Gad Lerner

Career

He began his news career in 1976, writing for the ultra-leftist daily Lotta Continua, belonging to the eponymous political entity, becoming its deputy director. He then worked for the Genoan daily Il Lavoro, as well as for Radio Popolare, the communist newspaper Il Manifesto and the weekly newsmagazine L'Espresso.

Notoriety and success came when he started working for television broadcasts on Rai Tre, among which Profondo Nord and Milano, Italia. His reporting coincided with the infamous years of bribery scandals, known as Tangentopoli (Italian for Bribesville), and the ascent of the Lega Nord separatist political movement - Lerner successfully portrayed in his shows the deep changes the country was experiencing.

He later served as director deputy director of the national newspaper La Stampa and briefly as director of news broadcasts for TG1 and Rai Uno. He publicly resigned after a selection of pornographic footage was mistakenly aired on prime time during his news broadcast, TG1. Along with his resignation, he revealed that a politician from National Alliance, Mario Landolfi, who also was the president of the parliamentary commission of vigilance regarding the public TV broadcasting service, asked him to favour an acquaintance of his in the TG1.

Gad Lerner is currently host of the news talk show L'Infedele, on La7 TV channel. He is considered left-leaning. He also occasionally collaborates with the weekly Vanity Fair Italia, and writes books. He maintains his personal blog, where he personally writes to and answers his visitors (www.gadlerner.it).

In 2010 he was denied visa to Syria, even after his friend and journalist Alix Van Buren defended him: «He often defends the muslim communities in Italy and their right to have mosques [...] he is an independent jew, who doesn't belong to any lobby [...], he signed a petition written by a group of european jews which opposes some of the politics of israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu».