Mediaite’s Most Influential in News Media 2021
25. Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza, and Tara Palmeri of Politico Playbook
Photo by Tony Powell
Playbook’s 2021 got off to a rocky start. After the departures of Anna Palmer and Jake Sherman, the preferred newsletter of Beltway bigwigs hosted a rotating cast of high-profile guest authors. One of those was conservative fire-breather Ben Shapiro, whose selection caused an uproar among some Politico staffers. Politico defended the experiment, and soon put all complaints to bed when it launched Playbook under new stewardship. Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza, and Tara Palmeri — four of the hungriest and most plugged-in reporters in Washington — settled in as Politico’s arbiters of what’s “driving the day” among Washington insiders, while also serving up helpings of D.C. gossip. “Good and effective journalism means you’re going to piss off the right sometimes, it means you’re going to piss off the left sometimes,” Bade told Mediaite in May. “I take it as a metric of success that we’re driving the conversation.” Another metric for success? Playbook remains a cash cow for Politico, which was acquired by Axel Springer in 2021, reportedly for about $1 billion.
24. Scott Gottlieb
Scott Gottlieb, who served as FDA chief under former President Donald Trump until 2019 and now serves on the board of Pfizer, established himself as one of the most valuable experts to follow on the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021. Gottlieb’s regular appearances on the CBS Sunday show Face the Nation, as well as CNBC’s Squawk Box, were refreshing in their honesty and sharp analysis. Unlike many in the Covid pundit class, Gottlieb did not shy away from challenging orthodoxy. He also called out both sides of the aisle, blaming his former boss for politicizing Covid while blaming the Biden administration for its mixed messaging surrounding the pandemic. All the while, Gottlieb has been a strong — but measured and honest — advocate for the vaccine. It’s no surprise that Gottlieb’s new book — Uncontrolled Spread: Why COVID-19 Crushed Us and How We Can Defeat the Next Pandemic — landed on the New York Times bestseller list.
23. Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski
Do you want a quick update on the conventional wisdom of the chattering class? A somewhat balanced offering of political analysis? One that regularly includes rants tackling idiots in power? MSNBC’s long-running morning show, hosted by Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, is for you. Because Scarborough is a former Republican congressman and maintains real friendships with people across the political spectrum, his exhortations lambasting the new, Trumpian Republican party may resonate more than almost anyone else on a cable news opinion show. And Brzezinski plays an invaluable role in keeping the show moving through the clatter of well-caffeinated pundits. Yes, Morning Joe has tended to fall into predictable patterns in the last few years. And the tendency of its hosts to broadcast the show from wherever they please reflects a malaise that may hurt the show’s quality. But impossibly, Morning Joe is in its 14th year of production, and is every bit as influential today — maybe even more so — than it was in 2007. And that is entirely due to Joe and Mika, who are just really good at what they do.
22. David Muir
ABC/Heidi Gutman
David Muir is the lead anchor and managing editor of ABC’s World News Tonight — which happens to be by far the most-watched news show on television. The numbers are staggering: Muir averaged almost 8 million viewers last season, 1.47 million of which were in the younger demographic. For all the crowing about Tucker Carlson’s ratings, Muir draws nearly three times more. Muir has been one of the most-visible anchors in the national news arena for almost a decade. In addition to anchoring the nightly news, he also co-hosts ABC’s 20/20 with Amy Robach. In 2021, Muir took over for George Stephanopoulos as ABC’s lead anchor on breaking news and major events coverage. He has won multiple Emmy awards for special programming and Edward R. Murrow awards for his international news coverage, awards you can expect to keep piling up as Muir extends his reach.
21. Rashida Jones, Noah Oppenheim and Cesar Conde
Rashida Jones and Cesar Conde/Getty Images
Rashida Jones, the newly-minted president of MSNBC, Noah Oppenheim, the president of NBC News, and Cesar Conde, the chairman of NBCUniversal (that’s NBC News, CNBC, and MSNBC), together have successfully shepherded three of the biggest media outlets in the country through a tumultuous post-Trump media landscape. The success is in the numbers: NBC News continues to draw impressive ratings and massive online traffic. MSNBC beat Fox News in January, a rare feat, and while Fox has returned to ratings dominance, MSNBC still places second, usually well ahead of CNN.
Oppenheim has led the mammoth news operation at NBC since 2017, after finding success overseeing Today. Both Jones and Conde are relatively new to their jobs, and are certainly trailblazers. Conde is the first Hispanic person to lead a major English TV news organization. When Jones ascended to the top job at MSNBC in February, taking the reins from Phil Griffin, she became the highest-ranking Black woman in the TV news industry. At just 40 years old, she’s also on the younger side of T.V. chiefs, whose most pressing task is to get younger people (meaning under 55) to watch the news. To address the changing tides, the trio has made expanding into streaming a top priority. Both MSNBC and NBC News are building up major streaming presences with bold programming moves. But while Jones, Oppenheim and Conde weathered what could have been a stormy 2021 for the NBC family, choppy waters lie ahead in 2022: Rachel Maddow is looking to end her nightly show, presenting an almost impossible programming conundrum for MSNBC.
