The National Memo is a political newsletter and website that combines the spirit of investigative journalism with new technology and ideas. We cover campaigns, elections, the White House, Congress, and the world with a fresh outlook. Our own journalism — as well as our selections of the smartest stories available every day — reflects a clear and strong perspective, without the kind of propaganda, ultra-partisanship and overwrought ideology that burden so much of our political discourse.
Every morning, six days a week, we bring sharp reporting and commentary on top news from Washington and around the world — with exclusive interviews and insights from the best-informed sources that take you inside the day’s most important stories. We know that everyone has too much to read and too little time. So we filter the ceaseless flood of incoming chatter to find what is useful, interesting, amusing, powerful, moving — and deliver it to your inbox with The National Memo’s Morning Memo newsletter.
Our People
Joe Conason is the founder and editor-in-chief of The National Memo. He is also editor-at-large of Type Investigations, a nonprofit investigative reporting organization. He was previously executive editor and columnist at The New York Observer, a columnist for Salon.com and a staff writer for The Village Voice. His writing has appeared in many magazines and newspapers, including The New Republic, The Nation, The Guardian, Esquire, and The New Yorker. He is the author of several books, including two New York Times bestsellers, and most recently The Longest Con: How Grifters, Swindlers and Frauds Hijacked American Conservatism (St. Martins, 2024).
Contributors include:
Nina Burleigh is a journalist, author, documentary producer, and adjunct professor at New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. She has written eight books including her recently published novel, Zero Visibility Possible.
Mona Charen is policy editor of The Bulwark and host of the "Beg to Differ" podcast. Her latest book is Hard Right: The GOP's Drift Toward Extremism.
Mary C. Curtis is a columnist and podcaster for CQ Roll Call. She previously worked at The New York Times, The Baltimore Sun, and The Charlotte Observer.
Bonnie Fuller is the former CEO and editor-in-chief of HollywoodLife.com and former editor-in-chief of Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, and USWeekly.
Matt Gertz is a senior fellow at Media Matters for America, which he joined in 2007. His articles have appeared in The Daily Beast, HuffPost, and Politico.
Merrill Goozner is a former editor of Modern Healthcare, where he writes a weekly column. He is a former reporter for The Chicago Tribune and professor of business journalism at New York University.
Froma Harrop is an award winning journalist who covers politics, economics and culture. She has worked on the Reuters business desk, edited economics reports for The New York Times News Service and served on the Providence Journal editorial board.
Jim Hightower is an author, public speaker, radio commentator and former Texas Railroad Commissioner.
David Cay Johnston, a former columnist for The National Memo, co-founded DCReport. He is a best-selling author, investigative journalist and former reporter for The New York Times, where he won a Pulitzer Prize in 2001. He teaches law and journalism at Rochester Institute of Technology.
Harry Litman is a former United States Attorney and the executive producer and host of the Talking Feds podcast. He has taught law at UCLA, Berkeley, and Georgetown and served as a deputy assistant attorney general in the Clinton Administration. Please consider subscribing to Talking Feds on Substack.
Gene Lyons is a former columnist for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, a winner of the National Magazine Award, and co-author of The Hunting of the President, a New York Times bestseller.
Markos Moulitsas is founder and editor of the blogging website Daily Kos and author of three books.
Claire Bond Potter is a political historian who taught at the New School for Social Research. She is a contributing editor to Public Seminar and wrote the popular blog Tenured Radical from 2006 through 2015.
Lucian K. Truscott IV has had a 50-year career as a journalist, novelist, and screenwriter. A graduate of West Point, he has covered Watergate, the Stonewall riots, and wars in Lebanon, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
Your comments and tips are welcome via editors@nationalmemo.com.