Spencer Ackerman

Spencer Ackerman
Ackerman at Netroots Nation in July 2008[1]
Born (1980-06-01) June 1, 1980 (age 44)
New York City, U.S.
EducationRutgers University (BA)
OccupationJournalist
Years active2002-present
Known forNational security journalism
Notable workReign of Terror
Awards2012 National Magazine Award for Digital Media
2014 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service
Websiteforever-wars.com

Spencer Ackerman (born June 1, 1980) is an American journalist and writer. Focusing primarily on national security, he began his career at The New Republic in 2002 before writing for Wired, The Guardian, and The Daily Beast.

He won a 2012 National Magazine Award for reporting on biased FBI training materials and shared in a 2014 Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the 2013 global surveillance disclosures. His book Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump was named a best nonfiction book of 2021 by The New York Times, The Washington Post and Foreign Policy.

Early life and education

Born to a Jewish family on June 1, 1980, Ackerman grew up in a politically active household and started attending protests at age ten.[2][3][4] He graduated from the Bronx High School of Science in 1998 and Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey in 2002 with a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy.[5][6]

While writing for Rutgers' student newspaper, The Daily Targum, he earned a Certificate of Merit from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association in news writing for his coverage of the recount in Florida following the 2000 U.S. presidential election.[7] He also worked for the New York Press, a free alternative weekly.[3]

Career

After graduating from Rutgers, Ackerman moved to Washington, D.C. to join The New Republic where he covered national security.[8] In an interview with Columbia Journalism Review, Ackerman said witnessing the September 11 attacks influenced his decision to cover national security, which he viewed as the most important issue facing the nation at the time.[9] With colleague John Judis, he cowrote an article that led to the Plame affair.[10][11][12]

Initially a supporter of the invasion of Iraq, Ackerman became disillusioned and, beginning in January 2004, expressed opposition to the conflict in Iraq'd, a blog dedicated to covering post invasion developments in the country.[13][14] He worked at The New Republic (TNR) until 2006, when he started a blog titled Too Hot for TNR and was fired over what he described as irreconcilable ideological differences.[15][16] Editor Franklin Foer said he fired Ackerman for insubordination and disparaging the magazine on his blog.[17][18]

Ackerman next began writing for The American Prospect[19] as well as Talking Points Memo.[20] In a column for The Wall Street Journal, Marie Beaudette named Ackerman as part of a "blogging elite" in Washington, D.C.[21] Ackerman also contributed to the Washington Monthly on national security.[22]

The Washington Independent and Attackerman

In December 2007, Ackerman joined The Washington Independent as a senior fellow covering national security and foreign policy.[23][24] After ending publication of Too Hot for TNR in April 2008, he started a second national security blog, called Attackerman, at ThinkProgress.[25][26] In June 2008, Ackerman moved the blog to Firedoglake.[27][28]

In August 2009, Politico reported that Ackerman was one of numerous reporters profiled by the Rendon Group, a public relations firm hired by the Pentagon to vet journalists requesting embeds with U.S. forces in Iraq.[29] The requests were granted based on whether their coverage of the conflict portrayed the U.S. military in a positive light.[30][31] The revelations prompted the military to end their contract with the firm.[32]

Wired

Ackerman joined Wired magazine's Danger Room in June 2010, a national security blog.[33][34]

In July 2010, The Daily Caller reported on Ackerman's membership in JournoList, a private Google Groups forum for discussing politics and the news media created by Ezra Klein in February 2007.[35] Responding to the Jeremiah Wright controversy surrounding Barack Obama's presidential campaign, Ackerman said, "If the right forces us all to either defend Wright or tear him down, no matter what we choose, we lose the game they've put upon us. Instead, take one of them–Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares–and call them racists".[36][37] Ackerman was also quoted as saying, "find a right winger's [sic] and smash it through a plate-glass window. Take a snapshot of the bleeding mess and send it out in a Christmas card to let the right know that it needs to live in a state of constant fear. Obviously, I mean this rhetorically."[38]

Ackerman's comments were made while writing for The Washington Independent.[35] In a column for The Wall Street Journal, James Taranto criticized Ackerman for "privately strategizing about how to suppress the news."[36] Ackerman faced additional criticism from conservatives like Ed Morrissey, Daniel Foster, Matt Welch, and Andrew Sullivan.[39][40][41][42] Steve Krakauer of Mediaite and Jonathan Chait of The New Republic, however, questioned whether the forum represented a controversy[43][44] and Chait noted that conservative bloggers participate in similar forums.[45] A spokesperson for Wired defended Ackerman saying that the publication was aware of his political views.[38]

Due to his blog's affiliation with Firedoglake, Ackerman experienced difficulties obtaining permanent press credentials from the Congressional Press Gallery.[46][47] He left Firedoglake in December 2010 to host the Attackerman blog independently.[48] In 2011, he won the National Magazine Award for Digital Media for his series on exposing the use of Islamophobic material to train recruits in counterterrorism at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia.[49][50][51] After the revelations, at the mandate of the Obama administration, the FBI launched an investigation and turned to the U.S. Army's Combating Terrorism Center at West Point before eventually purging the materials.[52]

In a January 2012 column for Tablet magazine, Ackerman expressed disagreement with the use of the term "Israel Firster", writing, "if you can’t do it without sounding like Pat Buchanan, who has nothing but antipathy and contempt for Jews, then you’ve lost the debate."[53] Identifying himself as being part of the Jewish left, Ackerman noted the term was first used by far-right activist Willis Carto and neo-Nazi David Duke.[54] The Jerusalem Post editorial board and Commentary's then assistant editor, Alana Goodman came to Ackerman's defense.[55][56]

The Guardian

In 2007, Ackerman wrote a freelance opinion piece in the Comment is free column for British newspaper The Guardian, wherein he compared then U.S. president George W. Bush to the satirical character of Alan Patridge, played by British comedian Steve Coogan.[57] The article garnered the attention of British comedian and satirist Armando Iannucci, co-creator of the Alan Partridge character, who contacted Ackerman to work as a political consultant on his film In The Loop, which lampoons the British-U.S. special relationship during the Iraq War.[58] Ackerman provided input and observations regarding the accuracy of the U.S. characters to the sentiments and characterisation of staffers employed in at the time. More directly, a scene in which characters attend a show at the D.C. nightclub venue the Black Cat, was based on a The Gaslight Anthem show that Ackerman brought Iannucci to at the same venue.[59]

In June 2013, Ackerman joined The Guardian as a national security editor, initially at their Washington bureau before relocating back to New York.[60] During his onboarding process, Ackerman's job orientation functioned as cover for a briefing on the 2013 global surveillance disclosures, which the publication had just received from Edward Snowden.[61] He contributed to several stories on the NSA’s surveillance programs based on these leaks, leading to The Guardian winning the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.[62][63] Ackerman and colleagues also shared the Investigative Reporters and Editors medal for investigative journalisml[64] and the 2014 Scripps Howard Foundation Roy W. Howard Award for Public Service Reporting.[65]

Alongside his colleague Zach Stafford, Ackerman was a 2016 finalist for the Online News Association's Online Journalism Awards for their reporting on a previously little-known detention facility run by the Chicago Police known as Homan Square.[66] The investigation began when Ackerman profiled the U.S. military's employment of Richard Zuley, a Chicago Police investigator, to develop interrogation techniques on detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.[67] A source said that the Chicago Police operated a facility resembling a black site.[68] Ackerman uncovered the facility and revealed that interrogators engaged in beating, rape, excessive shackling, deprived arrestees access to counsel for extended periods, and turned attorneys away from the facility.[69][70]

Beginning in 2015, Ackerman attached a statement to his email signature, warning that unilateral declarations of anonymity from potential sources would not be honored.[71] In an interview with CNN's Brian Stelter on Reliable Sources, Ackerman explained that a reporter should only grant anonymity following a discussion with the source regarding the reasons for anonymity.[72]

The Daily Beast

Ackerman joined The Daily Beast as a senior national security correspondent in May 2017, reuniting with his former editor from Wired, Noah Shachtman.[73][74]

