Harold Meyerson – Left is Write

Since August of 2002, Harold Meyerson has been Editor-at-Large of The American Prospect, the Washington-based liberal magazine founded by Robert Reich, Robert Kuttner and Paul Starr in 1990. As such, he is one of the magazine’s chief political writers and editors. He joined the Prospect in August 2001 in the more managerial role of Executive Editor.

In March of 2003, Meyerson became a regular Washington Post op-ed columnist. His weekly column usually appears on Wednesdays, and is reprinted in numerous newspapers across the country (and, occasionally, beyond). His is generally viewed as the most liberal voice on the Post op-ed page.

Meyerson was also Columnist-at-Large for the L.A. Weekly, the nation’s largest metropolitan weekly, where he served as executive editor from 1989 through 2001. Over the years, his Weekly column has won numerous awards, and become something of a Los Angeles institution.

His articles on politics, labor, the economy, foreign policy and American culture have also appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New Republic, The Nation, The New Statesman; the op-ed, commentary and book review sections ofThe New York TimesandThe Los Angeles Times, and in numerous other publications. He is a member of the editorial board of Dissent, to which he is a frequent contributor of political analyses. He is also the author of Who Put The Rainbow in The Wizard of Oz? a critical biography of Broadway lyricist Yip Harburg, and his articles have been republished in several books, including the Brookings Institution’s Bush v. Gore. In 1987-8, he was a regular commentator inThe Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, and from the late ’70s through the mid-’80s, he was a political consultant for a range of progressive causes and candidates.

From 1991 through 1995, Meyerson hosted the weekly show “Real Politics” on radio station KCRW, the Los Angeles area’s leading NPR affiliate. He is a frequent guest on television and radio talk shows.

Born in Los Angeles in 1950, Meyerson was educated in Los Angeles public schools and at Columbia University. He lives in Washington, but maintains the pretense of bi-coastalism by swooping down on Los Angeles at irregular intervals.