John Arthur Heilemann is a journalist and anchor who is famous for his role as a political analyst for NBC News and MSNBC. He is also known for his books about presidential campaigns, Double Down and Game Change


Background

John was born in 1988 in the sunny state of California. He got his Bachelor Degree in Political Science and Journalism from Northwestern University. After receiving his degree, he did not want stop his education. He felt that he needed more time in school to develop his researching skills. He believed in the education system and was sure that he could benefit from higher learning. He went to get his Master’s Degree from the prestigious Harvard University. Getting a degree from Harvard was a huge feather in his cap and signaled to him that he was on the path to success.

Details about his childhood and early life are completely missing from the public record. There are no details about his parents or siblings. John never gave any interviews about his upbringing nor had he talked about his family during any of his shows.

Journalism Career

His career path started out as a regular contributor for MSNBC on their show, Morning Joe. He worked for many channels and publications before joining Bloomberg in 2014. Before joining Bloomberg, he worked as an editor for New York Magazine and NYMAG.com. Prior to that, he was a staff writer for many top publications like The Economist, The New Yorker, and Wired. Many of his writings are published in magazines like The New Republic, GD, TIME, and Vanity Fair.

As a political analyst for MSNBC, he is a regular TV guest in many programs including the famous Charlie Rose program. He is famous for his show, With All Due Respect. Since 2016, his appearances on MSNBC have made him a popular figure in the field of political commentary. He is also a TV producer that is famous for his projects like Stephen Colbert’s Live Election Night and Download: The True Story of the Internet among many others.

Aside from his television appearances, John is also a respected and skilled author who has written political books like Pride Before the Fall, Double Down, and Game Change. HBO has opted the film rights for his book, Double Down. In an interview with HBO, he explained the origin for his book, Double Down, “Mark Halperin and I had been covering the campaign for a year and a half and it was not until the spring of 2008 that we decided that we were going to do Game Change. We'd been covering politics for 20 years each, but we'd never seen a campaign as extraordinary as this one. Even before Sarah Palin came on the scene, it already had a cinematic quality: The Obama-Clinton drama of the Democratic nomination fight; John McCain coming back from the dead when his campaign had completely imploded. These are characters that were interesting, not the way John Kerry is interesting, which is really not interesting at all. But interesting, interesting people.”

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He also offered insight on former candidate Sarah Palin who is often referred to as a puppet that was propped onto the national stage by the Republican Party, “Sarah Palin is almost a unique case because there is really no one in our lifetimes who has been plucked from such a degree of obscurity and asked to perform at such a high level with no national experience before. She had been the governor of Alaska. It's a very small state, and there's no national media that pays attention. Most people in the political class or in the national media class had heard of Sarah Palin, but she had never really been scrutinized in any meaningful way and yet now she was being asked within five days to get ready to give a speech on the biggest stage in national politics.”

Through his writing, he was able to create a portrait of the types of people who actually want to run and lead the country. A common trait he uncovered was that presidential candidates are very idealistic. They have a set of ideas and think that they can use the ideas to better the country. What they don’t realize is that the execution of the ideas are far away from the ideas that they have in their heads. Once they get to the actual reality of running for the office, they are humbled by the sheer force of what it takes to become president.

For his engaging writing skills, he has been awarded the Best American Political Writing and Best American Crime Writing awards. He in the proud winner of five Golden Globe awards, three Emmy awards and one Peabody award.

Personal Life

John now lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Diana Heilemann. His marital life is very far away from the curious eyes of the media. Diana and John are very secretive when it comes to their personal affairs. There are no details to when they started dating or the year of their engagement.

The only public information available about their relationship is they got married in 2006. Though the marriage took place when he was at the peak of media attention because of his successful political books, his marriage did not attract a lot of media news and attention. The ceremony was a private one and no details about his wedding were shared with anyone outside of his social circle. Since neither John nor Diana are very active on social media sites, there are not a lot of pictures of them on the internet.

Since there are no details about their children, it is assumed that John has not fathered a child yet. He was not known to be married or engaged before he met Diana. His current life with Diana is assumed to be going smooth as there are no rumors about them getting separated.

John was never a part of any extra marital affair or domestic violence issues. His past girlfriends before meeting Diana are not known to media. He is not known to be seen with anyone with whom he could be rumored to have a relationship or affair. His net worth, salary and other financial details are also missing from the public record because of his secretive nature.

Last Modified: May 11, 2020


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