Forever Wars

In 2021, Ackerman stepped down at The Daily Beast[75] and launched Forever Wars, a Substack newsletter focused on international politics through a socialist lens, critiquing American militarism and exceptionalism.[76][77]

Reign of Terror

Main article: Reign of Terror (book)

Ackerman's book Reign of Terror, a history and critique of the War on Terror was published in August 2021. It was named a best nonfiction book of 2021 by The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Foreign Policy.[78][79][80]

Podcasts

In 2019, Ackerman co-hosted with Laura Hudson, the "Citadel Dropouts," a Wired podcast about the final season of Game of Thrones.[81]

Comics

In 2023, Ackerman and Evan Narcisse co-wrote "Waller vs. Wildstorm" a DC Black Label comic mini-series. In October 2024, he began writing the new volume of Iron Man for Marvel Comics.[82]

Awards

The Guardian

Wired

The Daily Targum

Works

  • Ackerman, Spencer (August 10, 2021), Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump, Viking, ISBN 9781984879776
  • Nance, Malcolm; Ackerman, Spencer (foreword) (October 10, 2016), The Plot to Hack America: How Putin's Cyberspies and WikiLeaks Tried to Steal the 2016 Election, Skyhorse Publishing, p. 216, ISBN 9781510723320

References

  1. ^ "Iraq in Strategic Context". The Austin Chronicle. July 11, 2008. Retrieved June 11, 2021. While the media focuses on "the surge," this panel takes a holistic look at Iraq in geopolitical terms for the Middle East, the U.S., and the world. Young turks of the blogosphere Matt Yglesias and Spencer Ackerman are joined by the National Security Network's Ilan Goldenberg and A.J. Rossmiller.
  2. ^ @attackerman (November 19, 2018). "I was born in 1980, so I technically count too..." (Tweet). Archived from the original on May 17, 2021 – via Twitter.
  3. ^ a b Lippman, Daniel (June 1, 2018). "BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Spencer Ackerman, national security reporter at the Daily Beast". Politico. Washington, D.C. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
  4. ^ Ackerman, Spencer (September 17, 2021). "Mainlining Fear and Hatred: An interview with Spencer Ackerman, author of Reign of Terror". Jewish Currents (Interview). Interviewed by David Klion. Retrieved November 4, 2021.
  5. ^ "Contributors". Shadowproof. Retrieved May 31, 2021. A Brooklyn native, he graduated from Rutgers University in 2002 with a BA in philosophy
  6. ^ Steve Scully and Spencer Ackerman (July 9, 2004). War on Terror (video). Washington, D.C.: C-SPAN. Event occurs at 27:10. Retrieved May 31, 2021. SCULLY:What did you study at Rutgers? ACKERMAN:I was a philosophy student at Rutgers.
  7. ^ a b "2002 - Awards For Student Work Gold Circle Awards - Collegiate Recipients". Columbia University in the City of New York. Columbia Scholastic Press Association. Retrieved May 31, 2021. CM. Spencer Ackerman, "Too Close To Call," The Daily Targum, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
  8. ^ Ackerman, Spencer (April 21, 2008). "INTERVIEW: Spencer Ackerman". Splice Today (Interview). Interviewed by Russ Smith. Retrieved November 4, 2021.
  9. ^ Ackerman, Spencer (August 10, 2009). "Q & A: Spencer Ackerman Part One". Columbia Journalism Review (Interview). Interviewed by Greg Marx. New York, New York. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
  10. ^ Wilson v. Libby, 535 F.3d 697, 702 (D.C. Cir. 2008) ("Another article was published on June 19, 2003, in The New Republic. Entitled "The First Casualty: The Selling of the Iraq War," the article alleged that the Vice President's office had prompted the former ambassador's trip to Niger and that, after the trip, administration officials `"knew the Niger story was a flat-out lie.'" Am. Compl. ¶ 19k (quoting Spencer Ackerman John B. Judis, The First Casualty: The Selling of the Iraq War, NEW REPUBLIC, June 30, 2003, at 14). Several news outlets carried the story on July 6, 2003.").
  11. ^ "Government's Response to the Court's Inquiry Regarding News Articles the Government Intends to Offer as Evidence at Trial" (PDF). U.S. Department of Justice. May 12, 2006. Retrieved November 4, 2021.
  12. ^ Kennedy, Daniel (October 28, 2005). "Libby's TNR testimonial". Media Nation. Retrieved November 4, 2021.
  13. ^ Smith, Jordan (August 22, 2010). "Will the liberal hawks fly again?". Salon. Retrieved November 4, 2021.
