David Sirota

David J. Sirota (born November 2, 1975) is the founder and editor-in-chief of ''The Lever'', a reader-supported investigative news outlet focused on exposing the negative influence of corporate corruption on American society. Sirota was a speechwriter and senior adviser for the Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign. In 2022, he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay for conceiving the story for Netflix's ''Don't Look Up'' alongside co-writer and director Adam McKay.

Sirota's professional career has spanned politics, media, and journalism. In politics, he has held roles such as campaign manager, fundraiser, spokesperson, strategist, and consultant for a variety of left-leaning Democratic candidates and office holders. He twice worked for Bernie Sanders, both when Sanders was a member of the U. S. House of Representatives and as part of Sanders 2020 presidential campaign. He was also a staff member of the Center for American Progress, a liberal research and advocacy group.

Sirota has also been a columnist for ''Guardian US'', editor-at-large for American left publication ''Jacobin'' and senior investigations editor for ''The International Business Times''. He has also worked as television writer and radio host. He has written three books: ''Hostile Takeover'' (2006), an exploration of corruption in the U.S. political system, ''The Uprising'' (2008), about ordinary citizens frustrations with the U.S. government, and ''Back to Our Future'' (2011), which explores how the politics and culture of the 1980s influenced the thinking of later generations.

In his political career, Sirota has been described by his critics as "an attack dog", and by his allies as "intense, driven, even obsessive", and someone with an "eye for critique and the instinct for the jugular [of his political opponents]." In 2003, journalist Richard Wolffe described Sirota as "a man on a mission." In 2023, reflecting on Sirota's varied career, former CNN host Brian Stelter wrote, "Sirota's life has been one long campaign against plutocrats and the corrupt politicians who enable them." Provided by Wikipedia