Gideon Yago
Encyclopedia
MTV News
MTV News is the news division of MTV, one of the first and most popular music television network in the U.S., as well as some of MTV's related channels around the world. MTV News began in the late 1980s with the program The Week In Rock, hosted by Kurt Loder, the first official MTV News correspondent...
and CBS News
CBS News
CBS News is the news division of American television and radio network CBS. The current chairman is Jeff Fager who is also the executive producer of 60 Minutes, while the current president of CBS News is David Rhodes. CBS News' flagship program is the CBS Evening News, hosted by the network's main...
though he is most recognized for his contributions to MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
.
Background
Yago was born in Madison, WisconsinMadison, Wisconsin
Madison is the capital of the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Dane County. It is also home to the University of Wisconsin–Madison....
to a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
mother and an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
father who met in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
. He grew up in Queens, New York http://www.usaweekend.com/04_issues/040606/040606whosnews.html where he wrote and published a zine
Zine
A zine is most commonly a small circulation publication of original or appropriated texts and images. More broadly, the term encompasses any self-published work of minority interest usually reproduced via photocopier....
called Corpuscle http://www.villagevoice.com/2004-04-06/news/rage-inside-the-machine/1. He graduated from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
and began working for MTV News
MTV News
MTV News is the news division of MTV, one of the first and most popular music television network in the U.S., as well as some of MTV's related channels around the world. MTV News began in the late 1980s with the program The Week In Rock, hosted by Kurt Loder, the first official MTV News correspondent...
during the presidential election of 2000
United States presidential election, 2000
The United States presidential election of 2000 was a contest between Republican candidate George W. Bush, then-governor of Texas and son of former president George H. W. Bush , and Democratic candidate Al Gore, then-Vice President....
. At the age of 21, during the end of his senior year at Columbia, he had a full-time position at MTV.
Initially, Yago worked primarily as a writer for the MTV News department. From 2002-2003, Yago wrote and produced the MTV News magazine "The Wrap" on MTV2. As his time at MTV progressed, Yago switched gears and began focusing on politics, rather than music, on MTV News. Yago has worked on award-winning documentaries on sexual health, the 9/11 attacks
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
, fighting in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
, hate crimes, the 2000 and 2004 elections
United States presidential election, 2004
The United States presidential election of 2004 was the United States' 55th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 2, 2004. Republican Party candidate and incumbent President George W. Bush defeated Democratic Party candidate John Kerry, the then-junior U.S. Senator...
, and the war in Iraq. These awards include: 2003 Peabody Award Winner for his programming on MTV’s “Fight For Your Rights: Protect Yourself” sexual health campaign List of Peabody Award winners (2000-2009)#2003, a 2004 Emmy for MTV’s Choose or Lose Programming, 2006 Emmy nomination for web coverage of the 2005 Earthquake in Kashmir http://www.emmyonline.org/emmy/docu_new_media_awards.htmlhttp://www.mtv.com/news/topics/a/aftershock_pakistan/. In 2005 Yago covered the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
in New Orleans and the devastating Kashmir Earthquake
2005 Kashmir earthquake
The 2005 Kashmir earthquake was a major earthquake centered in Pakistan-administered Kashmir known as Azad Kashmir, near the city of Muzaffarabad, affecting Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It occurred at 08:52:37 Pakistan Standard Time on 8 October 2005...
in Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
and India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
.
Towards the end of his career at MTV, Yago devoted most of his time to covering issues surrounding the Iraq War and its affect on young veterans. In 2004 he told Charlie Rose he thought the war was the top issue for young people in America http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZpnRKVHjjo. His 2006 MTV Special "Iraq Uploaded" http://www.spike.com/video/mtv-news-iraq/2755238 unintentionally helped change Pentagon policy denying wartime access to social networking sites as MTV is the only non-filesharing or social networking site mentioned in the subsequent ban http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18659901/. Yago also discussed Iraq Uploaded with Stephen Colbert in August 2005 http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/73430/august-23-2006/gideon-yago.
After years as a full-time member of MTV News, Yago left the network in January 2007 writing: http://idolator.com/231893/breaking-gideon-yago-leaving-mtv:
"We are lucky to have an audience that treats us as peers. Though it might be seductive to play the short game with their trust in return for stacked
favors and immediate gains, please keep fighting for them and thinking of them in the fine work that you all do. They deserve as much."
Throughout his career Yago has interviewed many politicians, musicians, and other celebrities including former President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
, former President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
, Senator John Kerry
John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to former President George W...
, former Secretary of State Colin Powell
Colin Powell
Colin Luther Powell is an American statesman and a retired four-star general in the United States Army. He was the 65th United States Secretary of State, serving under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African American to serve in that position. During his military...
, former Vice President Al Gore
Al Gore
Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. served as the 45th Vice President of the United States , under President Bill Clinton. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in the 2000 U.S. presidential election....
, and Senator John McCain
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
, as well as other prominent figures including former Ambassador L. Paul Bremer III and Bill Gates
Bill Gates
William Henry "Bill" Gates III is an American business magnate, investor, philanthropist, and author. Gates is the former CEO and current chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen...
. Yago's writing has appeared in Spin, Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
, and VICE magazines. Several of Yago's pieces of writing have later become the basis for documentary material. For example, his 2003 article “No War For Heavy Metal” became the basis for Vice Film’s 2007 documentary “Heavy Metal in Baghad” http://www.viceland.com/int/v11n1/htdocs/no.php http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/notebook/2008/03/31/080331gonb_GOAT_notebook_frerejones http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVNAWR0xnPY. Also, Yago's piece for PRI’s “This American Life” about a teenaged propagandist for Saddam Hussein http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1193 became the basis for their “Talk To An Iraqi” segment on the second season of “This American Life” on Showtime http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPEX0PnV-LU.
While at MTV News, Yago made several political donations to Democrats and liberal groups.
Yago now works primarily as a screenwriter. In 2006 Focus Features acquired his script "Underdog" http://login.vnuemedia.com/hr/login/login_subscribe.jsp?id=WMiyGvaF3L8Swr%2F6M%2BC2E%2BNq5k7EK4X34Wu2iZtIIOg4gjgDAsYGPRhZ6W4x%2BBq5CBKIs8LdUfaJ%0Ak2gcjTzJo9gZIZxvEA1vqZptWzcDGONkE7vOTIJdVHocevZG3x4z0T4bxQXPzZlTBEMKHexv8U26%0AYbx%2B263I38BOdxmZxgWHLyt0c7wG2rHoQYMn6LR7fRedZVGD5ea%2FFT3%2FnOaLovz9G8RXSckgin5d%0AKdH1%2FCFll3GBXkMKtEGV2C%2BmMOFraqNT2XWwipNvnF1FWOtJuEO%2FsrVcX97CksXjCPSEylQege2W%0AL5qi14mTaByNPMmj2BkhnG8QDW%2Bpmm1bNwMY44t2OTzZLMpE]about veterans returning home from war. It has no set production or release date. Most recently, Yago has completed a short series with IFC. The IFC Media Project is "a user's guide to how the news gets made" promising to expose the tactics used by media giants to "sell" the news. Yago will return as host of the second season of The IFC Media Project, premiering in May 2009.