“I think any journalist can agree we don’t love editors, right?” Tara Palmeri jokes when asked why she walked away from a job that paid far above the industry standard. And, what is more, from a newsroom where “the writing is really beautiful.”
Earlier this month, Palmeri left her job at New York City-headquartered media startup Puck, where she had secured three vanishingly rare things for a 37-year-old reporter: a $260,000 salary, equity in the company, and her own column.
Despite the perks – and a career spent moving through America’s renowned newsrooms – she felt something was still missing.
“Puck‘s writing is eloquent. It’s a magazine style, very distinctive in its voice, but it represents the editor-in-chief. It wasn’t my voice,” she told Mediatrends. “It was time to just be me.”
Her three-year run at the startup now looks like a prelude to the next phase: her current solo project.
“We don’t like when editors touch our work, changing what we meant to say or injecting their own takes.”
But, besides editorial independence, she added, “I’ve always had a more entrepreneurial spirit. Going into startups made more sense for me. And now, I’m doing the ultimate startup, which is starting my own.”
Tara Palmeri, author of the Substack newsletter The Red Letter.
Dispatch with edge
Palmeri passed through a range of networks and magazines, each different in form, tone, and editorial stance.
Starting with an internship at Voice of America in 2008, she went on to work for CNN, the Washington Examiner, the New York Post, Politico – in both Washington and Brussels -, CNBC, and ABC.
“I’m an amalgamation of all those places and the things I learned.”
But now, for the first time, she can choose what to cover – and how to cover it.
In an era of deep polarisation, much of it inherited from a long-standing political rifts and intensified during Donald Trump’s presidency, many outlets found themselves siding with one camp or the other.
The MAGA world projects itself through a web of conservative news influencers and podcasts – à la Joe Rogan, Tucker Carlson, and Alex Jones, while new anti-Trump progressive media like MeidasTouch and Jennifer Rubin’s The Contrarian are gaining traction by “mimicking the right-wing tone. And it’s working.”
Somewhere in the middle stands Palmeri.
She often opens her videos with a personal motto – one she had already used in her Puck bio: “I’m considered one of the most feared and fearless political reporters, because I don’t play for either side.”
A line that neatly captures the former Politico reporter’s signature formula: delivering quality journalism with a hint of provocation – a mix she honed during her five-year tenure at the New York Post.
In her Substack newsletter, The Red Letter, and her YouTube channel, Palmeri speaks unfiltered – occasionally using colourful language in quoting sources.
“Sensational journalism can be quality,” she said. “In American history, some of the best reporters were part of the Muckrakers” – early 20th-century reporters who used punchy, dramatic storytelling to expose major scandals.
Thanks to The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, the public became aware of the grim working conditions in the US meat-packing industry.
Reporters like Ida Tarbell, Lincoln Steffels, and David Graham Phillips helped shape modern investigative journalism by targeting what they called the Robber Barons, industrial giants who exploited legal grey zones to entrench their power.
“Nellie Bly, one of the most famous, went undercover in a mental health institution to show how people were treated. And she used a sensational style,” Palmeri said.
“Our biggest prize, the Pulitzer Prize was founded by Joseph Pulitzer, a yellow journalist. So who are we to say that quality journalism has to be boring to be news? If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, then who cares?”
The curtain rises
In 2021, while working for Politico, Palmeri experienced the effects of tough reporting at least twice – once from the inside, once externally.
As she said to The New York Times and in a YouTube video, the newsroom “ostracised” her over a story she wrote about an accident involving a gun owned by Hunter Biden.
Around the same time, former White House deputy press secretary TJ Ducklo threatened to “destroy” Palmeri for publishing details about his relationship with Axios reporter Alexi McCammond in Politico‘s Playbook.
“The culture at the company had changed, and I felt it wasn’t right for me anymore. It wasn’t the same scrappy place I’d worked at when I was at Politico in Europe,” she said. “It had become more bureaucratic and more political.”
Now, the problem persists, but its roots have shifted.
Unlike Trump’s first term, big techs have ended their fact-checking programmes and dismantled DEI departments, while some news outlets are adjusting their editorial lines to meet the White House’s expectations and avoid open confrontation.
“I sense a hesitation to challenge Trump. Nobody seems to want to mess with hime right now, since he’s coming off a big victory, winning the popular vote. But that might change.”
Last week, she obtained the notice of termination for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty funding, signed by Kari Lake, who was recently appointed special advisor to the US Agency for Global Media, the federal body that oversees Voice of America.
Three days later, the broadcaster sued the White House, citing Lake and Acting CEO of USAGM, Victor Morales – whose appointment has not been confirmed by the US Senate, as required.
🚨I obtained the notice of termination for @RFERL grant that was sent this morning to management. Also, check out @KariLake‘s title at the end of the letter: “Senior advisor to the acting CEO with authorities delegated by Acting CEO” pic.twitter.com/KlFNtRE6Zv
— Tara Palmeri (@tarapalmeri) March 15, 2025
Presenting the audience with the full process of creating a news story – from gathering information, as in this specific case, to final analysis – is Palmery’s primary tool.
“I want to pull back the curtain and show the supply chain of the news. Let people see how journalism is done,” she said.
“If you look at my first piece about Elon Musk’s staff despising him, you get an idea of what I mean. I tell you who I called, who said what, and what my reporting is based on.”
The ultimate goal is to build “a community of trust,” made up of readers and viewers “who believe in me and my work. So, if you have any doubts about what I’m offering you, I can walk you through exactly how I got to the final product.”
News democratisation, again
Betting on YouTube, Palmeri is now playing on a pitch entirely different from her previous newsrooms.
On the platform, anyone can claim to be doing journalism.
With new media amplifying their voices, there’s a further stage in the “democratisation of news and a more level playing field,” she said.
“I’ve seen some really good investigative reporting on YouTube by people who aren’t your traditional journalists. They might not know the rules like I do,” and that can raise transparency concerns, particularly around financing.
“There’s a lot of money going to these investigators, these influencers. And some of that money comes from Political Action Committees,” Palmeri said.
“It’s concerning, because that kind of content often leans toward one ideological spectrum or the other. And those people investigate certain targets because they’re asked to by their funders.”
Aside from YouTube – which selects its campaigns independently -, Palmeri said she’s considering adding a paywall to The Red Letter on Substack in the future, though she’s also exploring commercial options.
“Ads can be an alternative to avoid a paywall. But it has to be the right advertiser. You have to be careful about which brands you’re associated with,” she said.
Even in the case of a paid subscription, only a selection of The Red Letter‘s content will go premium.
“My previous employer puts up a paywall after the second paragraph, but I don’t want to do that. I’ll decide what I think belongs behind it and what doesn’t. Some stories are in the public interest and just need to be told.”
