Language English Nationality American | Name Steve Alperin Role TV Writer | |
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Occupation Media Executive, Producer, and Writer at ABC News
Chief Business Officer of the news outlet Vocativ Education BA in government from Harvard University
MBA from Columbia University Notable awards Two awards from the Writers Guild of America Awards WGA Award for Best News - Regularly Scheduled, Bulletin or Breaking Report - Television | ||
Steven Alperin is best known as a media executive, producer, and writer at ABC News. Alperin is the Chief Business Officer of the news outlet Vocativ, which was launched in 2013 and has established a significant partnership to provide programming to the cable news network MSNBC. He served as Peter Jennings's head writer and producer for most of the ABC anchor's last decade at the helm of World News Tonight. According to The New York Times, Alperin is part of the team leading Rupert Murdoch's new tablet news organization.
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Foley scandal
Alperin was later the editor in charge of ABC's website when it broke the scandal involving Congressmen Mark Foley and sexually explicit emails to underage congressional pages.
The Foley story and its evolution are cited as important moments in the use of the internet to further investigative reporting at a major news organization.
The Investigative Reporters and Editors Association said the following in recognizing the story for an award:
Acting on information that other mainstream news organizations downplayed or ignored, ABCNews.com broke the first stories of Rep. Mark Foley's inappropriate behavior with congressional pages and relentlessly drove the coverage as it widened into a full-blown congressional scandal. In doing so, these journalists demonstrated the power and speed of the Internet as a tool for reporting and disseminating national news. As new angles developed, ABC expanded on its website exclusives with nightly broadcast reports, a synergistic alliance that set a model for other media outlets.
The ABC anchorman Charles Gibson was quoted as saying he initially didn't think the story was suitable for his program because of its explicit content and the low profile of the subject.
Some debate still exists about the timing of the story only a few months before the 2004 mid-term elections, and to what degree the scandal suppressed turnout.
Awards
Alperin is the recipient of two awards from the Writers Guild of America, including one for the feature "Reagan's Funeral".
Education
Alperin holds an MBA from Columbia University and a BA in government from Harvard University.