fbpx
[additional-authors]
October 29, 2009

Steven Waldman, the founding editor in chief of Beliefnet who saved the religious news site from bankruptcy, is leaving for the FCC:

I’m going to become “Senior Advisor to the Chairman” at the FCC, helping (in the words of the press release) “to assess the state of media in these challenging economic times and make policy recommendations designed to ensure a vibrant media landscape.

In a way, it feels a bit like 1999 for me. I started Beliefnet because I thought a particular group—people of faith—weren’t getting the information they needed. Now, there may be a more systemic crisis in journalism and I’m honored to be able to help address that.

One last factor: I know Julius Genachowski, the new chairman of the FCC, quite well. He’s as talented, honest and decent a person as you’ll find in public service.

I won’t be able to resist reminiscing in this space before I leave—about the extraordinary people I’ve worked with, the caring people I’ve met in the faith and spirituality community, and about how privileged I feel to have been given this gift for the past 10+ years.

This is big news, even if you haven’t seen any mention of it.

Did you enjoy this article?
You'll love our roundtable.

Editor's Picks

Latest Articles

A Tale of Two Sunday Evenings in California

While Bill Maher and John Fetterman demonstrated an understanding of Jewish values, across town at the Emmys we saw just the opposite, delivered with the hollow prefix “as a Jew.”

SNL’s Bowen Yang Has a Genocide Problem

Why is Saturday Night Live star Bowen Yang falsely accusing Israel of genocide, while ignoring the confirmed genocide perpetrated against Muslim Uyghurs in China?

Rosh Hashanah and the American Dream

In reviving this dream, Milken’s center is reviving something even more vital– our faith in life. It is that very faith in life, that force that drove our ancestors, where we can find our optimism as we enter the Jewish new year.

More news and opinions than at a
Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.