Joe Conason
Joe Conason (born 1954 in New York City) is a journalist, author and political commentator, who usually holds liberal views. He writes a column for the weekly New York Observer newspaper, for Salon.com and has written a number of books, including Big Lies (2003), which addresses what he says are myths spread about liberals by conservatives.
Conason received a B.A. in History from Brandeis University in 1975. He then worked at two Boston-based newspapers, East Boston Community News and The Real Paper.
From 1978 to 1990, he worked as a columnist and staff writer at The Village Voice.
In the 1980 documentary movie about the Yiddish anarchist newspaper the Freie Arbeiter Stimme (or Free voice of labor), a young Joe was interviewed. His grandfather Joseph Cohen served as the paper's editor for a number of years and Conason may have been an intern for them.
From 1990 to 1992, Conason was "editor-at-large" for Details magazine. In 1992, he became a columnist for the New York Observer, a position he still holds.
In 1992 Conason wrote an article for Spy magazine naming Jennifer Fitzgerald and Jane Morgan as women who allegedly were having affairs with George H. W. Bush, using Linda Tripp as a source.
Conason was a regular guest on The Al Franken Show who once had his own theme song Carry on Joe Conason -- Carry On Wayward Son by Kansas. He made an appearances every Friday as a commentator, as well as co-judging with Al their weekly quiz show Wait, wait, don't lie to me.
Conason coined the term "corporate-jet conservative" as a counter to "limousine liberal" (a term used to describe wealthy, insulated supporters of left-wing causes).
In 2000, he co-authored the book The Hunting of the President: The 10 Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton with Gene Lyons; the book was turned into a documentary in 2004, which Conason co-produced. The Raw Deal, his book on the Bush Administration's efforts to "end Social Security as we know it," appeared in 2005. In 2007, Conason published It Can Happen Here: Authoritarian Peril in the Age of Bush (Thomas Dunne Books).
He married Elizabeth Wagley, in 2002. They have two children, boy and girl twins, born in 2007.