The Most Famous

JOURNALISTS from United States

This page contains a list of the greatest American Journalists. The pantheon dataset contains 196 Journalists, 42 of which were born in United States. This makes United States the birth place of the most number of Journalists.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary American Journalists of all time. This list of famous American Journalists is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of American Journalists.

1. Anna Politkovskaya (1958 - 2006)

With an HPI of 66.53, Anna Politkovskaya is the most famous American Journalist. Her biography has been translated into 77 different languages on wikipedia.

Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya (née Mazepa; 30 August 1958 – 7 October 2006) was a Russian investigative journalist who reported on political and social events in Russia, in particular, the Second Chechen War (1999–2005). It was her reporting from Chechnya that made her national and international reputation. For seven years, she refused to give up reporting on the war despite numerous acts of intimidation and violence. Politkovskaya was arrested by Russian military forces in Chechnya and subjected to a mock execution. She was poisoned while flying from Moscow via Rostov-on-Don to help resolve the 2004 Beslan school hostage crisis, and had to turn back, requiring careful medical treatment in Moscow to restore her health. Her post-1999 articles about conditions in Chechnya were turned into books several times; Russian readers' main access to her investigations and publications was through Novaya Gazeta, a Russian newspaper that featured critical investigative coverage of Russian political and social affairs. From 2000 onwards, she received numerous international awards for her work. In 2004, she published Putin's Russia, a personal account of Russia for a Western readership. On 7 October 2006 (notably, on the 54th birthday of Russian president Vladimir Putin), she was murdered in the elevator of her block of apartments, an assassination that attracted international attention. In 2014, five men were sentenced to prison for the murder, but it is still unclear who ordered or paid for the contract killing.

2. Dorothea Lange (1895 - 1965)

With an HPI of 63.66, Dorothea Lange is the 2nd most famous American Journalist. Her biography has been translated into 51 different languages.

Dorothea Lange (born Dorothea Margaretta Nutzhorn; May 26, 1895 – October 11, 1965) was an American documentary photographer and photojournalist, best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA). Lange's photographs influenced the development of documentary photography and humanized the consequences of the Great Depression.

3. John Reed (1887 - 1920)

With an HPI of 63.52, John Reed is the 3rd most famous American Journalist. His biography has been translated into 40 different languages.

John Silas Reed (October 22, 1887 – October 17, 1920) was an American journalist, poet, and communist activist. Reed first gained prominence as a war correspondent during the Mexican Revolution for Metropolitan and World War I for The Masses. He is best known for his coverage of the October Revolution in Petrograd, Russia, which he wrote about in his 1919 book Ten Days That Shook the World. Reed supported the Soviet takeover of Russia, even briefly taking up arms to join the Red Guards in 1918. He hoped for a similar communist revolution in the United States, and co-founded the short-lived Communist Labor Party of America in 1919. He died in Moscow of spotted typhus in 1920. At the time of his death, he may have soured on the Soviet leadership, but he was given a hero's burial by the Soviet Union and is one of only four Americans buried at the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.

4. W. Eugene Smith (1918 - 1978)

With an HPI of 60.04, W. Eugene Smith is the 4th most famous American Journalist. His biography has been translated into 23 different languages.

William Eugene Smith (December 30, 1918 – October 15, 1978) was an American photojournalist. He has been described as "perhaps the single most important American photographer in the development of the editorial photo essay." His major photo essays include World War II photographs, the visual stories of an American country doctor and a nurse midwife, the clinic of Albert Schweitzer in French Equatorial Africa, the city of Pittsburgh, and the pollution which damaged the health of the residents of Minamata in Japan. His 1948 series, Country Doctor, photographed for Life, is now recognized as "the first extended editorial photo story".

5. Lee Miller (1907 - 1977)

With an HPI of 59.81, Lee Miller is the 5th most famous American Journalist. Her biography has been translated into 36 different languages.

Elizabeth "Lee" Miller, Lady Penrose (April 23, 1907 – July 21, 1977), was an American photographer and photojournalist. Miller was a fashion model in New York City in the 1920s before going to Paris, becoming a fashion and fine-art photographer there. During World War II, she was a war correspondent for Vogue, covering events such as the London Blitz, the liberation of Paris and the concentration camps at Buchenwald and Dachau. Her reputation as an artist in her own right is due mostly to her son's discovery and promotion of her work as a fashion and war photographer.

6. Tucker Carlson (b. 1969)

With an HPI of 57.97, Tucker Carlson is the 6th most famous American Journalist. His biography has been translated into 48 different languages.

Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson (born May 16, 1969) is an American conservative political commentator and writer who hosted the nightly political talk show Tucker Carlson Tonight on Fox News from 2016 to 2023. Since his contract with Fox News was terminated, he has hosted Tucker on X. An advocate of the former U.S. president Donald Trump, Carlson has been described as "perhaps the highest-profile proponent of Trumpism", "the most influential voice in right-wing media, without a close second," and a leading voice of white grievance politics. Carlson began his media career in the 1990s, writing for The Weekly Standard and other publications. He was a CNN commentator from 2000 to 2005 and a co-host of Crossfire, the network's prime-time news debate program, from 2001 to 2005. From 2005 to 2008, he hosted the nightly program Tucker on MSNBC. In 2009, he became a political analyst for Fox News, appearing on various programs before launching his own show. In 2010, Carlson co-founded and served as the initial editor-in-chief of the right-wing news and opinion website The Daily Caller, until selling his ownership stake and leaving in 2020. He has written three books: Politicians, Partisans, and Parasites (2003), Ship of Fools (2018), and The Long Slide (2021). Carlson is known for circulating far-right ideas into mainstream politics and discourse. He has promoted conspiracy theories on topics such as demographic replacement, COVID-19, the January 6 United States Capitol attack, and Ukrainian bioweapons; and has been noted for false and misleading statements about these and other topics. Carlson's remarks on race, immigration, and women – including slurs he said on air between 2006 and 2011 – have been described by some as racist and sexist, and provoked advertiser boycotts of Tucker Carlson Tonight. In April 2023, Fox News dismissed Carlson and canceled his show without any explanation. It was Lachlan Murdoch who made the decision to fire him. Tucker Carlson Tonight had at that point been one of the most-watched cable news shows in the country. Carlson was among the hosts named in the Dominion Voting Systems v. Fox News Network defamation lawsuit for broadcasting false statements about the plaintiff company's voting machines that Fox News settled for $787.5 million and required Fox News to acknowledge that the broadcast statements were false. Carlson is a critic of immigration. Formerly an economic libertarian, he now supports protectionism. In 2004, he renounced his initial support for the Iraq War, and has since been skeptical of U.S. foreign interventions. He was said to have influenced some of Trump's decisions as president, including the cancellation of a military strike against Iran in 2019, the dismissal of John Bolton as National Security Advisor the same year, and the commutation of Roger Stone's prison sentence in 2020, and would criticize Trump when he believed he was straying from "Trumpism". Carlson has often defended the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin. In February 2024, he became the first Western journalist to interview Putin since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

7. Edgar Snow (1905 - 1972)

With an HPI of 57.31, Edgar Snow is the 7th most famous American Journalist. His biography has been translated into 24 different languages.

Edgar Parks Snow (July 19, 1905 – February 15, 1972) was an American journalist known for his books and articles on communism in China and the Chinese Communist Revolution. He was the first Western journalist to give an account of the history of the Chinese Communist Party following the Long March, and he was also the first Western journalist to interview many of its leaders, including Mao Zedong. He is best known for his book, Red Star Over China (1937), an account of the Chinese Communist movement from its foundation until the late 1930s.

8. Charles Dow (1851 - 1902)

With an HPI of 56.91, Charles Dow is the 8th most famous American Journalist. His biography has been translated into 27 different languages.

Charles Henry Dow (; November 6, 1851 – December 4, 1902) was an American journalist who co-founded Dow Jones & Company with Edward Jones and Charles Bergstresser. Dow also co-founded The Wall Street Journal, which has become one of the most respected financial publications in the world. He also invented the Dow Jones Industrial Average as part of his research into market movements. He developed a series of principles for understanding and analyzing market behavior which later became known as Dow theory, the groundwork for technical analysis.

9. Diana Nyad (b. 1949)

With an HPI of 56.87, Diana Nyad is the 9th most famous American Journalist. Her biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Diana Nyad (née Sneed; born August 22, 1949) is an American author, journalist, motivational speaker, and long-distance swimmer. Nyad gained national attention in 1975 when she swam around Manhattan (28 mi or 45 km) in record time. She has written four books and articles for various publications, hosted the public radio program The Savvy Traveler, appeared on the television shows CBS News Sunday Morning and Dancing with the Stars, and been a long-time contributor to the public radio programs All Things Considered and Marketplace. In 2013, on her fifth attempt and at age 64, she swam from Havana, Cuba, to Key West, Florida, a journey of 110 mi (180 km), allegedly completing the third known swim crossing of the Florida Straits after Walter Poenisch in 1978 and Susie Maroney in 1997. Both of those earlier efforts involved a shark cage and, in Poenisch's case, fins and several short rests on his escort craft. Nyad did not use fins or a cage, but did swim with a protective jellyfish suit, shark divers, and electronic shark repellent devices. Her crossing from Cuba to Florida was not conducted under the supervision of an organized sporting association, and ratification of the accomplishment was later denied by the World Open Water Swimming Association (WOWSA) for various reasons including incomplete observer logs with a 9-hour undocumented gap in observations, conflicting crew reports, nearly a decade of delay in providing documentation to seek formal ratification, dubious claims about the rules followed for the swim, and "backdated and falsified documentation". Guinness World Records initially certified Nyad's achievement, but revoked its certification after considering the findings by WOWSA. Her 2013 swim and partnership with athlete and businesswoman Bonnie Stoll were dramatized in the 2023 film Nyad, based on her 2015 memoir Find a Way.

10. Steve McCurry (b. 1950)

With an HPI of 56.82, Steve McCurry is the 10th most famous American Journalist. His biography has been translated into 29 different languages.

Steve McCurry (born February 24, 1950) is an American photographer, freelancer, and photojournalist. His photo Afghan Girl, of a girl with piercing green eyes, has appeared on the cover of National Geographic several times. McCurry has photographed many assignments for National Geographic and has been a member of Magnum Photos since 1986. McCurry is the recipient of numerous awards, including Magazine Photographer of the Year, awarded by the National Press Photographers Association; the Royal Photographic Society's Centenary Medal; and two first-place prizes in the World Press Photo contest (1985 and 1992).

People

Pantheon has 56 people classified as American journalists born between 1851 and 2000. Of these 56, 27 (48.21%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living American journalists include Tucker Carlson, Diana Nyad, and Steve McCurry. The most famous deceased American journalists include Anna Politkovskaya, Dorothea Lange, and John Reed. As of April 2024, 14 new American journalists have been added to Pantheon including Diana Nyad, Pauline Pfeiffer, and Dorothy Thompson.