  14. ^ Ackerman, Spencer (September 17, 2021). "Mainlining Fear and Hatred: An interview with Spencer Ackerman, author of Reign of Terror". Jewish Currents (Interview). Interviewed by David Klion. Retrieved November 4, 2021. The more I poked into the details of the wars, the more fucked up they looked. Peter Beinart [ed. note: now Jewish Currents' editor-at-large] was the editor of TNR at the time, and the Iraq War was looking pretty bad to him as well. He thought it was important for a magazine that had done so much to advance the cause of war to have a consistent chronicle of what it was in practice, and that became my job, in the form of a blog called "Iraq'd" that I started in January 2004. By that point Iraq was totally on fire; I thought I would be writing about the uneven struggle of the Iraqi people to organize a viable democracy, and instead I was blogging about torture jails and sectarian civil war. I realized pretty quickly that I no longer held the ideological position the blog was launched from, and I felt compelled to say that. It was just obvious—though unfortunately it hadn't been to me earlier—that Iraq was not only a mistake but a moral emergency requiring immediate redress.
  15. ^ "Too Hot for TNR". October 31, 2006. Archived from the original on August 7, 2010. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
  16. ^ Ackerman, Spencer (October 20, 2006). "Ok, let's get this overwith". Too Hot for TNR. Archived from the original on June 19, 2019. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
  17. ^ Hendler, Clint. "How Spencer Ackerman got Too Hot for TNR". The New York Review of Magazines. Retrieved May 31, 2021. The New Republic has never been a particularly modest publication; in the mid 90s it claimed to be the "in-flight magazine of Air Force One." The Libby indictment gave rise to a new boast: "When The New Republic Makes History, Are You There?" Ackerman wouldn't be there much longer. Less than a year later, his boss Franklin Foer called and asked him to come in for a talk. Ackerman was working from home that day, maintaining the magazine's baseball playoffs blog and posting a bit on Too Hot for TNR, his personal blog which he had just set up that weekend. Ackerman says his relationship with Foer had begun to deteriorate eight months before, in March of 2006, when Foer, who was thirty-one at the time, was given the magazine's top job by Martin Peretz, TNR's then owner and editor-in-chief."As I was on the bus on the way down, I thought, 'This is it. I'm probably going to be fired.' I'd thought that before, but this felt different," says Ackerman. This was different. Foer sat Ackerman down and told him that his behavior—both in the office and on his blog—had been unacceptable. His career at the magazine was over.
  18. ^ Calderone, Michael (October 30, 2006). "Off the Record". The Observer. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
  19. ^ "Spencer Ackerman". The American Prospect. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
  20. ^ "Spencer Ackerman". TPMMuckracker. Talking Points Memo. Archived from the original on September 8, 2007. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
  21. ^ Beaudette, Marie (September 12, 2007). "D.C.'s New Young Blogging Elite". The Wall Street Journal. Washington, D.C. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
  22. ^ "Spencer Ackerman". Washington Monthly. October 2007. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
  23. ^ "Spencer Ackerman". The Washington Independent. Archived from the original on February 16, 2008. Retrieved September 12, 2021.
  24. ^ "Posts by Spencer Ackerman". The Washington Independent. Archived from the original on July 22, 2010. Retrieved September 12, 2021.
  25. ^ Yglesias, Matthew (April 14, 2008). "Meet the New Blog". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on April 23, 2008. Retrieved December 27, 2021.
  26. ^ "Attackerman". ThinkProgress. April 14, 2008. Archived from the original on April 15, 2008. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
  27. ^ Shakir, Faiz (June 24, 2008). "Attackerman is dead, long live Attackerman". Think Progress. Center for American Progress Action Fund. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
  28. ^ "Attackerman". June 25, 2008. Archived from the original on June 26, 2008. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
