Jonathan Alter

Early life and education

Alter was raised in a Jewish family in Chicago, the son of James Alter (1922–2014), who owned a refrigeration and air-conditioning company, and Joanne (née Hammerman) (1927–2008), who was an elected commissioner of the Metropolitan Sanitary District of Greater Chicago and a member of the Democratic National Committee. His mother was the first woman in the Chicago area to be elected to public office. He graduated from Phillips Academy in 1975 and Harvard University in 1979, where he was one of the lead editors on the Harvard Crimson.

Career

For a decade in the 1980s, Alter was Newsweek's media critic, where he was among the first in the mainstream media to break tradition and hold other news organizations accountable for their coverage, a precursor to the role later played by blogs. When Newsweek launched his wide-ranging column in 1991, it was the first time the magazine allowed regular political commentary in the magazine, other than on the back page. After the election of Bill Clinton in 1992, during which Alter was a consultant to MTV, he was among a small group of reporters and columnists who had regular access to Clinton, though he was far from a reliable supporter, particularly during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. "Alter bites me in the ass sometimes, but at least he knows what we're trying to do," Clinton was quoted as saying in the book Media Circus by The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz.

Alter gained international notoriety on election night 2000, when on NBC with Tim Russert and Tom Brokaw, he claimed that the election would be settled in court. He was the first pundit to predict the months long recount process.

Two months after the September 11 attacks, Alter wrote an article for Newsweek called "Time to think about torture" which became one of his best-known articles. In the column, he suggested that the U.S. might need to "rethink ... old assumptions about law enforcement". Stating that "some torture clearly works", he suggested the nation should "keep an open mind about certain measures to fight terrorism, like court-sanctioned psychological interrogation", and consider transferring some prisoners to other countries with less stringent rules on torture.

Alter was a fierce critic of President George W. Bush, emphasizing what he considered Bush's lack of accountability and his position on embryonic stem cell research. Alter, a cancer survivor, has written about his own bout with lymphoma and experience with an autologous adult stem cell transplant. On NBC's Today Show, Alter was the correspondent for several stories about the effect of the Iraq War on returning veterans. The Defining Moment, which was reviewed respectfully, surprised some critics with its analysis which concluded that the United States had come very close to dictatorship before Franklin D. Roosevelt became president, painting him as the savior of American democracy and capitalism. During an interview with 60 Minutes on November 14, 2008, then-President-elect Barack Obama said he had recently been reading The Defining Moment and hoped to apply some of Roosevelt's strategies that were outlined in the book into his own administration.

A longtime proponent of education reform, Alter played a major role in the Academy Award nominated documentary Waiting for "Superman". He also sits on the Board of Directors of The 74, an education news website.

In 2009, Alter was the commencement speaker at Western Connecticut State University, which awarded him an honorary doctorate. He also has received honorary degrees from Utica College (2008) and Montclair State University (2009).

In April 2011, Alter left Newsweek, joining Bloomberg days after.

Alter is an executive producer of the Amazon Studios show Alpha House starring John Goodman. Written by Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau, the comedy series revolves around four Republican U.S. Senators who live together in a townhouse on Capitol Hill. After developing the script with Trudeau, Alter sold the pilot to Amazon, which picked up the show as its first original series. The eleven-episode first season began streaming online in late 2013. Production for the second season of Alpha House began in the summer of 2014.

Personal life

Alter lives in Montclair, New Jersey, with his wife, Emily Jane Lazar, an executive producer of the Comedy Central show The Colbert Report, and their three children: Charlotte (b. 1990), a writer for TIME Magazine, Tommy (b. 1991), a producer for The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore on Comedy Central, and Molly (b. 1993), a college student.

Alter's family has had wide-ranging influence in politics. His mother, Joanne, was the first woman elected to public office in Cook County, Illinois. His sister Jamie Alter Lynton and brother-in-law Michael Lynton, the CEO of Sony Corporation of America, are two of the most politically active fundraisers in California. His cousin, Charles Rivkin, is one of the creators of the "Muppets" franchise and a former United States Ambassador to France; and another cousin, Robert S. Rivkin, is Chief counsel for the US department of Transportation. Rivkin's wife Cindy S. Moelis is the former head of the White House Fellows Program and one of Michelle Obama's closest friends. Alter serves on the Board of Directors of DonorsChoose, which allows teachers to post online proposals for classroom materials, and The Blue Card, a national Jewish organization assisting Holocaust survivors.