Mediaite’s Most Influential in News Media 2019
35. Mike Allen, Jim VandeHei and Jonathan Swan
The Axios scoop machine, powered by executive editor Mike Allen, CEO Jim VandeHei, and White House reporter Jonathan Swan, breaks some of the biggest — and craziest — news coming out of the Trump administration. Axios scooped that President Trump suggested using nuclear missiles against hurricanes. It was first to report on the administration considering Trump’s Miami Doral resort as the location for next year’s G7. What’s more, in 2019 their Axios on HBO program has proved to be a major success, as Sunday after Sunday, they manage to book some of the biggest names in politics, tech, and media. Swan used their HBO platform to get a rare opportunity to question Jared Kushner in a tense segment about Trump’s history of racist conspiracies; Mike Allen’s interrogation of Joe Biden rocked a news cycle, and a recent interview with Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi sparked international headlines after the executive suggested the murder of Jamal Khashoggi was a simple “mistake.”
34. Jeanine Pirro
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Fox News host Jeanine Pirro holds the ear of the president and the eyes of pro-Trump America with a broadcast scheduled during a Saturday night time-slot that would usually be a death knell for any other host in American media. Not Pirro. Pirro’s newfound role as an ardent and unabashed partisan has led to scores interviews with top names in American Republican politics – counting the GOP Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and White House officials like Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham as ‘friends of the program.’ She can also count President Trump as an actual friend, with the access and influence that comes with such proximity. Pirro is regularly mentioned for top positions in the administration as well. When Pirro isn’t getting the insider’s tour of the White House, she’s bagging a whopping 2 million viewers per night.
33. Maggie Haberman and Michael Schmidt
Some of the best in-depth reporting into the goings-on of Trump administration has come from New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Michael Schmidt, and that continued well into 2019. At the start of the year, in the midst of Mueller season, Haberman and Schmidt were two of the journalists who worked on a massive report detailing the president’s two-year fight against the investigations surrounding him. More recently, they were on the byline of a notable report that the president was aware of the whistleblower complaint when he decided to release aid to Ukraine. Last month they even did a Reddit AMA discussing the extent to which Trump has changed politics and, to a certain extent, the press. Haberman will long be remembered as one of the best political reporters of the Trump era, and Schmidt has gone from delivering earth-shattering (and Pulitzer Prize-winning) Me Too investigations to vital reporting on the current presidential administration. There’s a lot of competition on teh beat, but these are two of the top reporters in America. Expect Haberman and Schmidt to continue to break story after story providing insight on the behind-the-scenes in Washington and beyond.
32. Ronan Farrow
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“Stand by for new reporting from Ronan Farrow.” Words like these are basically all it takes these days to set the media ablaze, breathless with anticipation. Farrow extended his reign as the most feared journalist in 2019, with the release of his bombshell book Catch and Kill, a treasure trove of shocking details on his Harvey Weinstein exposé that helped usher in the Me Too movement, as well as what he said were NBC’s alleged attempts to kill that very investigation into the Hollywood producer. A thorough accounting of the lengths the powerful went to quash reporting on misdeeds — including blackmail, extortion, the use of friendly media organs like the National Enquirer as well as shady intelligence agencies — the book rocked the media world and prompted calls for change at the very top of institutions. With a wave of television interviews, and now a podcast, Farrow spent 2019 hammering home the thesis of his book: that it has long been far too easy for the famous to abuse their power and force a complaint media into turning the other cheek. Thanks to Farrow and some others on this list, in 2020 and on, that has become a whole lot harder.
31. Chris Hayes
As part of MSNBC’s primetime opinion lineup, Chris Hayes is in the enviable position of being the lead in to Rachel Maddow, the network’s prime time ratings star. Hayes makes the most of it, with a info-packed and compelling hour of programming that serves to guide his liberal audience through an era of uncertainty. What sets his All In program apart is the baseline of rationality from which Hayes works. His interviews and commentaries proceed from a position of calm and good faith, which makes it all the more effective when the moment calls for outraged and impassioned commentary. In 2019 he adopted a daring new programming gambit with All In airing before a live studio audience on Friday nights at NBC’s 30 Rockefeller Plaza HQ. Once that proved a success, Hayes made the Friday night live show a regular affair — setting his show apart from the competition.