  29. ^ Calderone, Michael (August 30, 2009). "Pentagon ends profiling contract". Politico. Archived from the original on September 3, 2009. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
  30. ^ Reed, Charlie (August 24, 2009). "Journalists' recent work examined before embeds". Stars and Stripes. Archived from the original on September 2, 2009. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
  31. ^ Shane III, Leo (August 29, 2009). "Army used profiles to reject reporters". Stars and Stripes. Washington, D.C. Archived from the original on September 2, 2009. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
  32. ^ Baron, Kevin (August 31, 2019). "Military terminates Rendon contract". Stars and Stripes. Arlington, Virginia. Archived from the original on September 2, 2009. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
  33. ^ Aaron, Weiner (June 23, 2010). "A Bittersweet Farewell to a TWI Icon, Spencer Ackerman". Washington Independent. Archived from the original on June 26, 2010. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
  34. ^ Marx, Greg (June 23, 2010). "Spencer Ackerman to Join Wired's Danger Room". Washington Independent. Archived from the original on June 25, 2010. Retrieved December 26, 2021.
  35. ^ a b Jonsson, Patrick (July 20, 2010). "JournoList: Is 'call them racists' a liberal media tactic". The Christian Science Monitor. Archived from the original on July 24, 2010. Retrieved June 8, 2021.
  36. ^ a b Taranto, James (July 20, 2010). "'Call Them Racists'". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on February 19, 2015. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
  37. ^ Kuypers, Jim. A (2013). Partisan Journalism: A History of Media Bias in the United States. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 256–257. ISBN 9781442225947.
  38. ^ a b Hagey, Keach (July 20, 2010). "Unlike Weigel, Ackerman keeps job". Politico. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
  39. ^ Morrissey, Ed (July 20, 2010). "Daily Caller discovers Journolist plot to spike Wright story, smear conservatives as racists". Hot Air. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
  40. ^ Foster, Daniel (July 20, 2010). "JournoList, Round Two". National Review. Archived from the original on February 3, 2012. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
  41. ^ Welch, Matt (July 20, 2010). "Leaks Show JournoList Members Plotting to Push Back Against Rev. Wright Stories, Accuse Random Republicans of Being Racist". Reason. Archived from the original on July 19, 2019. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
  42. ^ Sullivan, Andrew (July 20, 2010). "The Corruption Of Journo-list". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on October 26, 2013. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
  43. ^ Krakauer, Steve (July 20, 2010). "Journolist is Back: Attempted Coordination To Downplay Jeremiah Wright Story". Mediaite. Archived from the original on July 23, 2010. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
  44. ^ Chait, Jonathan (July 20, 2010). "The Journolist Conspiracy Continues". The New Republic. Archived from the original on June 2, 2021. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
  45. ^ Chait, Jonathan (July 21, 2010). "Reply To Andrew Sullivan". The New Republic. Archived from the original on June 2, 2021. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
  46. ^ Weinstein, Adam (January 4, 2011). "National Security, Punk Rock Get a New Home". Mother Jones. Archived from the original on March 1, 2011. Retrieved December 27, 2021.
  47. ^ Ackerman, Spencer (December 29, 2010). "A Bittersweet Goodbye Post". Attackerman. Firedoglake. Archived from the original on December 31, 2010. Retrieved May 31, 2021. My departure is pretty mundane: the congressional press galleries are wary of giving me permanent credentials while I'm affiliated here, and I don't want to impede any of my reporting responsibilities at my day job with Wired's Danger Room.
  48. ^ Serwer, Adam (January 13, 2011). "Programming Note". The American Prospect. Archived from the original on January 14, 2011. Retrieved December 27, 2021.
  49. ^ a b "National Magazine Awards for Digital Media 2012 Winners Announced". American Society of Magazine Editors. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
