Jeff Jacoby (columnist)

Jeff Jacoby (born February 10, 1959) is a conservative American social/political commentator.

Career

Jeff Jacoby's column has been published on the op-ed page of the Boston Globe since 1994, when he was hired as a counterweight to the paper's liberal columnists; from 1987 to 1994, he was chief editorial writer for the conservative Boston Herald. Within months of his debut at the Globe, he was described by the left-leaning Boston Phoenix as "the region's pre-eminent spokesman for Conservative Nation," and a columnist who had "quickly established himself as a must-read." Jacoby has also appeared as a commentator on the local NPR affiliate, WBUR, and on local television. He has frequently lectured nationwide.

In 1999, he became the first recipient of the Breindel Prize, a $10,000 award for excellence in opinion journalism awarded by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. In 2004, he received the Thomas Paine Award of the libertarian law firm the Institute for Justice, an award presented to journalists "who dedicate their work to the preservation and championing of individual liberty." [1]

Before becoming a columnist, Jacoby worked briefly as an attorney with the firm Baker & Hostetler, and as deputy manager of Raymond Shamie's senatorial campaign in 1984. Following Shamie's loss, Jacoby worked for 15 months as an assistant to John Silber, then-president of Boston University.

In 2000, Jacoby was suspended by the Globe for four months without pay for what the paper called his "serious journalistic misconduct" in failing to provide sources for a Fourth of July column on the fate of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. The case caused a storm of controversy, not least among other journalists. On CNN's Reliable Sources, veteran journalists Bernard Kalb and Howard Kurtz concluded that "Jeff Jacoby got shafted by the Boston Globe." [2]

The suspension was submitted to outside arbitration, and eventually ruled excessive. The Globe was ordered to retroactively reduce the suspension by three months, and Jacoby was reimbursed for the lost wages.

Personal life

Born in Cleveland, Jacoby is a graduate of George Washington University and the Boston University School of Law, both with honors. His father, a Holocaust survivor, was born in present-day Slovakia in 1925 and came to the United States in 1948. Jacoby and his wife have two sons, Caleb (b. 1997), and Micah (b. 2003); the latter was adopted from Guatemala in 2004.

External links

• Brief bio at the Globe website
• Jewish World Review columns