To understand NBC national political reporter Jonathan Allen, one need look no further than his two stints at POLITICO -- first as a contract hire in late 2009, and then as a full-time hire in 2010 after a nearly six-week excursion into political advocacy. And yes, as Allen admits, sometimes a “pain in the ass,” too. It turned out to be more than “relevant.” “Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton’s Doomed Campaign” netted Allen and Parnes their second consecutive New York Times bestseller and cemented the duo as a collaborative journalistic force. “You’re going to have to change that.”, But the authors stood firm. "When you get a guy of [Young's] caliber, it's definitely immediately going to make an impact for your team. “When I was 14, my father told me I should get a job. In 2012, Allen was paired with journalist Amie Parnes to co-write a book on Hillary Clinton in advance of her next run for president. “Others looked out for me and gave me small assignments.”. They should have, but they didn’t. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life,” he said.
It was really informal," Allen told the media. So I took a sports reporter position covering high school football games, which I would have gone to anyway. This is a homecoming for Jon, who won the Dirksen and Hume awards as a reporter for CQ -- the first place he worked in Washington. “It’s written like she’s going to lose, when it’s clear she’s going to win,” the editor warned.
“That’s what made it relevant after the election.”. That's why he returned to a statement he's said often during his time with the Redskins, and one he's rightly sticking with even among the newfound hope. He continued writing for papers in high school and college, leading to a copyediting job at a local newspaper after college, which led to a copyediting job at Congressional Quarterly, which at the time was arguably the nation’s premier publication covering Congress. Before the end of that quote, though, the all-business side of Allen kicked in again.
Even their editor a couple of weeks before Election Day warned that the manuscript highlighted too much turmoil in the Clinton camp. The following year, Allen and Parnes pitched “Shattered” as a compelling historical document of someone who could be the first female president. First, there was Rivera's introductory presser back in January, an event that Allen attended. Jonathan Allen, co-author of the New York Times-bestselling Clinton biography "HRC," has covered Congress, the White House and elections over the past 15 years. And after that we just had some dinner and just kicked it.". Introducing Trends: visualize news in real-time and discover top authors or outlets. Just listen to him. . The result, “HRC,” became a New York Times bestseller in 2014. Allen texted Young the night he was drafted to congratulate him, and the next day, Young made an hour drive to spend time with Allen and Matt Ioannidis. Almost assuredly. The POLITICO newsroom was split on whether to re-hire someone who didn’t seem to know what he wanted to do with his life. Even from an outside view, it's easy to imagine why Allen and Rivera are already clicking. "I'm super excited," he said. DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy, Surviving COVID-19: A Duke Employee's Journey. He landed a contract job at POLITICO, but eventually itched to get into the political game, and accepted a position with the PAC of Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Florida. Trump thinks he's losing. “And if she lost,” Allen believed, “it would still be a compelling historical document.”. “She basically wanted me to plot her rise,” he said.
We're young, we have a great coaching staff, we have a great core of players.". Rivera isn't the only new foundational piece for the organization, however. Allen took on whatever he could get, volunteering on weekends and cranking out copy. PA might look a lot like Georgia when all the votes are in. Thanks to those experiences as well as the virtual interactions the two have shared throughout the offseason, Allen finds himself quite invested in the Redskins' new leader. For the past few months, I and other senior editors at POLITICO have been dealing, at different times and in different ways, with the CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE REDSKINS TALK PODCAST. I’m a curmudgeon. The former is about as serious as it gets when it comes to players on the Burgundy and Gold, and the latter emphasizes serious things like competition and accountability. Jonathan Allen of NBC News shares with a POLIS class current challenges in political journalism. POLIS invited Allen to speak at Duke on April 20 to give students and other members of the community the opportunity to hear from someone who is one of the best in the business, who doesn’t hold back, and who would just as soon abandon the whole rat race at the top of his game . "We just hung out and talked.
It would have happened in any other election with any other candidate on the ballot many hours ago.
This is a homecoming for Jon, who won the Dirksen and Hume awards as a reporter for CQ -- the first place he worked in Washington. @jonallendc — 64,337 followers, 38,302 tweets. In fact, he sat in the front row, just a few feet from the podium where Rivera initially laid out his plans for turning around the entire franchise, and chatted with him briefly afterward. Then a series of circumstances and decisions nearly derailed his promising career. Before it became really hard to get to know someone, Jonathan Allen did have a few chances to get to know Ron Rivera.
