's media ops - CNN Video, retrieved 2017-06-20
- ^ "Lawsuit alleges FOX created fake news story about Seth Rich". MSNBC. Retrieved 2017-08-29.
- ^ "Sputnik, the Russian news agency, is under investigation by the FBI". Retrieved 2017-09-23.
- ^ "American journalist who worked for Sputnik opens up about FBI questioning". Retrieved 2017-09-23.
- ^ "Questioning of ex-journalist by FBI sparks concern in Kremlin". TASS (in Russian). Retrieved 2017-09-23.
- ^ "Concerns over FBI investigation into Russian 'news' are overblown". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved 2017-09-23.
- ^ Feinberg, Andrew. "LinkedIn". LinkedIn. Retrieved 18 April 2023.
- ^ "About". broadbandbreakfast.com. Retrieved 2017-06-26.
- ^ "Masthead, Page 2". The Montgomery County Sentinel. January 18, 2018. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
- ^ Feinberg, Andrew [@AndrewFeinberg] (March 28, 2020). "Some professional news — if you enjoy my work at Breakfast Media or the Independent, you'll soon have even more to read. I'm happy to announce that starting Wednesday, I'll also be working with the good people at @Newsweek as a White House correspondent" (Tweet). Retrieved 5 April 2020 – via Twitter.
- ^ @andrewfeinberg (August 17, 2020). "I've worked for some screwed-up places in my life but Newsweek is the only one where an editor told me a top White House official was "off limits."" (Tweet). Retrieved 2020-08-19 – via Twitter.
- ^ "White House insiders say Trump knew Capitol riots would happen | Andrew Feinberg". The Independent. 2021-01-12. Retrieved 2021-04-08.
- ^ "TRIAL MEMORANDUM OF THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES IN THE IMPEACHMENT TRIAL OF PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP" (PDF). House Committee on the Judiciary. February 2, 2021. Retrieved April 8, 2021.
- ^ "Page S630 - Feb 10, 2021". www.congress.gov. Retrieved 2021-04-08.
- ^ "Prosecutors seeking Trump indictment on obstruction and Espionage Act charges". The Independent. 2023-06-08. Retrieved 2023-06-29.
- ^ "Kellyanne Conway Remarks to Reporters | C-SPAN.org". c-span.org. Retrieved 2019-06-20.
- ^ "Report of Prohibited Political Activity Under the Hatch Act, OSC File Nos. HA-19-0631 & HA-19-3395 (Kellyanne Conway)" (PDF). U.S. Office of Special Counsel. May 30, 2019. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 16, 2019. Retrieved June 20, 2019.
- ^ Wilstein, Matt (2019-07-16). "Kellyanne Conway Snaps Back at Reporter: 'What's Your Ethnicity?'". Retrieved 2019-09-12.
- ^ Cillizza, Chris (July 16, 2019). "Kellyanne Conway just said something that should stun you". CNN. Retrieved March 19, 2021.
- ^ "Andrew Feinberg responds to Kellyanne Conway's 'inappropriate question'". yahoo.com. Retrieved 2019-09-12.