Ari Melber

@arimelber

Ari Melber is The Nation's Net movement correspondent, covering politics, law, public policy and new media, and a regular contributor to the magazine's blog. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and a J.D. from Cornell Law School, where he was an editor of the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy.

Contact Ari: on Facebook, on Twitter, and at [email protected].

Melber is also an attorney, a columnist for Politico and a contributing editor at techPresident, a nonpartisan website covering technology’s impact on democracy. During the 2008 general election, he traveled with the Obama Campaign on special assignment for The Washington Independent.

He previously served as a Legislative Aide in the US Senate and as a national staff member of the 2004 John Kerry Presidential Campaign.

As a commentator on public affairs, Melber frequently speaks on national television and radio, including including appearances on NBC, CNBC, CNN, CNN Headline News, C-SPAN, MSNBC, Bloomberg News, FOX News, and NPR, on programs such as “The Today Show,” “American Morning,” “Washington Journal,” “Power Lunch,” "The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell," "The Joy Behar Show," “The Dylan Ratigan Show,” and “The Daily Rundown,” among others. Melber has also been a featured speaker at Harvard, Oxford, Yale, Columbia, NYU, The Center for American Progress and many other institutions. He has contributed chapters or essays to the books “America Now,” (St. Martins, 2009), “At Issue: Affirmative Action,” (Cengage, 2009), and “MoveOn’s 50 Ways to Love Your Country,” (Inner Ocean Publishing, 2004).  His reporting  has been cited by a wide range of news organizations, academic journals and nonfiction books, including the The Washington Post, The New York Times, ABC News, NBC News, CNN, FOX News, National Review Online, The New England Journal of Medicine and Boston University Law Review.  He is a member of the American Constitution Society, he serves on the advisory board of the Roosevelt Institute and lives in Manhattan.

 

How Many Experts Declared Public Option Dead? How Many Experts Declared Public Option Dead?

As the Senate moves towards including some form of public option in health care reform, it is worth remembering all the Washington "experts" who already declared the publ...

Oct 27, 2009 / Ari Melber

Backing Obama, MoveOn Urges Congressional Dems to Join Fox Fight Backing Obama, MoveOn Urges Congressional Dems to Join Fox Fight

MoveOn.org jumped into the battle between Fox News and the Obama White House on Tuesday, urging its 5 million members to call on Congressional Democrats to stay off the network for...

Oct 20, 2009 / Ari Melber

Caught On Tape: Obama Adviser Explains How To Control Media Caught On Tape: Obama Adviser Explains How To Control Media

White House Communications Director Anita Dunn made headlines last week for calling out Fox News, now she's drawing attention for comments she made about how the Obama campaign man...

Oct 19, 2009 / Ari Melber

Maddow Responds to Bush Sr. – And 9 of 10 Republicans Fear Her Maddow Responds to Bush Sr. – And 9 of 10 Republicans Fear Her

Rachel Maddow invites Republican officials to appear on her show "every day," the popular MSNBC anchor said Saturday, but only about one out of ten take up her offer. Th...

Oct 17, 2009 / Ari Melber

AP Asks If Obama Is ‘Obnoxiously Articulate’ AP Asks If Obama Is ‘Obnoxiously Articulate’

Political reporters have now toggled from worrying that Obama gets "too much" media coverage to asking whether he is "too" good at communicating through the med...

Oct 15, 2009 / Ari Melber

Progressives, Bloggers Make GQ’s New Washington Power List Progressives, Bloggers Make GQ’s New Washington Power List

GQ released its much anticipated "Power 50" list on Tuesday, the first compendium of Washington's most influential players in the Obama era, with a PR blitz and a glitzy ...

Oct 13, 2009 / Ari Melber

New White House Line Against Fox: It’s War New White House Line Against Fox: It’s War

The White House's battle with Fox News reached a new high on Sunday, when Communications Director Anita Dunn went on national television to blast Fox as a partisan organization tha...

Oct 12, 2009 / Ari Melber

When Pundits Attack: The Beck-Brooks Fight When Pundits Attack: The Beck-Brooks Fight

Perhaps we still do not understand the current Obama backlash. David Brooks caused a small stir on Friday by arguing that conservative radio hosts are, paradoxically, a lot like w...

Oct 5, 2009 / Ari Melber

Ricky Martin Fights Human Trafficking at Clinton Summit Ricky Martin Fights Human Trafficking at Clinton Summit

New York, NY – When Ricky Martin took the stage at the Clinton Global Initiative on Thursday, he did not sing, or dance, or even flash his trademark grin. Following the same...

Sep 24, 2009 / Ari Melber

Bill O’Reilly Raps: NYT Discovers Talk Radio-Hip Hop Nexus Bill O’Reilly Raps: NYT Discovers Talk Radio-Hip Hop Nexus

Just as hot trends meet their death when discovered by The Times Style Section - see Trucker Hats - emerging cultural themes usually go mainstream after a close-up in the paper's W...

Sep 22, 2009 / Ari Melber

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