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Jack Shafer (born November 14, 1951) is an American journalist who most recently wrote about media for Politico.[1] Prior to joining Politico, he worked for Reuters and also edited and wrote the column "Press Box" for Slate, an online magazine. Before his stay at Slate, Shafer edited two city weeklies, Washington City Paper and SF Weekly. Much of Shafer's writing focuses on what he sees as a lack of precision and rigor in reporting by the mainstream media, which he says "thinks its duty is to keep you cowering in fright."[2] One frequent topic is media coverage of the War on Drugs.
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Libertarianism
Shafer has written supportively of libertarianism. He wrote, "Traditionally, the state censors and marginalizes voices while private businesses tend to remain tolerant."[3] In 2000, he explained his political views as follows: "I agree with the Libertarian Party platform: much smaller government, much lower taxes, an end to income redistribution, repeal of the drug laws, fewer gun laws, a dismantled welfare state, an end to corporate subsidies, First Amendment absolutism, a scaled-back warfare state. (You get the idea.)"[4]
Consistent with this perspective, on April 20, 2020 Shafer expressed opposition to the Local Journalism Sustainability Act, saying, "You wouldn't put a dead man on a ventilator, would you?"[5]
Investigation of Gerald Posner
In February 2010, Shafer reported that the chief investigative reporter for The Daily Beast, Gerald Posner, had plagiarized five sentences from an article published by The Miami Herald. Shafer also discovered that Posner had plagiarized content from a Miami Herald blog, a Miami Herald editorial, Texas Lawyer and a health care journalism blog.[6][7] Posner was dismissed from The Daily Beast following an internal review.[8]
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