Washington editor of The Nation, David grew up in New York and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Brown University. He writes a column for TheNation.com and has written for the Washington Post, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Boston Globe, Newsday, Harper’s Magazine, The New Republic and Mother Jones.

David Corn - Gifted writer, digger and news breaker

After college I spent a year working for Ralph Nader — when he wasn’t possessed. I worked right in his office, so I got to know him. I worked for The Nation for a year in New York and shared an office with Christopher Hitchens — a whole different story. I helped start a magazine that covered arms control issues, then did freelance work for Harpers and Mother Jones. Later I became Washington editor of The Nation, pleased to follow in the footsteps of I.F. Stone. My first non-fiction book, ‘Blond Ghost,’ was a biography of a notorious CIA officer. I wrote a novel called ‘Deep Background’ that the wonderful L.A. Times called the best of the year. I had a bestselling book with ‘The Lies of George W. Bush: Mastering the Politics of Deception,’ and I was nominated for the Edgar Allen Poe Award for a short story. That was very gratifying.

I developed yet another career path as a shouting head on TV, but I try not to be the first one to shout. I am a rarer breed in that I still am a reporter. I bring facts to bear when I write, punditize or blog. I’ve had my share of being able to break stories. [One was] my finding that Bush, when he ran for Congress in 1978, had a pro-choice position, another was that his company did business with Enron in 1980’s long before he had said he knew Ken Lay. I reported that Colin Powell was caught telling two very different stories to the Iran-Contra investigators, and that Dick Gephardt’s [Political Action Committee] was being used improperly for his presidential campaign.

On his blog - Strong values, zagging not zigging, having fun

I try to entertain and enlighten. Sometimes I just simply say, ‘Here is a hearing that didn’t get any attention,’ or I might say, ‘Well, the White House is saying this but what nobody remembers is that two months ago they came out with a report saying what they are saying now is wrong.’ It’s a matter of bringing a different perspective to deflect their spin. I was the first journalist to write a piece saying that Bob Novak’s piece involving Valerie Plame might be evidence of a White House crime. It was weeks or months before the media picked up on it.

I’m on the left, but I try not to be knee-jerk, although I am strong in my values. I am not interested in spinning news, but to promote values I think are important for the nation, and to spread the word and the facts. On my blog, I like to have fun. I have done standup comedy in front of crowds, and discussed that in my blog. I try to zag instead of zigging. My site has a completely unregulated comments section, and I will get hundreds of comments. People post a lot of items I find quite useful as resources. I have resisted regulating it, or even forcing people to register, but some people create difficulties.

I find it quite exhilarating after working for a weekly magazine where you hand something in almost a week before it goes to press. You can be right on top of things. One example: I read something Charles Krauthammer wrote about global warming — an assertion that had no basis. I put out a blog item, and did a very effective job on it and then had a productive exchange with editors at the Post. It’s not the same as bringing down Dan Rather but it does provide an opportunity to vet things as they happen.

On our direction

I see fame and fortune and riches for all of us. (laughs) I don’t really know. I think the rise of the internet is bringing about positive and negative change in our information culture. The positive change is that it is easier for individuals to get out what they want to say or report. That gives them the ability to play with Big Media. I go to the John Roberts hearings, I come out and I blog about it immediately. I am out as fast, if not faster, than the Washington Post or New York Times websites.

The question is whether the internet and blogging becomes now a platform for unique, intelligent and talented voices in the way that radio and TV once did. The proof will be in the product. It must be useful but also entertaining and fun for people. In terms of our project — bringing together high-quality bloggers from all sides of the aisle and giving people access to this very raucous but I hope intelligent living room — people will flock to it and come to our site and see what’s in the news and how people are reacting to it.