Given that more people are getting their news from social media, you may not know the name of the journalist who co-authored and broke the story about the Secret Service aiding Hunter Biden after his gun went missing, or who first reported that Nancy Pelosi would remain in Congress but not seek a leadership role within the Democratic Party.
Her name is Tara Palmeri, and in her sixteen years in journalism, she has informed readers of the Washington Examiner, “Page Six,” the New York Post, Politico, and Puck, as well as viewers of CNBC, CNN, and ABC. Regardless of where the outlets she’s worked for fall on the media bias chart, Palmeri has consistently reported, as she puts it, “without fear or favor”—a stance that has led to personal attacks from both Republicans and Democrats. Former Trump White House press secretary Sean Spicer called her “an idiot with no real sources.” Pelosi’s former deputy chief of staff, Drew Hammill, said, “She’s not a real journalist.”
Palmeri began her journalism career at CNN as a news assistant. Most recently, she served as senior political correspondent and a partner at Puck. Despite crawling under her bed as a child pretending to be a war correspondent and conducting Oprah-style interviews with whoever was nearby in her Lincoln, New Jersey home, Palmeri never imagined herself becoming a journalist. She thought it was too glamorous and even told her guidance counselor—who suggested journalism—that it wasn’t a real job. Still, she kept the suggestion in mind and applied to—and was accepted by—American University.
Although her parents wanted her to attend Rutgers, Palmeri chose AU, where she studied communications. One of her professors—and the first journalist she ever met—was Nicholas Clooney, father of actor George Clooney. While at AU, Palmeri realized she wanted to pursue journalism and told her parents. They weren’t thrilled. Her dad told her, “Journalists are miserable people.” Her mom added, “You’re gonna be a waitress forever.”
Determined to do what she loved, Palmeri bet on herself. She became the first in her family to graduate from a four-year university—earning summa cum laude honors along the way. That bet paid off—not just academically, but professionally.
In nine months, Palmeri went from going on coffee runs, printing scripts, and turning on teleprompters as a news assistant at CNN to writing for the “Yeas & Nays” column of the Washington Examiner. This career move resulted from Palmeri sending an email with clips from her time at The Eagle, the AU school paper, to an editor at the Washington Examiner. After helping “Yeas & Nays” go from 25,000 monthly views to 1 million, Palmeri left the Washington Examiner to work at the New York Post.
In five years at the New York Post, she covered the likes of Donald Trump as a reporter for “Page Six” and New York’s political elite as a general assignment reporter and City Hall/political reporter for the Post. Having made it where she wanted to be at the Post, covering City Hall, Palmeri felt stagnant and decided to leave the Post for Politico’s European edition, Politico EU, which was in its infancy stage in 2015. As a foreign correspondent for Politico EU, she covered the European Union, Brexit, and the Greek financial crisis from Brussels, Belgium.
After two years at Politico EU, Palmeri returned to Washington, D.C., to cover a familiar face, Trump, and his administration for Politico as a White House correspondent. Lured by the prestige of the news organization and position and what it offered in terms of reach, she left Politico to join ABC News as its White House correspondent.
However, her excitement about joining ABC News faded into disillusionment because ABC would not allow Palmeri to report her original stories. Reflecting on her decision to leave Politico for ABC News, Palmeri said, “I should have probably stayed at Politico because I would have been able to do more journalism as a writer than waiting to get on television.”
She would return to Politico four years later in 2021 as a co-author of Playbook, and in 2022, she became its chief national correspondent. In the two years between her departure from ABC News and return to Politico, Palmeri traded in the White House lawn for a makeshift podcast studio as she hosted the podcasts, Broken: Jeffrey Epstein and Power: The Maxwells.
Like she had done during her first stint at Politico, Palmeri took on other jobs during her second stint with the newspaper. During her first tenure with Politico, Palmeri was a CNBC contributor and a political analyst for CNN. In her second tenure with them, she continued to host Power: The Maxwells and hosted a Discovery Inc. documentary for its streaming service, Discovery+. Seven years after helping Politico EU get up and running, Palmeri left Politico in 2022 to join a new startup, Puck.
As Puck’s senior political correspondent, she authored its newsletter, “The Best & The Brightest,” contributed to its news podcast, The Powers That Be: Daily, and, in collaboration with Spotify and The Ringer, hosted “Somebody’s Gotta Win with Tara Palmeri.” The New York Times reported that for her work at Puck, Palmeri earned a base salary of $260,000. Coming a long way from earning an estimated $48,600 on a $15 hourly wage and working 90 hours a week as a news assistant at CNN.
“Everybody’s on YouTube. If that’s where people are going, I’m choosing the platform where people are.”
However, earlier this year, Palmeri made the biggest bet on herself when she decided to leave Puck and venture out independently as a journalist. The new home for her in-depth reporting and scoops is YouTube. A mutual friend connected Palmeri and YouTube, she said.
Palmeri will receive funding and training through a YouTube program meant to support the “next generation” of independent journalists, reported The Times. The newspaper reported that Palmeri bought $10,000 worth of equipment with a grant YouTube gave her. In return for YouTube investing in her, Palmeri will post about four videos a week on the platform.
Speaking to me about her decision to take her unbiased reporting to YouTube, Palmeri said, “Everybody’s on YouTube. If that’s where people are going, I’m choosing the platform where people are.” Palmeri is right. According to Global Media Insight, YouTube is the second most popular social media platform behind Facebook, with around 2.7 billion users worldwide, and the second most visited website behind Google.
As for YouTube partnering with independent journalists like Palmeri, a spokesperson for the company said, “YouTube is the go-to destination for the next generation of journalists and newsrooms. Our platform is expanding the media landscape for traditional outlets and independent journalists alike at a time when viewers are seeking out authentic voices.”
Palmeri agrees that there is a desire for authenticity from the public, and people are looking elsewhere for it, given the current lack of trust in mainstream media. She hopes that by being herself, speaking in her voice, which she describes as “brassy” and “casual” but “forceful” and “authoritative,” and non-partisan, she can reach independents and Generation Z via YouTube.
In addition to her partnership with YouTube, Palmeri has launched her newsletter, “The Red Letter,” on Substack, where she promises to continue to do the reporting that made her, as she says, “one of the most feared and fearless political reporters”, and a podcast “The Tara Palmeri Show.”
You can support Palmeri by subscribing to her YouTube channel, @TaraPalmeri, and/or “The Red Letter,” and/or listening to “The Tara Palmeri Show” wherever you get your podcasts.