Experienced Political Writer - Vanity Fair, Etc.
Subject: Experienced Political Writer - Vanity Fair, Etc.
From: Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com>
Date: 7/9/09, 18:41
To: job-vphyq-1261942567@craigslist.org

Sirs-

I understand that you're looking for writers to contribute to your blog, and I'd like to be considered. My work has appeared in Vanity Fair, The Huffington Post, Skeptic, The Onion AV Club, National Lampoon, McSweeney's, and dozens of other publications, and from late 2007 to early 2008 I served as chief blogger at Politicalbase.com, a CNET-associated startup. My first book, Flock of Dodos: Behind Modern Creationism, Intelligent Design, and the Easter Bunny, was released in 2007, and my second, Caught, Fat, and Clouded: The Manifold Failures of Modern American Punditry, has been announced for release next year. I've also appeared on outlets such as Fox News.

I've pasted a recent sample below as well as my resume. Please let me know if you'd like to discuss the position further.

Thanks,

Barrett Brown
Brooklyn, NY
512-560-2302

Thomas Friedman's Five Worst Predictions
by Barrett Brown

In this morning’s New York Times, columnist Thomas Friedman makes a grave prediction regarding Obama and the ongoing financial crisis: “I fear that his whole first term could be eaten by Citigroup, A.I.G., Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, and the whole housing/subprime credit bubble we inflated these past 20 years.” Friedman is a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner, a staple of The New York Times, and a bestselling author, and thus this prediction should be taken very seriously if you happen to live in some alternate universe where the news media is a meritocracy and Thomas Friedman is a competent observer of the world and its workings. The rest of us can probably relax.

Let's review:

In October of 2000, Friedman decided that the Chinese regime would soon find itself threatened by a major unemployment crisis caused by an influx of American wheat and sugar into that country. In fact, American wheat and sugar failed to make any inroads whatsoever, while Chinese unemployment figures (however unreliable they may be) remained at low levels for a period of seven years.
After the announcement of Colin Powell’s Secretary of State nomination in December 2000, a clearly impressed Friedman related to his readers that “it was impossible to imagine Mr. Bush ever challenging or overruling Mr. Powell on any issue,”  that Powell “can never be fired,” and that “Mr. Bush can never allow him to resign in protest over anything.” Five years later, Powell was out via “resignation” after having been consistently challenged and overruled by Bush, who must have missed Friedman's column.

In 2001, Friedman advised the American citizenry to “keep rootin’ for Putin,” hailing the K.G.B. veteran as “Russia’s first Deng Xiaoping” and a strong force for reform. Three years later, Friedman announced in his most awkward prose that “I have a ‘Tilt Theory of History’,” and called Russia “a huge nation” (this part checks out) “that was tilted in the wrong direction and is now tilted in the right direction” with regards to free speech, the rule of law, and the like. In 2007, Friedman finally noticed that Russia cannot even properly be termed a democracy and promptly wrote a column to this effect.

Then, a month into the Afghanistan conflict, Friedman complained that “the hand-wringing has already begun over how long this might last” and advised readers to “take a deep breath,” noting that Afghanistan is “far away.” Besides, Friedman had “no doubt, for now, that the Bush team has a military strategy for winning a long war.” A month later, he noted in passing that “America has won the war in Afghanistan” and that “the Taliban are gone,” though he did express some concern about “all the nonsense written in the press about the concern for 'civilian casualties’,”  a term he took to using with scare quotes. Seven years later, civilian casualties remain a major item of concern for Afghan’s in the non-won war against the non-gone Taliban.

In 2005, Friedman explained that it was necessary for Democrats “to start thinking seriously about Iraq” lest the party “become unimportant.” Though Democrats never came around to Friedman’s way of serious thinking , they did manage to take control of both chambers of Congress the following year, ushering in a period of nearly unprecedented political dominance that continues to this day, which strikes me as a pretty important thing to do. Now, I don’t ask a lot of favors from the American citizenry and rarely even hit it up for money, but I was thinking that it might be kind of neat if everyone could stop pretending that  Friedman’s prognostication deserves to be taken seriously.

Also, could we key his car or something? This is a time for bold moves.

BARRETT BROWN

WRITER/ EDITOR/ WEB CONTENT PRODUCER

Brooklyn, NY

512-560-2302

barriticus@gmail.com


Communications Industry Skills



Published Work/ Media Experience


Vanity Fair – Contributor to publication's Power and Politics blog. March 2009 - present

Fortean Times – Book reviewer for monthly, London-based magazine. January 2009 – present.

Thomas Riggs and Company – Contributed 20,000 words of material for academic publishing company's upcoming reference book on U.S. cities. January 2009.

Studio 2a – Part-time marketing consultant for Chicago-based architectural rendering firm, handling all sales letters, marketing copy, and long-term branding strategies. 2007 – 2009.

PoliticalBase.com – Created content and served as paid blogger for online political news start-up founded by CNET. 2007 - 2008.

Fox Business Channel, Yahoo, Minyanville.com – Writer on freelance creative team for animated humor series Minyanville, which aired on Fox Business Channel's Happy Hour program as well as on Yahoo Finance. 2007.

The Onion A.V. Club – Serve as contributor for The Onion's features department. 2006 - present.

Sterling and Ross Publishers – Authored nonfiction book of political humor, Flock of Dodos: Behind Modern Creationism, Intelligent Design, and the Easter Bunny, released in March 2007. Book received praise from Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, Rolling Stone, Skeptic, Air America Radio, Huffington Post, others.

Anglesey Interactive, Inc. – Produced online marketing collateral – web text, press releases, blogging – in support of firm's integrated search engine. 2007 – 2008.

Dining Out - Feature writing for national restaurant publication. 2006 – 2008.

National Lampoon – Contributor, 2004 – 2005, 2008 - 2009

Sullivan Perkins – Served as junior copywriter at Dallas-based advertising firm. 2003.

Evote.com - Weekly columnist and feature writer for political analysis site. 2004 – 2005.

AOL CityGuide - Web content writer. Researched and created coverage of event and entertainment venues. Served as regional correspondent for Dallas, Austin, New Orleans, Houston and Little Rock markets. 2000 – 2004.


Additional magazine work - Ongoing, have contributed feature articles from serious political commentary and book reviews to humor pieces and dining overviews for outlets including Vanity Fair, academic publications Skeptic and Fortean Times, business-to-business publications Pizza Today, 360, Club Systems International, Destination Dallas, D.C.-based public policy journal Toward Freedom, London-based public policy journal Free Life, humor magazine Jest, regional publications The Met, Austin Monthly, Dallas Child, literary journal Swans, dozens more.

Other writing projects - Crated both print and online marketing collateral for New York tech start-up Organic Motion, Inc. Wrote online marketing collateral for New York corporate training firm Illuminata Global. Researched and wrote entertainment/dining/venue content for Dallas ad agency Avacata and clients' marketing collateral, including that of luxury resort real estate firm. Have produced website copy for design firm NPCreate.com, provided public relations pieces for Texas energy companies EBS and S.K. Oil and Gas and Dallas real estate firm Dunhill Partners.