Alessandra Stanley | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1955-10-03)October 3, 1955 (age 70) Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Language | English |
| Alma mater | Harvard University |
| Genre | Journalism |
| Notable awards | Matrix Award (1993) Weintal Prize (1998) |
| Spouse | Michael Specter (former) |
| Children | 1 |
Alessandra Stanley (born October 3, 1955) is an American journalist and formerNew York Times writer and critic.[1] She is currently the co-editor of a weekly newsletter "for worldly cosmopolitans" that launched in 2019 calledAir Mail, alongside formerVanity Fair editor-in-chiefGraydon Carter.[2] Her most recentAir Mail columns focus on Trump and the 2024 election.
NotableAir Mail stories include a ten-part series on the2022 University of Idaho murders, and an investigation in the real-life predations of the founder ofSchool of Rock.[3][4]
She was born inBoston,Massachusetts, and grew up inWashington, D.C., and Europe. She is the daughter ofNATO defense advisor Timothy W. Stanley.[5] She studied literature atHarvard University[6] and then became a correspondent forTime, working overseas as well as inLos Angeles and inWashington, D.C., where she covered theWhite House. Stanley then moved toThe New York Times as a foreign correspondent, first as co-chief of theMoscow bureau,[5] and thenRome bureau chief. In 2003 she became the chieftelevision critic forThe New York Times.[7][8] She has also written forThe New York Times Magazine,The New Republic,GQ andVogue.
In 1993, Alessandra Stanley receivedThe Matrix Award fromWomen in Communications,[9] and in 1998, she received theWeintal Prize for Diplomatic Reporting.[10]
Among Stanley's notable columns are her critical take on the series finale ofThe Sopranos,[11] her assessment ofJerry Sandusky's denial of charges of pedophilia toNBC[12] and her coverage of Russian television on the eve of the2012 Russian presidential election.[13]
In the fall of 2011, Stanley taught a class atPrinceton University called "Investigative Viewing: The Art ofTelevision Criticism", described as an "intensive introduction to criticism as it is undertaken at the highest level of a cultural institution".[14]
Several news and media organizations, including theTimes, have criticized the accuracy in some of her stories.[15][16][17][18] Among the articles that they have criticized are a September 5, 2005, piece onHurricane Katrina,[19] a 2005 article that mistakenly called the sitcomEverybody Loves Raymond "All About Raymond",[20] and a July 18, 2009, retrospective on the career ofWalter Cronkite that contained errors.[21] In an August 2009 article examining the mistakes in the Cronkite piece,Clark Hoyt, theTimes'spublic editor, described Stanley as "much admired by editors for the intellectual heft of her coverage of television" but "with a history of errors".[22] Then executive editorBill Keller defended Stanley, saying "She is — in my opinion, among others — a brilliant critic".[23]
Stanley wrote an article forThe New York Times in September 2014 entitled "Wrought in Rhimes's Image:Viola Davis Plays Shonda Rhimes's Latest Tough Heroine" about television seriesHow to Get Away with Murder and the career of itsAfrican-American producer,Shonda Rhimes.[24] Stanley wrote, "When Shonda Rhimes writes her autobiography, it should be called 'How to Get Away With Being anAngry Black Woman'", an expression that was seen by some as offensive. Stanley's piece, wrote theTimes's Public Editor,Margaret Sullivan, "struck many readers as completely off-base. Many called it offensive, while some went further, saying it was racist".[25] Stanley defended her piece, writing in an email message toTalking Points Memo, "[t]he whole point of the piece—once you read past the first 140 characters—is to praise Shonda Rhimes for pushing back so successfully on a tiresome but insidious stereotype".[26]
Stanley left theTimes in 2017, and began working onAir Mail with Graydon Carter in 2018.
In 2023, Stanley[27] co-authored a letter from the editor forAir Mail Weekly explaining their decision to let accused rapistArmie Hammer[28] tell his side of the story in response to charges filed against him in 2022. In the letter, Stanley cites their decision as wanting to “know why so few of the accusations against Hammer were examined seriously by the media or law enforcement.”[29]
Stanley was previously married toMichael Specter.[30] They have a daughter.