  50. ^ Faiza, Patel; Goitein, Elizabeth (April 17, 2012). "Hearing on "Ending Racial Profiling in America"" (PDF). Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law. Retrieved November 4, 2021.
  51. ^ Ackerman, Spencer (September 14, 2011). "FBI Teaches Agents: 'Mainstream' Muslims Are 'Violent, Radical'". Wired. Washington, D.C. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
  52. ^ Şekerci, Kristin Garrity (December 14, 2017). "Does Islamophobia Impact the Underreporting of FBI Hate Crime Data?". Bridge. Georgetown University. Retrieved November 4, 2021. In addition to systemic undertraining with regards to hate crime laws, anti-Muslim law enforcement workshops, speakers and training materials have long been an issue in the U.S. In particular, the groundbreaking story in 2011 by Spencer Ackerman in Wired revealed a systemic anti-Muslim bias in "counterterrorism" training within the U.S. government. The Obama Administration cited Ackerman's report in a memorandum that mandated a federal agency-wide review of all "government counterterrorism training materials." The review resulted in the purge of countless documents and training materials that contained anti-Muslim bias.
  53. ^ Ackerman, Spencer (January 27, 2012). "Sounding Off". Tablet. Retrieved May 31, 2021. But if you can't do it without sounding like Pat Buchanan, who has nothing but antipathy and contempt for Jews, then you've lost the debate.
  54. ^ Ackerman, Spencer (January 27, 2012). "Sounding Off". Tablet. Retrieved May 31, 2021. "Israel Firster" has a nasty anti-Semitic pedigree, one that many Jews will intuitively understand without knowing its specific history. It turns out white supremacist Willis Carto was reportedly the first to use it, and David Duke popularized it through his propaganda network...Throughout my career, I've been associated with the Jewish left—I was to the left of the New Republic staff when I worked there, moved on to Talking Points Memo, hosted my blog at Firedoglake for years, and so on. I've criticized the American Jewish right's myopic, destructive, tribal conception of what it means to love Israel.
  55. ^ "Debunking the 'Israel-firster' slur". The Jerusalem Post. January 30, 2012. Retrieved May 31, 2021. On the Jewish website Tablet, left-wing journalist Spencer Ackerman, who said he has criticized the American Jewish Right's "myopic, destructive, tribal conception of what it means to love Israel," nevertheless admits that by using the term "Israel-firster" one loses the debate by revealing one's "antipathy and contempt for Jews." More profoundly, Ackerman pointed out that many on the Left who are fond of the "Israel-firster" smear and categorically deny its anti-Semitic undertone are "very good at hearing and analyzing dog-whistles when they're used to dehumanize Arabs and Muslims."
  56. ^ Goodman, Alana (January 27, 2012). "Spencer Ackerman: Progressives Need to Reject "Israel-Firster" Comments". Commentary. Retrieved May 31, 2021. Spencer's column is important because it draws a line on the left between acceptable discourse – which includes plenty of discourse that may be stupid or inaccurate – and vulgar anti-Semitic fallacies that should be repudiated by all respectable progressive thinkers and writers. Every once in awhile, these lines need to be drawn.
  57. ^ Ackerman, Spencer (February 26, 2007). "Bush is Alan Partridge". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved December 3, 2024.
  58. ^ Ackerman, Spencer (July 23, 2009). "How to succeed in Hollywood without really trying". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved December 3, 2024.
  59. ^ "In the Loop (w/ Spencer Ackerman) (2009) | Ep. 6". www.bangbangpod.com. December 2, 2024. Retrieved December 3, 2024.
  60. ^ Kolker, Gennady (May 8, 2013). "Spencer Ackerman joins the Guardian as National Security Editor". The Guardian (Press release). New York, New York.
  61. ^ Dan O'Mahony (October 11, 2020). "Spencer Ackerman". Dan O Says So (Podcast). Anchor. Event occurs at 24:56. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
  62. ^ a b "The Guardian US". The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
  63. ^ Pilkington, Ed (April 14, 2014). "Guardian and Washington Post win Pulitzer prize for NSA revelations". The Guardian. Retrieved June 26, 2017. Others on the team of journalists included Spencer Ackerman, James Ball, David Blishen, Gabriel Dance, Julian Borger, Nick Davies, David Leigh and Dominic Rushe. In Australia the editor was Katharine Viner and the reporter Lenore Taylor.
