Jennifer Rubin (journalist)
Encyclopedia
Jennifer Rubin is an American columnist
and a blogger
for the Washington Post
. Previously she worked at Commentary Magazine, the Pajamas Media
, Human Events
, and the Weekly Standard. She also published at Politico
, New York Post
, New York Daily News
, National Review
, the Jerusalem Post, and a variety of other media publications.
suburbs of Philadelphia, and moved with her family as a child to California
in 1968. She attended college and law school at the University of California, Berkeley
. Before moving into journalism
, Rubin was a labor and employment lawyer in Los Angeles
, working for Hollywood studios, for 20 years. In 2005, she moved to Northern Virginia
with her husband (who is an accountant) and two children. She offered a story to the Weekly Standard about Mitt Romney, and continued doing freelance work for two years before joining Commentary Magazine.
Rubin's move to the Washington Post in November 2010 became a national news story and was discussed by the media on all sides of the political spectrum, ranging from The American Conservative
and the Weekly Standard, to Salon Magazine and the Slate magazine.
called Rubin "one of the right’s most prolific online political writers". The Commentary editor John Podhoretz
, who is the half-brother of Rubin, writes that Rubin "labored daily from her home in suburban Virginia
[...] never missing a news story, never missing an op-ed column
, reading everything and digesting everything and commenting on everything. She is a phenomenon, especially considering that for the first two decades of her working life, she was not a writer or a journalist but a lawyer specializing in labor issues [..]". In welcoming remarks, The Washington Post editorial page editor Fred Hiatt
writes that "her provocative writing has become 'must read' material for news and policy makers and avid political watchers."
Rubin's political views are widely characterized as conservative and neoconservative
. She was also called a supporter of Tea Party movement
. She has opposed Barack Obama
on multiple occasions, calling him “the most anti-Israel U.S. president (ever),” and writing that “Obama isn’t moderate, doesn’t like the free market
, and isn’t interested in waging a robust war on Islamic fundamentalists
.” Rubin consistently supports the Likud
government and other conservative factions in Israel, and has been a harsh critic of Hamas
and of the PLO leadership.
In January 2010, Rubin authored an article for Commentary Magazine asking "Why Jews Hate Sarah Palin". The article garnered criticism that it was anti-Semitic, allegedly trafficking in anti-Jewish stereotypes such as that Jews are elitist and contemptuous of the working class.
After joining the Washington Post, Rubin drew criticism in the wake of the 2011 Norway attacks
after she published a blog post suggesting incorrectly that the attacks were carried out by Islamic jihadists. In a follow-up column, Rubin acknowledged that her decision to blame Muslim extremists for the Norway attacks was premature, but she did not apologize for her remarks nor did she condemn the right-wing anti-Muslim ideology that motivated the attacker, Anders Behring Breivik
. Jeffrey Goldberg
, a writer who holds similar views as Rubin regarding Israel and Islam, defended Rubin's initial article that falsely accused Muslims of perpetrating the attack.
Rubin used her blog to accuse the Occupy Wall Street
movement of antisemitism. In her blog posts Rubin promoted a video by the Emergency Committee for Israel
that purported to show antisemitism at the Occupy Wall Street protest. Critics of Rubin have blasted her portrayal of the protest movement as inaccurate, noting that the large number of Jews affiliated with the movement, the confrontations between OWS protestors and antisemites, and the financial ties between the Emergency Committee for Israel and Wall Street firms. Others have noted that Rubin's primary example of what she calls "antisemitism" is actually a mentally unstable homeless man unaffiliated with the OWS movement who has been wandering the lower Manhattan financial district for years.
In Oct 2011, Rubin again drew condemnation for tweeting a blog post by Rachel Decter Abrams (wife of neoconservative policy analyst Elliot Abrams) which some have interpreted as a call for genocide
against the Palestinian people
. Liberal Jewish advocacy group J Street
described the blog post as an "unhinged rant filled with incitement and hate speech". Beirut english newspaper Al-Akhbar ran a story by Max Blumenthal
headlined "Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin promotes call for Palestinian genocide" whereas Media Matters Senior Foreign Policy Fellow MJ Rosenberg argued that Rubin's support for such a position should disqualify her from writing for the Washington Post.
Columnist
A columnist is a journalist who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs....
and a blogger
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
for the Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
. Previously she worked at Commentary Magazine, the Pajamas Media
Pajamas Media
PJ Media is a media company that uses the Internet to present and comment on the news.Founded in 2004 by a network primarily, but not exclusively, made up of conservatives and libertarians led by mystery writer, screenwriter, and blogger Roger L...
