NPR Hails Forward For Tackling Sebastian Gorka Story

Forward editor-in-chief Jane Eisner. Image by Forward Montage

By Dave Goldiner May 4, 2017

National Public Radio put a national spotlight Thursday morning on the Forward’s groundbreaking coverage of President Trump’s controversial aide Sebastian Gorka, crediting the paper with pushing the White House to the brink of ousting him.

Framing the Forward as a kind of little Jewish paper that could, reporter David Folkenflik interviewed Editor-in-Chief Jane Eisner about the “outsized” role it has played in exposing Gorka’s ties to Hungarian anti-Semites and allies of the Nazis.

“That’s where the Jewish value of searching for truth and the journalistic value of searching for the truth happily collide,” Eisner said.

The interview aired nationwide during NPR’s popular morning drive-time show Morning Edition.

Folkenflik offered listeners a quick primer on the role the Forward has played in telling the American Jewish story, from its days as a muckraking daily on the Lower East Side a century ago to its important place in today’s crowded digital media landscape.

Eisner explained that the Gorka story is a perfect example of how the Forward can impact the national debate by focusing on a Jewish angle — while covering the big story of President Trump’s new administration.

“We are continuing this rich journalistic tradition,” Eisner said, “but we are writing for a much broader audience.”

Dave Goldiner is the Forward’s director of digital media. Dave is a veteran journalist who has spent two decades working at newspapers in the United States and Africa. A native New Yorker, Goldiner wrote for the New York Daily News, where he covered some of the biggest stories of our time, including the attacks of September 11, along with thousands of stories of hope and heartbreak. He also studied and worked in Southern Africa and has written for publications in South Africa and Zimbabwe. He holds masters degrees in journalism and public administration from Columbia University. Dave can be reached at [email protected], or follow him on Twitter @davegoldiner

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