Jordan Chariton

Chariton was born and raised in Long Island, New York.[3] He graduated from the University of Tampa in 2008.[3]

Chariton was the first investigative reporter hired by The Young Turks network. He was hired to run "The Young Turks Politics" arm of the network, involved largely in on-the-scene reporting rather than reporting from the network's main studio in Culver City, California. He is best known for covering (at the scene) the Flint water crisis,[6] the protests at Standing Rock, North Dakota,[5] and the DNC Wikileaks scandal[7] as well as the Podesta emails.[8] He reported on the controversy involving Democratic National Committee interim chairwoman Donna Brazile during the 2016 presidential election.[4] He also reported on the water crisis at Cape Fear, North Carolina.[9]

Prior to joining The Young Turks, Chariton worked as a contributor for cable news networks Fox News[3] and MSNBC[3] for a total of four years. When Gloria Allred accidentally publicly released her press email list in 2012, Chariton was on it representing MSNBC.[10] Chariton also reported for TheWrap[11] and TVNewser, Salon,[3] and Mediaite,[3] as well as the non-profit 92nd Street Y[3][12] where he was nominated for a 2013 Webby Award.

Chariton and The Young Turks cameraman Ty Bayliss were arrested in St. Louis on October 3, 2017 while reporting on a demonstration against police violence. The protest was organized in response to the acquittal (in September 2017) of Jason Stockley, a St. Louis police officer who fatally shot Anthony Lamar Smith. After the arrest, on misdemeanor charges of trespassing,[13] Cenk Uygur tweeted to demand the immediate release of Chariton and Bayliss and to declare that the arrest was a violation of the First Amendment and a clear attack on the freedom of the press.[13]

On November 17, 2017, Chariton parted from The Young Turks, days after he was accused of misconduct in a contributor HuffPost blog post by Christian Chiakulas, which was quickly removed by the platform.[14][15] During an online broadcast on November 22, 2017, host Cenk Uygur alleged that Chariton had misused company resources in promoting his former non-profit, Truth Against the Machine.[16] Chariton published a defense of himself declaring innocence of all allegations, and intent to pursue litigation.[17][18][19]

The Young Turks later revised their initial public statement on January 12, 2018, saying in part, "we never said, or meant to infer, that he 'stole' anything from us. This chapter is now closed."[20] Chariton settled the matter with TYT.[21] Chiakulas also later apologized for the way he used private information without permission in an earlier post in an additional post on HuffPost.[22] On January 18, 2018, HuffPost fully removed their contributor blogging platform due to misuse and unverifiable postings.[21]

In February, 2018, Chariton launched a YouTube channel and reporting website under an umbrella of reporting called Jordan Chariton Reports. As part of Jordan Chariton Reports, on May 27, 2018, he released an investigative piece on TruthDig showing that the science and data used to declare the water safe in Flint, Michigan was suspect,[23] which was later featured on May 31, 2018, on the Thom Hartmann Program.[24]

In 2018 Chariton started, jointly with Jenn Dize, an independent investigative reporting network and media outlet, called Status Coup,[25] which features in-field and investigative reporting around the country from both them and other reporters.[26]

On April 23, 2019, Status Coup released the documentary Flushing Flint which claimed that the water testing by Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) was manipulated by MDEQ staff taking water samples after flushing running water from taps for several minutes before taking the samples, contrary to normal procedures for water testing for lead and copper, and by MDEQ staff telling residents that they should take water samples after flushing running water from their taps for several minutes.[27][28] This would clearly contravene the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) guidance that samples taken must be "first-draw samples at taps in homes/buildings".[29]

On April 16, 2020, evidence of corruption and a cover-up in the Flint Water Crisis by former Michigan Governor Rick Snyder and his “fixer” Rich Baird was exposed in an article published by Vice News. The article was written by Jordan Chariton and Jenn Dize, the co-founders of Status Coup, with photos by Brittany Greeson.[30] The responses from Michigan state authorities denied that a deadline was approaching, and said that criminal prosecutions would follow.[31][32]