, Human Events
Human Events
Human Events is a weekly American conservative magazine. It takes its name from the first sentence of the United States Declaration of Independence...
, and the Weekly Standard. She also published at Politico
Politico (newspaper)
The Politico is an American political journalism organization based in Arlington, Virginia, that distributes its content via television, the Internet, newspaper, and radio. Its coverage of Washington, D.C., includes the U.S. Congress, lobbying, media and the Presidency...
, New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
, New York Daily News
New York Daily News
The Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011....
, National Review
National Review
National Review is a biweekly magazine founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr., in 1955 and based in New York City. It describes itself as "America's most widely read and influential magazine and web site for conservative news, commentary, and opinion."Although the print version of the...
, the Jerusalem Post, and a variety of other media publications.
Early career
Rubin was born in the New JerseyNew Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
suburbs of Philadelphia, and moved with her family as a child to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
in 1968. She attended college and law school at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
. Before moving into journalism
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
, Rubin was a labor and employment lawyer in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, working for Hollywood studios, for 20 years. In 2005, she moved to Northern Virginia
Northern Virginia
Northern Virginia consists of several counties and independent cities in the Commonwealth of Virginia, in a widespread region generally radiating southerly and westward from Washington, D.C...
with her husband (who is an accountant) and two children. She offered a story to the Weekly Standard about Mitt Romney, and continued doing freelance work for two years before joining Commentary Magazine.
Rubin's move to the Washington Post in November 2010 became a national news story and was discussed by the media on all sides of the political spectrum, ranging from The American Conservative
The American Conservative
The American Conservative is a monthly U.S. opinion magazine published by Ron Unz. Its first editor was Scott McConnell, his successors being Kara Hopkins and the present incumbent, Daniel McCarthy....
and the Weekly Standard, to Salon Magazine and the Slate magazine.
Political views
Slate blogger David WeigelDavid Weigel
David "Dave" Weigel , is an American journalist, currently working for Slate magazine and MSNBC. Weigel began appearing on MSNBC in 2009, accepting a position as a paid contributor in June 2010...
called Rubin "one of the right’s most prolific online political writers". The Commentary editor John Podhoretz
John Podhoretz
John Podhoretz is an American neoconservative columnist for the New York Post, the editor of Commentary magazine, the author of several books on politics, and a former presidential speechwriter.-Life and career:...
, who is the half-brother of Rubin, writes that Rubin "labored daily from her home in suburban Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
[...] never missing a news story, never missing an op-ed column
Op-ed
An op-ed, abbreviated from opposite the editorial page , is a newspaper article that expresses the opinions of a named writer who is usually unaffiliated with the newspaper's editorial board...
, reading everything and digesting everything and commenting on everything. She is a phenomenon, especially considering that for the first two decades of her working life, she was not a writer or a journalist but a lawyer specializing in labor issues [..]". In welcoming remarks, The Washington Post editorial page editor Fred Hiatt
Fred Hiatt
Frederick Samuel "Fred" Hiatt is the editorial page editor of The Washington Post. He also writes editorials for the page, as well as a biweekly column that appears on Mondays.-Early life and family:Hiatt was born in Washington, DC...
writes that "her provocative writing has become 'must read' material for news and policy makers and avid political watchers."
Rubin's political views are widely characterized as conservative and neoconservative
Neoconservatism
Neoconservatism in the United States is a branch of American conservatism. Since 2001, neoconservatism has been associated with democracy promotion, that is with assisting movements for democracy, in some cases by economic sanctions or military action....
. She was also called a supporter of Tea Party movement
Tea Party movement
The Tea Party movement is an American populist political movement that is generally recognized as conservative and libertarian, and has sponsored protests and supported political candidates since 2009...
. She has opposed Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
on multiple occasions, calling him “the most anti-Israel U.S. president (ever),” and writing that “Obama isn’t moderate, doesn’t like the free market
Free market
A free market is a competitive market where prices are determined by supply and demand. However, the term is also commonly used for markets in which economic intervention and regulation by the state is limited to tax collection, and enforcement of private ownership and contracts...
, and isn’t interested in waging a robust war on Islamic fundamentalists
Islamic fundamentalism
Islamic fundamentalism is a term used to describe religious ideologies seen as advocating a return to the "fundamentals" of Islam: the Quran and the Sunnah. Definitions of the term vary. According to Christine L...
