Five years ago today, I began working at BuzzFeed.
“[N]ot sure where you are going to sit – we are jammed! – but your computer is on my desk,” Ben Smith, our editor-in-chief throughout my entire time here, wrote to me about the NYC office the afternoon before I started.
I was the 127th employee at BuzzFeed, the 49th editorial-side employee, and the 2nd employee at our first bureau: DC.
Now, BuzzFeed has more than 10 times as many employees, there are multiple US bureaus, and BuzzFeed exists around the world.
The time that has passed since I left Metro Weekly (my first home in my post-law school DC journalism adventure and a place to which I will always be grateful) to start at BuzzFeed on July 16, 2012, has led to a story that I wouldn’t have believed if you had told me it. It has been a remarkable five years, and I am so grateful that I have been privileged to cover them at BuzzFeed (now, BuzzFeed News, per my business cards).
That first day, I wrote about the Defense of Marriage Act — specifically, a case brought by Edith Windsor challenging the law. (I already had published one story with BuzzFeed, the week before I began, also about DOMA.)
It would be a sign of things to come. In the months that followed, of course, the Supreme Court would agree to hear Edie’s case, and I had the chance to profile her, and talk with her lawyer, Robbie Kaplan, as well. (Before the arguments, I talked with Evan Wolfson and Andrew Sullivan about the path they and the country had traveled on marriage. Later that summer, I also had the chance to spend the day in Maine with Mary Bonauto, one of the key figures in the marriage equality story.)
The Supreme Court’s decision to strike down DOMA’s ban on federal recognition of same-sex couples’ marriages led — more quickly than most of us imagined — into a year of nearly constant court rulings on various states’ marriage laws, with the high court initially putting cases off, but eventually leading the story back to the Supreme Court.
As 2015 began, I returned to my home state of Ohio to profile Jim Obergefell — the lead plaintiff in the lead case before the justices. The Supreme Court, in June, ruled 5-4 against the states’ marriage bans, bringing marriage equality to all of America.
In 2015, I also told previously untold stories from the past 30 years of LGBT history. I told the story from the Reagan White House of how Nancy Reagan had turned down Rock Hudson’s plea — months before he would die of complications from AIDS — for help from Paris. I also told stories from the Clinton White House — of the record from White House documents about the reasons why President Clinton supported DOMA in 1996 and the time when White House staff briefly considered recommending that Clinton shift his position on marriage equality in 2000.
As my time at BuzzFeed News progressed — starting after the DOMA decision in 2013 — I was given the opportunity to expand my writing into the broader legal world, being named legal editor. (Over the years, Tony Merevick, Dominic Holden, and now David Mack and Nidhi Prakash have stepped up to cover the ever-evolving world of LGBT news reporting, which has been essential to me feeling comfortable moving into other work. Dominic, who I’ve now worked closely with for several years, is an amazing reporter who has taught me much.) As part of that new role, I started covering more and more of the Supreme Court’s work, and I began taking a closer look at criminal justice and election law issues. (I traveled with then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch to Alabama in 2016, as she focused on re-entry efforts for those people in — and released from — federal prisons.)
I’ve spent a lot of time over the past three years delving into what’s happening with the death penalty in America (along with two other incredible reporters, Chris McDaniel and Tasneem Nashrulla). I’ve covered the Supreme Court, individual justices, those who are working to end it, and those states trying to carry out executions. This April, for example, I extensively covered the attempt by Arkansas to carry out eight executions over the course of two weeks.
I also, though, have stayed with one of the stories that has captured my attention since I was at Metro Weekly: The legal fight seeking protection for LGBT people from discrimination under existing civil rights laws.
And, there is the court itself. In 2016, I covered the first unexpected story of the year: Justice Antonin Scalia’s death. I was in the Rose Garden for DC Circuit Judge Merrick Garland’s nomination to the vacancy left by Scalia’s death, a nomination that led to my May 2016 interview with President Obama about the nomination and the Supreme Court more broadly.
Of course, Garland never reached the Supreme Court. Donald Trump won the presidential election — meaning the court, which had briefly appeared to be preparing itself for a liberal ascendancy, would lean conservative again.
Then-Tenth Circuit Judge Neil Gorsuch was nominated and confirmed, and the court has — for the most part — shifted accordingly.
I am humbled to get to cover the Supreme Court on a nearly daily basis. I’ve learned so much from many folks who have been covering the justices for decades, and I am incredibly thankful to them for welcoming me into the small group of reporters who look into all of the ins and outs of the high court.
Then, and finally for now, there is Donald Trump.
The Trump presidency has provided me with a lot to do. The stories that I feel I cover best are those at the intersection of law, politics, and policy — and the young Trump administration has given an almost unending supply of important stories to tell on that front. From the Emoluments Clause to wild impeachment claims, the Constitution itself has been front and center in unexpected ways in 2017. In terms of Trump’s actions, my focus has been on his executive orders. I have had extensive coverage (along with the fantastic Zoe Tillman) of both iterations of the travel and refugee ban, as well as the sanctuary cities order.
There will, doubtless, be much more to come, and I am thrilled to be at BuzzFeed News, with the co-workers and editors I have, to cover this time.
In these past five years at BuzzFeed, I’ve written 1,607 posts. Averaging out to about 320 a year, that’s, on average, one every weekday over the past five years and one each weekend since I started. (Of course, in some of these past 250-plus weeks, I’ve written more than 10 stories. Some weeks, I’ve written only one or two stories. A precious few weeks, I’ve even taken off — something I plan to do this summer again! But, I digress.)
In any event, it’s been a wild ride, and I’m forever grateful to Ben for offering me a spot at BuzzFeed, to Jonah for building this place, and to Ben, Shani, John, McKay, Katherine, Kyle, CJ, Kate, Sarah, Steve, Lisa, Tom, Miriam, Jon, David, Jason, and Michelle for editing my work at different points (and different times!) all these years. (I’m so grateful, too, to all of my family and friends, who have supported me throughout all of this — including my working ridiculous hours on ridiculous stories (see, e.g., this past week).)
Here’s to Monday, the next scoop (email me!), the week ahead, and the next five years.