All rights reserved. At the outset, Allen shared what led him to a journalism career: “My father was a reporter. “I’m contrarian. Photo by Joel Luther. As it became clear Donald Trump would become the Republican Party nominee, most people viewed “Shattered” as the story of Clinton smashing the political glass ceiling. “Right off the bat, people told me I could never be a reporter,” he said. He knows that optimism in the spring means nothing when the fall begins. And on a Zoom call with reporters on Wednesday, Allen explained that he and his wife have gone out to dinner with Rivera and Rivera's wife, which gave Allen a unique opportunity to truly hone in on what the 58-year-old is like. Within a few years he was appearing on national television shows like MSNBC’s “Hardball with Chris Matthews.” Journalism is my calling.” He returned to POLITICO in 2010, now married with one child and a second on the way. This byline is for a different person with the same name. . They were just hoping I’d get the score right.”. He seems like the type of guy we need in Washington to help get this culture changed and turned around for the better.". The book has quickly become required reading inside and outside the Beltway. Between what he expects Rivera to bring to the sidelines and Young to contribute on the field, Allen is allowing himself to think big for the Redskins in 2020. But as publisher and editor-in-chief John Harris wrote in his “Why POLITICO Let Jonathan Allen Come Back” column from February 2010, “The benefits of his reporting are worth the trouble -- and worth the criticism we’ll take from those who may say he has no business working at this publication.”. Allen said he got along with her well, but after only 40 days he realized he wasn’t cut out for this line of work. Biden is making up ground in Pennsylvania and still looks like he will edge out Trump, but probably not close to the margin that Democrats were predicting yesterday. They didn’t care about my writing. Copy and paste the URL below to share this page. Analysis: Trump thinks he's losing. Jonathan Allen, co-author of the New York Times-bestselling Clinton biography "HRC," has covered Congress, the White House and elections over the past 15 years. NBC News political reporter Jonathan Allen shares his story with students. “This book wasn’t tilted toward an outcome,” Allen said. The talk was followed by a private lunch with six Duke students interested in political reporting careers. But I'm just really excited about what we've done in the last couple of years, the pieces we've built. Harvey Fletcher's experience highlights a robust effort to care for Duke's workforce. It would be fair to observe 1) yes and 2) the media the president so often assails as his enemy has bent over backward to avoid declaring his defeat to this point.
So, while the instant chemistry isn't a total shock, it still is promising. When you’re barely 30 and have bounced around three organizations in less than six months, and the boss still wants you, you must be very good at your job. This byline is mine, but I want my name removed. Allen—who is poised to cover the 2016 presidential campaign—recently published HRC: State Secrets and the Rebirth of Hillary Clinton with coauthor Amie Parnes. "I love him," Allen said Wednesday. “We fit together well,” Allen said of his writing partner.“There are things I do really well and there are things Amie does really well. if he and his family had enough money to retire early. A frequent political analyst on national television, he's also been Bloomberg's Washington bureau chief and Politico's White House bureau chief.
Allen’s talk was cosponsored by the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media & Democracy and was moderated by DeWitt Wallace’s David Graham, who also serves as a staff writer for The Atlantic. Find the best way to get in touch with Jonathan by joining Muck Rack. Create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile and upload a portfolio of your best work. Chase Young is now also a part of the plan, and he's someone Allen will be working closely with for the near and hopefully distant future. In 2008 he won the Everett McKinley Dirksen Award for Distinguished Reporting of Congress, as well as the National Press Club Sandy Hume Memorial Award for Excellence in Political Journalism. "He just had a couple of questions, what it was like coming from college to the NFL, just basic questions that a rookie would ask. In fact, he sat in the front row, just a few feet from the podium where Rivera initially laid out his plans for turning around the entire franchise, and chatted with him briefly afterward. It’s obviously worked out.”, Now an NBC News national political reporter after nearly 20 years in the business, Allen remains “excited to be paid to do journalism.”. Before it became really hard to get to know someone, Jonathan Allen did have a few chances to get to know Ron Rivera. "It was easy to get behind and believe everything he was preaching and everything he was saying about what he wanted to do as a coach," Allen said. Turns out, Allen has met with Young, too, in what was another positive interaction in the eyes of the fourth-year pro. Congressional Quarterly and rival news organization Roll Call merged, resulting in dozens of layoffs in 2012 -- including Allen. First, there was Rivera's introductory presser back in January, an event that Allen attended. Just listen to him. To understand NBC national political reporter Jonathan Allen, one need look no further than his two stints at POLITICO -- first as a contract hire in late 2009, and then as a full-time hire in 2010 after a nearly six-week excursion into political advocacy.. In short order, Allen had become one of the most successful political journalists of his generation. But it also wouldn't be too surprising if they sat down and immediately started discussing how to split a double team using the table's forks and knives. With the announcement this week that liberal journalist Steve Kornacki of Salon will take over weekend roundtable show, Up, MSNBC is adding its third openly gay anchor to the lineup. The POLITICO newsroom was split on whether to re-hire someone who didn’t seem to know what he wanted to do with his life.