.” Rubin consistently supports the Likud
Likud
Likud is the major center-right political party in Israel. It was founded in 1973 by Menachem Begin in an alliance with several right-wing and liberal parties. Likud's victory in the 1977 elections was a major turning point in the country's political history, marking the first time the left had...
government and other conservative factions in Israel, and has been a harsh critic of Hamas
Hamas
Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...
and of the PLO leadership.
In January 2010, Rubin authored an article for Commentary Magazine asking "Why Jews Hate Sarah Palin". The article garnered criticism that it was anti-Semitic, allegedly trafficking in anti-Jewish stereotypes such as that Jews are elitist and contemptuous of the working class.
After joining the Washington Post, Rubin drew criticism in the wake of the 2011 Norway attacks
2011 Norway attacks
The 2011 Norway attacks were two sequential terrorist attacks against the government, the civilian population and a summer camp in Norway on 22 July 2011....
after she published a blog post suggesting incorrectly that the attacks were carried out by Islamic jihadists. In a follow-up column, Rubin acknowledged that her decision to blame Muslim extremists for the Norway attacks was premature, but she did not apologize for her remarks nor did she condemn the right-wing anti-Muslim ideology that motivated the attacker, Anders Behring Breivik
Anders Behring Breivik
Anders Behring Breivik is a Norwegian terrorist, paranoid schizophrenic and the confessed perpetrator of the Norway attacks on 22 July 2011: the bombing of government buildings in Oslo that resulted in eight deaths, and the mass shooting at a camp of the Workers' Youth League of the Labour Party...
. Jeffrey Goldberg
Jeffrey Goldberg
Jeffrey Mark Goldberg is an American journalist. He is an author and a staff writer for The Atlantic, having previously worked for The New Yorker. Goldberg writes principally on foreign affairs, with a focus on the Middle East and Africa...
, a writer who holds similar views as Rubin regarding Israel and Islam, defended Rubin's initial article that falsely accused Muslims of perpetrating the attack.
Rubin used her blog to accuse the Occupy Wall Street
Occupy Wall Street
Occupy Wall Street is an ongoing series of demonstrations initiated by the Canadian activist group Adbusters which began September 17, 2011 in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Wall Street financial district...
movement of antisemitism. In her blog posts Rubin promoted a video by the Emergency Committee for Israel
Emergency Committee for Israel
The Emergency Committee for Israel's Leadership is a right-wing 501 political advocacy organization in the United States. The group’s board members include Weekly Standard editor William Kristol and former Republican presidential candidate Gary Bauer, Republican Virginia congressman Scott Rigell,...
that purported to show antisemitism at the Occupy Wall Street protest. Critics of Rubin have blasted her portrayal of the protest movement as inaccurate, noting that the large number of Jews affiliated with the movement, the confrontations between OWS protestors and antisemites, and the financial ties between the Emergency Committee for Israel and Wall Street firms. Others have noted that Rubin's primary example of what she calls "antisemitism" is actually a mentally unstable homeless man unaffiliated with the OWS movement who has been wandering the lower Manhattan financial district for years.
In Oct 2011, Rubin again drew condemnation for tweeting a blog post by Rachel Decter Abrams (wife of neoconservative policy analyst Elliot Abrams) which some have interpreted as a call for genocide
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
against the Palestinian people
Palestinian people
The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...
. Liberal Jewish advocacy group J Street
J Street
J Street is a nonprofit liberal advocacy group based in the United States whose stated aim is to promote American leadership to end the Arab-Israeli and Israel-Palestinian conflicts peacefully and diplomatically. It was founded in April 2008....
described the blog post as an "unhinged rant filled with incitement and hate speech". Beirut english newspaper Al-Akhbar ran a story by Max Blumenthal
Max Blumenthal
Max Blumenthal is an American author, journalist, and blogger. A senior writer for The Daily Beast, he is the author of the New York Times bestselling book Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party....
headlined "Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin promotes call for Palestinian genocide" whereas Media Matters Senior Foreign Policy Fellow MJ Rosenberg argued that Rubin's support for such a position should disqualify her from writing for the Washington Post.
External links
- Jennifer Rubin: Right Turn (Washington Post)
- Jennifer Rubin: Weekly Standard articles
- Jennifer Rubin: Human Events columns
- Glenn GreenwaldGlenn GreenwaldGlenn Greenwald is an American lawyer, columnist, blogger, and author. Greenwald worked as a constitutional and civil rights litigator before becoming a contributor to Salon.com, where he focuses on political and legal topics...
: Why the Washington Post won’t fire Jennifer Rubin (Salon.comSalon.comSalon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
, 12 November 2011)