20. Jonathan Swan
As national political correspondent for Axios, Jonathan Swan penned 134 articles in 2021. In all, 43 of them contained either the word “scoop” or “exclusive” in the headline. While countless others in the DC press corps wait for news to trickle out from a press release, Swan goes out and gets the story — with sources that most Washington reporters can only dream of. Those sources inside the Trump administration helped him paint a stunning portrait of the events leading up to the attack on the Capitol in a series of podcasts and articles, which resonated far beyond the Beltway. And as part of the Axios on HBO series, he routinely scored big interviews with newsmakers — including a memorable confrontation with Liz Cheney which dominated the headlines for several days. He knows how to ask questions and follow up in a way that is straightforward and tough without being overtly confrontational. The list of reporters whose mere byline demands you take notice of is very short. Without question, Jonathan Swan is on it.
19. Jake Tapper
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If there was any doubt that Jake Tapper is the face of CNN’s news operation, it was removed very early in 2021, when his daily program The Lead was expanded to two hours. With that promotion, Tapper joined timeslot rival Nicolle Wallace (whose ratings he regularly bests in the key demographic) among the few multi-hour solo hosts in all of cable news. Armed with that massive vote of confidence, Tapper soon showed he was not afraid to criticize CNN publicly, and became the loudest internal critic of Chris Cuomo. It takes power to go after your own network, and Tapper’s got lots of it. Of course, the CNN anchor (and best-selling novelist) went after plenty of other people too, notably those representing the Biden administration. Antony Blinken, Jen Psaki, and Jake Sullivan all found themselves on the business end of memorable Tapper inquisitions in 2021. This White House has proven to be picky in choosing its media appearances, but Tapper is one of a select few in D.C. with the muscle to put those administration figures through the wringer and get them to come back.
18. Steve Doocy, Ainsley Earhardt, and Brian Kilmeade of Fox & Friends
Let’s just be clear at the outset: Far more cable news viewers start their day with Fox & Friends than Morning Joe and New Day… combined. Steve Doocy, Ainsley Earhardt, and Brian Kilmeade host a show that long ago perfected the cocktail (it’s 6 a.m., so let’s call it a smoothie) that blends conservative politics, pop culture, Christian values, comedic banter, and red-blooded jingoism. While the show is packed with news updates, it’s fundamentally an opinion program — and one that isn’t afraid to flout journalistic standards in the name of spectacle. Take for example an interview with a Virginia parent at a diner concerned about Critical Race Theory in schools. She came across like your standard “every mom,” but it was never disclosed that she’s a GOP strategist working to elect Glenn Youngkin. Over the course of three hours, Doocy, Earhardt, and Kilmeade set the agenda for much of the network’s coverage throughout the day, and in doing so influence politics and culture across the country.
17. Bill Maher
Comedian and pundit Bill Maher has taken over Saturday mornings online. Week after week, clips from Real Time dominate social media and populate websites and blogs. It’s not a choir and preacher thing, though. If anything, Maher’s constant influence on discourse is won by way of his critics. Real Time’s seemingly endless parade of big names in politics, news, and entertainment, with a mix that’s unrivaled, generates controversy and outrage as a matter of course. Maher’s outspoken commentary on “woke” politics, “cancel culture,” and other hot topics that the Right complains about and the Left embraces have become almost ubiquitous in America’s back-and-forth. A previous Maher incarnation on cable was titled Politically Incorrect, and while that phrase has fallen out of use, it remains a fairly apt description of what he does. Provocative, incisive, and still funny, Maher and his roster of major guests never fail to drive the conversation on any topic, from culture wars to celebrity feuds to Covid or even the economy. Case in point: Chris Cuomo saw the best ratings of his late-stage CNN career when he had Maher on for a lengthy interview.
16. Ben Smith
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
New York Times media columnist Ben Smith — through a combination of aggressive scoop-hunting, a deep stable of sources, and a nose for a good story — turned Sunday nights, when his column publishes online, into appointment reading for everyone in the industry. He kicked off a year of bombshells in January with a story about the terms of Fox News’ seven-figure settlement with the parents of murdered DNC staffer Seth Rich. Smith’s column described the “curious provision that Fox insisted on: The settlement had to be kept secret for a month — until after the Nov. 3 election.” Smith’s September exposé on Ozy Media — covering an FBI investigation into allegations of fraud, wildly exaggerated traffic numbers, and a truly bizarre anecdote about one of the company’s top leaders impersonating a YouTube executive in an effort to sell the company to Goldman Sachs — prompted the company’s total implosion. That was just one of the scalps Ben Smith claimed this year as the nation’s most-read and most-feared media reporter.