  64. ^ a b "The IRE Journal" (PDF). Investigative Reporters and Editors. Missouri School of Journalism. Spring 2014. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
  65. ^ a b Micheli, Carolyn (March 20, 2014). "Scripps Howard Awards Honor Best Journalism in the Nation in 2013" (Press release). Cincinnati, Ohio: Scripps Howard Foundation. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
  66. ^ "Homan Square". Online Journalism Awards. Online News Association. Retrieved November 5, 2021.
  67. ^ Levender, George (February 18, 2015). "From Chicago's North Side to Guantánamo: Former Detective Accused of Torture". In These Times. Retrieved November 5, 2021.
  68. ^ Ackerman, Spencer (February 26, 2015). "A Black Site in Chicago? Police Accused of Running Secret Compound for Detentions & Interrogations" (Interview). Interviewed by Amy Goodman and Nermeen Shaikh. New York, New York: Democracy Now!. Retrieved May 31, 2021. And as I was discussing this with a Chicago police reform activist, in the course of that conversation, that guy, Tracy Siska of the Chicago Justice Project, mentioned to me that institutional problems with Chicago policing ran so deep that Chicago even operates its own form of a black site. And I was just like, "What? That can't be right. That doesn't happen in the United States. That's nuts."
  69. ^ Basu, Tanya (February 24, 2015). "Behind 'the Disappeared' of Chicago's Homan Square". The Atlantic. Retrieved November 5, 2021.
  70. ^ McKay, Tom (February 25, 2015). "Chicago Police Warehouse Used "Extraordinary Rendition" on American Citizens". Mic. Retrieved November 5, 2021.
  71. ^ @attackerman (June 3, 2015). "Many people have driven me to this, and they know who they are. My new email signature file" (Tweet). Archived from the original on February 18, 2021 – via Twitter.
  72. ^ Ackerman, Spencer (June 6, 2015). "Reporter's war on off-the-record comments". Reliable Sources (Interview). Interviewed by Brian Stelter. CNN. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
  73. ^ Stelter, Brian (May 7, 2017). "Spencer Ackerman joining The Daily Beast". cnn.com. Reliable Sources. Retrieved June 1, 2017. Spencer Ackerman, who turned heads when he left Guardian US last week, is moving over to The Daily Beast. He'll be senior national security correspondent for the news organization... covering homeland security, counterterrorism, intel and more... and reuniting with his former colleague Noah Shachtman, who's now the Beast's exec editor. Ackerman says via email: 'The Daily Beast is the place to do the kind of journalism that matters most right now ...'
  74. ^ Pompeo, Joe (May 9, 2017). "Now we know who Spencer Ackerman left The Guardian for". Politico. Retrieved June 1, 2017. The Daily Beast as a senior national security correspondent, 'covering homeland security, counterterrorism, intel and more... and reuniting with his former colleague Noah Shachtman, who's now the Beast's exec editor,' CNN's Brian Stelter reported last night
  75. ^ @attackerman (April 30, 2021). "Getting this out of the way: today was my last day on staff at @thedailybeast. You'll still see me write there - I just filed a piece that will run Monday - but I'm going to be doing some other things I'll announce soon, both journalistic and otherwise" (Tweet). Archived from the original on April 30, 2021 – via Twitter.
  76. ^ Klein, Charlotte (July 20, 2021). ""The Forever War Doesn't End With Afghanistan": Joining The Substack Parade, Spencer Ackerman Wants To Reimagine National Security Coverage". Vanity Fair. Retrieved November 5, 2021.
  77. ^ Ackerman, Spencer. "Welcome to Forever Wars, a journalistic experiment". Forever Wars. Substack. Retrieved April 4, 2022.
  78. ^ "50 notable works of nonfiction". The Washington Post. November 18, 2021. Retrieved April 4, 2022.
  79. ^ "The Best Books We Read in 2021". Foreign Policy. The Slate Group. November 26, 2021. Retrieved April 4, 2022.
  80. ^ "Times Critics' Top Books of 2021". The New York Times. December 15, 2021. Retrieved August 16, 2022.
  81. ^ "Podcast: Citadel Dropouts". The Daily Beast. August 7, 2017. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
  82. ^ "Iron Man Enters a New, Brutal Era". Marvel. July 17, 2024. Retrieved July 17, 2024.