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.

 

Media Blitz Continues As Obama Golfs 18 Holes With Tom Friedman Media Blitz Continues As Obama Golfs 18 Holes With Tom Friedman

After his big five television interviews on Sunday, President Obama carved out an even larger slice of time for one print journalist, hitting the links for 18 holes of golf with Ne...

Sep 20, 2009 / Ari Melber

Challenger to “You Lie” Congressman Cashes In After Speech Challenger to “You Lie” Congressman Cashes In After Speech

The words "you lie" will live in infamy for Joe Wilson, the overheated Republican Congressman who shouted at President Obama during his address to a joint session of Cong...

Sep 10, 2009 / Ari Melber

Obama Organizing Advisers Rap Healthcare Push Obama Organizing Advisers Rap Healthcare Push

Two former advisers to Barack Obama's presidential campaign, famed labor organizer Marshall Ganz and urban policy expert Peter Dreier, are now publicly criticizing Obama's healthca...

Aug 31, 2009 / Ari Melber

Holder To Appoint Partial Torture Prosecutor Holder To Appoint Partial Torture Prosecutor

President Obama wanted this to be a quiet news week. "I have specific instructions from the President for the press corps -- he wants you to relax and have a good time," ...

Aug 24, 2009 / Ari Melber

Bloggers Back Obama’s Agenda, Not His Strategy Bloggers Back Obama’s Agenda, Not His Strategy

The Netroots Nation conference pulls in big Democratic names and spawns arguments in unlikely places.

Aug 17, 2009 / Feature / Ari Melber

Breaking: Bill Clinton Heralds Blogs, Answers Heckler Breaking: Bill Clinton Heralds Blogs, Answers Heckler

Pittsburgh, PA 9:42pm 8/13/2009President Clinton just took the stage at Netroots Nation, opening with a joke about how many Republicans think President Obama was born in the Unite...

Aug 13, 2009 / Ari Melber

Obama Courts Disaster With New Detention Plan Obama Courts Disaster With New Detention Plan

The Obama administration is rushing towards a unilateral plan to imprison people without trial, according to a huge, new joint article from the Washington Post and ProPublica. The ...

Jun 26, 2009 / Ari Melber

Waste Behind Bars Waste Behind Bars

Will the recession bring the justice-system reforms that progressives have long supported?

Jun 25, 2009 / Feature / Ari Melber

Why Obama’s Iranian Citizen Question Really Matters Why Obama’s Iranian Citizen Question Really Matters

President Obama took a question from an Iranian citizen during his Tuesday press conference, via Huffington Post reporter Nico Pitney, marking a small step towards a more open and ...

Jun 24, 2009 / Ari Melber

Obama’s Transparency Problem Obama’s Transparency Problem

The president gets mixed grades on his promises of transparency: good to the public and the press, not so good to the other two branches.

Jun 18, 2009 / Ari Melber

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