Laura Flanders is an English broadcast journalist living in the United States, who presents the weekly, long-form interview show The Laura Flanders Show.
Background
Flanders is the daughter of the British comic songwriter and broadcaster Michael Flanders and the American-born Claudia Cockburn, first daughter of well-known radical journalist Claud Cockburn and American author Hope Hale Davis. She grew up in the Kensington district of London and moved to the United States. in 1980 at age 19.
Education
She graduated from Barnard College in 1985 with a degree in history and women"s studies.
Career
Flanders was founding director of the women"s desk at the media watch group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), and for a decade produced and hosted CounterSpin, FAIR"s syndicated radio program In January 1993, she appeared on the American Broadcasting Company "Good Morning America" program as a spokesperson for FAIR to discuss how domestic violence increases during the annual Super Bowl. Flanders hosted the weekday radio show Your Call on KALW, before starting the Saturday/Sunday evening Laura Flanders Show on Air America Radio in 2004.
lieutenant became the weekly one-hour Radio Nation in 2007, and a daily television show on Free Speech television, "GRITtv with Laura Flanders" in 2008.
That show aired for three years on Free Speech television before moving to KCET/Linktv and teleSUR, as a weekly program Flanders is a contributing writer for The Nation, and Yes Magazine and has also contributed to In These Times, The Progressive and Mississippi
Magazine. Her television appearances include Melissa Harris Perry, All In with Chris Hayes, Lou Dobbs Tonight, The O"Reilly Factor, Hannity and Colmes, Washington Journal, Donahue, Good Morning America, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, The Editor Show, Real Time with Bill Maher, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation television news discussion program CounterSpin (not to be confused with the FAIR show of the same name).
GRITtv
Award-winning American author Lydia Davis is her half-aunt. Her sister is Stephanie Flanders, a former British Broadcasting Corporation journalist.
Politics
Flanders has published several books: Blue Grit: True Democrats Take Back Politics from the Politicians (Penguin Press 2007). Bushwomen: Tales of a Cynical Species (Verso, 2004), a study of the women in George West. Bush"s cabinet. And a collection of essays, Real Majority, Media Minority: The Cost of Sidelining Women in Reporting (1997).
She edited "At The Tea Party.." (O/R Books 2010) and The West Effect: Sexual Politics in the Age of Bush (2004) and contributed to "The Contenders," (Seven Stories, 2008) among others GRITtv is a weekly, 25 minute interview-style show featuring one in-depth interview with authors and thought leaders, including investigative reports, and a commentary by Flanders called "The F Word".