Marc Cooper
Marc Cooper | |
|---|---|
 Marc Cooper during a conference in Santiago, Chile, 2010 | |
| Born | Los Angeles,California,U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Fairfax High School San Fernando Valley State College |
| Occupations |
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| Spouse | Patricia Vargas-Cooper |
| Children | Natasha Vargas-Cooper |
Marc Cooperis an American journalist, author, journalism professor andblogger.He is acontributing editortoThe Nation.He wrote the popular "Dissonance" column forLA Weeklyfrom 2001 until November 2008. His writing has also appeared in such publications as theLos Angeles Times,The Atlantic Monthly,Harper's Magazine,The New Yorker,The Christian Science Monitor,PlayboyandRolling Stone.
His translated work has been published in various European and Latin American publications, including the French dailyLiberationand the Mexico City-based dailiesLa JornadaandUno Mas Uno.He has also been a television producer forPBS,CBS News,andThe Christian Science Monitor.His radio reports have aired onNBC,Canadian Broadcasting Corporationand theBBC.During the 2008 presidential campaign he worked as editorial coordinator ofThe Huffington Post's citizen-journalism project OffTheBus as well as a senior editor of the overall site.
Early life
[edit]Cooper was born in and grew up in Los Angeles. His career in journalism began in 1966 when he founded and edited an underground newspaper atFairfax High SchoolinLos Angeles, California.Cooper attendedSan Fernando Valley State Collegein the 1960s and took part in several protests.[1]In 1971, he was expelled from theCalifornia State Universitysystem for his antiwar activism by order ofGovernorRonald Reagan.[2]
In Chile
[edit]From 1971 to 1973, Cooper served as the Spanish-English translator forChileanSocialistpresidentSalvador Allende.Following themilitary coupof 1973, he fled the country, fearing execution as a participant in the Allende government;[3]some of his American friends were executed by the military, including journalistCharles Horman.In 2002 he testified before a Chilean magistrate in the investigation of Horman's death.
Journalism
[edit]In spring 2006, Cooper was appointed a full-time member of the journalism faculty at theUSC Annenberg School for Communicationfor the academic year 2006–2007. He had taught the previous five years as an adjunct. He was also promoted to the post of associate director at Annenberg's Institute for Justice and Journalism.[4]In late 2008, Cooper was also named director of Annenberg Digital News and its online publicationNeon Tommy.
In 2010 he was promoted to Associate Professor of Professional Practice.
He also coordinates the USC Annenberg News21 fellowship which is part of a national Carnegie-Knight initiative for developing innovative journalism. His journalism prizes include awards from theSociety of Professional Journalists,theArmstrong Memorial Foundation,theSidney HillmanFoundation, theCalifornia Associated PressTV and Radio Association, theCalifornia Newspaper Publishers Association,theBest in the West,Project Censored,PEN American Center,and theGreater Los Angeles Press Club.
He began his own daily blog in 2004. Since May 2005 he has been a contributing blogger atThe Huffington Post.During the 2008 campaign he served as a senior editor of the site and also worked as editorial director of its OffTheBus citizen journalism reporting project. The same year he joined the advisory board ofPajamas Media,aweblog-related company. As of July 2007, Cooper is no longer affiliated with Pajamas Media. He leftThe Huffington Postin December 2008.
He is married to Chilean writer and teacher Patricia Vargas-Cooper and has one adult daughter,Natasha Vargas-Cooper,who studied atUCLA.She graduated in May 2007 and is now a writer and journalist. Her bookMad Men Unbuttoned: A Romp Through America of the 60'swas published by Harper Collins in 2010.[citation needed]
Personal views
[edit]Although Cooper espouses many traditionalleftistpositions, he also criticizes some of his fellow leftists for what he says is a kneejerk and irrational tendency to support "unworthy" and marginal causes. He ruffled many ideological allies by his criticism ofMumia Abu-Jamal,whom he famously dismissed as "a bad choice for poster-boy of the anti-death penalty movement."[5]Cooper also disparagedWard Churchill,calling him a "guaranteed loser" who was "an irrelevant and clearly deranged loner on the edge of the looniest left."[6]Cooper was vocal in his opposition to the2003 invasion of Iraqand the subsequent occupation, but he has been scathingly critical of other leftist opponents to the war, such as Canadian journalistNaomi Klein,who he lambasted as a "friend" and "apologist" for prominentIraqiShiiteIslamistMuqtada al-Sadrin response to a piece she wrote for the September 13, 2004 edition ofThe Nation.
Cooper has also been harshly critical ofVenezuelanpresidentHugo Chávez,whom he regards as a "thug," and very supportive of theUkrainianOrange Revolutionin 2004.
Cooper has criticized the liberal position ongun control,and has written that he is "tired of and deeply annoyed by affluent liberals--living in 6,000-square-foot houses with heated swimming pools, who use a 400-horsepower SUV to drive their kids two blocks to school, with a family carbon footprint that of a small battleship".[7]
Over the past few years Cooper has sharply criticized theCubangovernment for its crackdown on internal dissidents—some of whom have been handed stiff sentences for receiving funds and instructions from the United States. Cooper has helped write and circulate international letters of protest defending the locked-up dissidents[citation needed].
He has described his current political position as "contrarian" and declares himself "agnostic" on grand ideological schemes.
Publications
[edit]Cooper has published three books:Roll Over Che Guevara: Travels of a Radical Reporter(1994), an anthology of his journalistic pieces;[8]Pinochet and Me: A Chilean Anti Memoir(2001) which was an L.A. Times best-seller;[3]andThe Last Honest Place in America: Paradise and Perdition in the New Las Vegas(2004).[9]
References
[edit]- ^Davis, Mike;Wiener, Jon(2020). "Chapter 29:" The Last Place That Sort of Thing Would Happen: "Valley State (1968-70)".Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties.New York: Verso Books.
- ^"Marc Cooper".The Nation. April 2, 2010.RetrievedDecember 25,2020.
- ^abCooper, Marc (2001).Pinochet and Me: A Chilean Anti-Memoir.New York: Verso Books.
- ^Gorman, Anna; Silverstein, Stuart (May 3, 2007)."The state; police action against journalists assailed; some news outlets whose reporters and camera operators were hurt in melee mull legal claims against LAPD".Los Angeles Times.RetrievedDecember 27,2020.
- ^What's Mumia Got to Do With It?
- ^Cooper, Marc (February 4, 2005)."Little Eichmans".RetrievedDecember 27,2020.
- ^Cooper, Marc (March–April 2016). "Gun control is a misfire: What liberals and the NRA both get wrong".The American Conservative.
- ^Cooper, Marc (1994).Roll Over Che Guevara: Travels of a Radical Reporter.New York: Verso Books.
- ^Cooper, Marc (2004).The Last Honest Place in America: Paradise and Perdition in the New Las Vegas.New York: Nation Books.
External links
[edit]- Marc Cooper's Web site and blog(archive)
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