Ruth Shalit

Ruth Shalit Barrett
Born
Ruth Shalit

1971 (age 52–53)
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.
Alma materPrinceton University
Occupation(s)Writer, journalist
SpouseRobertson Barrett (m. 2004)
RelativesWendy Shalit
Websitewww.ruthsbarrett.com Edit this at Wikidata

Ruth Shalit Barrett[1] (/ʃəˈliːt/; born 1971[citation needed]) is an American freelance writer and journalist whose articles have appeared in The New Republic, The Wall Street Journal, ELLE, New York Magazine and The Atlantic.[2][3][4][5]

In 1994 and 1995, she was discovered to have plagiarized portions of several articles she wrote for the New Republic, and to have made several substantial errors in another.[6] In 2020, The Atlantic retracted an article she wrote (involving Connecticut parents trying to get their children into Ivy League schools through athletic spots) after it emerged that she had encouraged a source to lie to the magazine's fact-checking department.[7]

Shalit Barrett graduated from Princeton University in 1992 and made her journalistic debut with Reason that same year. Soon after, she was offered an internship at The New Republic. Shalit was considered to be an up-and-coming young journalist throughout the 1990s after she was promoted to an associate editor position at The New Republic, writing cover stories for the political weekly. She also wrote for the New York Times Magazine and had a $45,000-a-year contract to do pieces for GQ.[8][9]

She is the sister of conservative writer and author Wendy Shalit.[10] She married Henry Robertson Barrett IV in 2004,[11] becoming the stepdaughter-in-law of Edward Klein. Robertson Barrett was the Vice President of Media Strategy and Operations at Yahoo! before becoming the president of Hearst's digital division in 2016.[12]

As of 2020, Shalit lives in Westport, Connecticut, with her husband and two children.[11]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Shalit, Ruth (August 24, 2004). "Young and Republican in Hollywood". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved January 10, 2022.
  3. ^ Levenson, Michael (November 1, 2020). "The Atlantic Retracts Ruth Shalit Barrett Article on Niche Sports". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 10, 2022.
  4. ^ Barrett, Ruth Shalit (March 18, 2018). "Can Leslie Jamison Top The Empathy Exams With Her Mega-Memoir of Addiction?". Vulture. Retrieved January 10, 2022.
  5. ^ Barrett, Ruth S. (May 2, 2014). "Mona Simpson Transforms Her Rich Personal Life Into Powerful Fiction". ELLE. Retrieved January 10, 2022.
  6. ^ "Freelance writer Ruth Shalit Barrett sues The Atlantic for $1 million". POLITICO. Retrieved January 10, 2022.
  7. ^ Robertson, Katie (January 9, 2022). "Freelance Writer Accuses The Atlantic of Defamation". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved August 16, 2023.
  8. ^ "American Journalism Review - Archives". ajrarchive.org. Retrieved January 10, 2022.
  9. ^ Young, Cathy. "Truth, Lies, and Second Chances". cathy.arcdigital.media. Retrieved January 10, 2022.
  10. ^ "Goodbye to All That: Has former New Republic starlet Ruth Shalit left Washington in the dust--or is it the other way around?". April 9, 1999. Archived from the original on November 2, 2020. Retrieved November 2, 2020.
  11. ^ a b Wemple, Erik (October 24, 2020). "Opinion: Ruth Shalit just wrote for the Atlantic. Would readers know it from the byline?". Washington Post. Archived from the original on October 31, 2020.
  12. ^ "Robertson Barrett Named President of Digital Media for Hearst Newspapers". finance.yahoo.com. Archived from the original on November 5, 2020. Retrieved November 2, 2020.