Career Highlights
- Served as assistant and senior adviser to Bill Clinton from August 1997 until January 2001
- Started his career in Boston as a journalist who wrote for The New Republic
- Worked for the New Yorker magazine, The Washington Post, New Republic and Vanity Fair
- Became a “runner” for a Democratic precinct captain when he was 12 and went door-to-door to get out the vote
- Graduated from Brandeis University
Career Overview
Sidney Blumenthal, former aide to President Bill Clinton and a widely published journalist, graduated with a BA in sociology from Brandeis University. Blumenthal began his career in Boston as a journalist for The New Republic. He has also contributed to the New Yorker magazine, The Washington Post and Vanity Fair. He served as assistant and senior adviser to Bill Clinton from 1997 to 2001. His roles included advising the President on communications and public policy as well as researching information in the general media about the White House. Due to his position in the White House and with the President he became a major figure in the grand jury investigation that ended in the impeachment of President Clinton.
After the Clinton administration Blumenthal wrote a book titled The Clinton Wars, published in 2003. The book includes a small biography of Blumenthal, but focuses on his years with the Clintons and in the White House. Other books by Blumenthal include The Permanent Campaign, The Rise of the Counter-Establishment, Pledging Allegiance: The Last Campaign of the Cold War, and How Bush Rules: Chronicles of a Radical Regime. Blumenthal has also written over 1800 pieces as the Washington bureau chief for Salon.com and has contributed to openDemocracy.net and the UK newspaper, The Guardian.
Blumenthal has served as a key organizer and supporter of the Third Way conferences, and also joined Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign as a senior adviser in 2007. Blumenthal has also gotten involved in producing documentaries. He was the executive producer of the documentary Taxi to the Dark Side that won the Oscar for best documentary of 2007 at the Academy Awards and was the associate producer of the 2002 motion picture, Max about the early political rise of Adolf Hitler.
Our Interview
Sidney Blumenthal joins host Janell Snowden to discuss his career as a journalist. Blumenthal also takes questions from students at GW University that want to know about his transition from journalism into politics, about going from an objective journalism position to a subjective political position and about the Clinton impeachment.