30. Jeffrey Toobin
If 2019 was the year of DOJ investigations, judicial proceedings, House probes and impeachment hearings, then it was also the year of the news legal analyst. And at CNN, that usually means their chief legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin. The writer and legalese translator has been more than ubiquitous, he’s been practically omnipresent on the network, appearing on shows from early in the morning until late in the evening delivering digestible analysis of the latest bombshell investigation in Washington and beyond. It helps that in addition to analysis he adds biting, even brutal takes, in very quotable sound bites. His explanatory articles are shared thousands of times, and his writing for the New Yorker is always a must read.
29. Brian Williams
Brian Williams is officially back. In his third year hosting MSNBC’s The 11th Hour, Williams has created perhaps the closest reincarnation of the venerable late-night news standard, ABC’s Nightline. Williams routinely commands a panel of top-notch, plugged-in journalists and experts who combine to serve up an expertly poured, news-of-the-day nightcap leavened with a dash of the anchor’s dry wit. His show has not only proven to be a consistent ratings winner, it’s become even more relevant during the never-a-dull-day Trump impeachment storyline, when bombshell stories continued to break even after prime time. But Williams has also displayed a rare willingness to step off the daily cable news treadmill and take viewers on a different path, like when he dedicated numerous segments in August to the criminally underreported Newark water crisis. For news junkies, his show is must-see TV before calling it a night.
28. Anderson Cooper
When Anderson Cooper appears outside the hours of his nightly show on CNN, you know there is serious news to report. That is what defines him as the “face of CNN.” On Anderson Cooper 360, he hosts the newsmakers of the day for big interviews and the hottest news stories with panel discussions as entertaining as they are informative. He has been kicking off his show with biting commentaries usually calling out the president’s dishonesty, and somehow also finds time in his day to also serve as a regular correspondent for CBS’ 60 Minutes. What’s more, Cooper is renowned for masterfully humanizing the sometimes distant and isolated work of journalism: the on-air eulogy he delivered for his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, this summer is a must-watch for any reporter looking to cover the news with warmth, empathy, and heart-aching closeness. Anderson Cooper remains one of the best-known names in the news business for a reason.
27. Stephen Colbert and Chris Licht
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The Late Show continues its reign as the most watched and most politically relevant of the late-night talk shows. And it’s clearly because of its political commentary that the CBS show has soared. Stephen Colbert’s penetrating, sarcastic takes on President Trump and the show’s brutal parodies of White House policies have not only led to victory in the ratings race, they have also earned it four Emmy nominations this year. Colbert’s unabashed Trump mockery coupled with his ability to easily transition into serious policy discussion also made The Late Show a must-stop destination for the 2020 Democratic presidential nominees. Chris Licht, the showrunner, helped launch Morning Joe and has taken that experience and political savvy to The Late Show where he is often credited for its shift into more political parody. But it’s not all fun and games. Two Democratic hopefuls officially announced their runs while on his show, a rare coup for a late-night host, even if Colbert’s Dem primary guests might be suffering from a “kiss of death.”
26. Dean Baquet
As top editor of the country’s most important newspaper, Dean Baquet occupies a rarefied space in the media firmament, helming a New York Times that continues to break big stories that drive the national news cycle and win awards, often while haunting this White House. Frequently ridiculed as “failing” by the president, the Times is anything but, thanks to healthy profits and a record high number of subscribers. Under Baquet’s leadership, the paper rakes in Pulitzers with impressive scoops and long form reporting made possible by the mighty resources afforded by a boom in subscriptions that have offset a plunge in advertising that has plagued other outlets. Aside from some scant public comments that always make news, Baquet’s power is behind the scenes, perhaps best demonstrated by his standing up to Harvey Weinstein — as detailed in the 2019 book She Said, by two reporters of the Times that feature on this list — during the paper’s historic reporting at the dawn of the Me Too movement.
