Kelly Riddell

Kelly Riddell is an American journalist and columinst. She writes Water Cooler, a daily political blog for The Washington Times website and is a regular contributor to the Times on political issues.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]}

In addition to the Times, her work has appeared on Fox News, U.S. News & World Report, the Albany Times Union, and Bloomberg.^[7][8] She has appeared numerous times on political shows including the O'Reilly Factor, Hannity, and Media Buzz.^{[9][10][11][12]}

Journalism career

In January 2015, Riddell garnered significant media attention when she broke the story that political donor George Soros had given at least $33 million in one year to support activist groups during the Ferguson protests.^[13] Her story was reported in numerous outlets including Newsmax, Fox News, RT, The Daily Mail, the New York Daily News and The Daily Beast.^{[14][15][16][17][18]}

In June 2015, Riddell broke the story that the Clinton Foundation had collected $26 million in donations from a fund-raising arm in Sweden at the same time the country was lobbying Clinton's State Department to forego sanctions that threatened business connections with Iran. The story received significant media attention.^{[19][20][21][22]} The report received the Society of Professional Journalists’ Robert D. G. Lewis Watchdog Journalism Award for the entry that “best exemplifies journalism aimed at protecting the public from abuses by those who would betray the public trust.” The award was the organization's highest award in its Washington, D.C. chapter.^[23]

In February 2016, the International Business Times reported that Riddell had given Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina the maximum individual campaign contribution of $2,700 in 2015. The Washington Times Executive Editor Christopher Dolan responded that this was a violation of company policy and that the paper would retroactively disclose Riddell's ties to maintain journalistic integrity.^[24]

References