During the coronavirus pandemic, Berenson appeared frequently in American right-wing media, spreading claims about COVID-19 and its vaccines.[8] He spent much of the pandemic arguing that its seriousness was overblown. Once the COVID-19 vaccines became available, he made claims about the lack of safety and effectiveness of the vaccines.[9][10][11][12][13]
Berenson joined The Denver Post in June 1994 as a business reporter. In August 1996, he left the Post to join TheStreet, a financial news website founded by Jim Cramer. In December 1999, Berenson joined The New York Times as a business investigative reporter.
In the fall of 2003 and the summer of 2004, Berenson covered the occupation of Iraq for the Times. He then covered the pharmaceutical and health care industries, specializing in issues concerning dangerous drugs.[17] Beginning in December 2008, Berenson reported on the Bernard Madoff $50 billion Ponzi scheme scandal.
In 2010, Berenson left the Times to become a full-time novelist.
He has written 12 spy novels, all featuring the same protagonist, CIA agent John Wells. His first novel, The Faithful Spy, was released in April 2006 and won an Edgar Award for best debut by an American novelist.[18]The Faithful Spy was ranked #1 on The New York Times Bestseller List for paperbacks.[19]
In 2008, Berenson released his second thriller, The Ghost War. His third novel, The Silent Man, followed in 2009. His fourth, The Midnight House, was released in 2010 and debuted at #9 on The New York Times bestseller list.[20] The fifth, The Secret Soldier, was released in 2011 and debuted at #6 on the bestseller list.[21] The sixth, The Shadow Patrol, was released in 2012, and debuted at #8.[22][23] In July 2012, The Shadow Patrol was named a finalist for the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award, given by Britain's Crime Writers' Association.[24][25]
Opposition to cannabis legalization
In 2019, Berenson authored the book Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness and Violence, which argues that marijuana use contributes to psychotic disorders and violent crime. The book "received positive coverage from The New Yorker and Mother Jones for what some called its troubling truths"[26] but was denounced as alarmist and inaccurate in the scientific and medical communities because of his claims that cannabis causes psychosis and violence; many scientists state that he is drawing inappropriate conclusions from the research, primarily by inferring causation from correlation,[3]: 1[6]: 1[27]: 1[4]: 1[8]: 1
as well as cherry picking[5]: 1
data that fits his narrative, and falling victim to selection bias via his use of anecdotes[5]: 1
to back up his assertions.[27]: 1[4]: 1[6]: 1[28]: 1[7]
Early in the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, Berenson vocally argued that people and the media were overestimating the risk of the new virus, that it posed little risk to young Americans, and that it was being used as a cover for government overreach.[8][29] Many public health experts have rejected his claims.[8][29]: 1
In May 2020, Fox News announced that Berenson would host a TV show called COVID Contrarian on its online streaming platform Fox Nation. However, by July 2020, amid surges in coronavirus cases across parts of the United States, Fox News appeared to have backtracked and removed the announcement of his show from its website.[30]
In 2021, Berenson tweeted that COVID-19 vaccinations had led to 50 times more adverse effects than flu vaccine. PolitiFact rated the claim "mostly false".[12]The Atlantic called him "The pandemic's wrongest man", owing to what they termed his "dangerously, unflaggingly, and superlatively wrong" claims of the vaccine's ineffectiveness.[10]
On January 25, 2022, Berenson appeared on the Fox News show Tucker Carlson Tonight declaring that existing mRNA vaccines are "dangerous and ineffective" against COVID-19, and further demanding that they be withdrawn from the market immediately.[31]The Washington Post's Philip Bump denounced Carlson for "inviting Berenson on, despite his proven track record of misinformation and cherry-picking" and observed that "Berenson's claims went unchallenged."[32]
Twitter suspension and reinstatement
On August 28, 2021, Twitter permanently suspended Berenson for repeated violations of its policy on COVID-19 misinformation, but after Berenson filed suit in December 2021 demanding reinstatement, Twitter reinstated Berenson's account in early summer 2022, in a "mutually acceptable resolution".[33][34] This reinstatement was referred to as "significant" by The Atlantic, given that most social-media-banned people fail to win their court cases.[34]
Berenson did not regain Twitter access because of a First Amendment free speech claim, which was rejected by the judge.[34]Eric Goldman, a law professor at Santa Clara University School of Law, theorizes that Twitter settled because of documentation of promises made to Berenson by a high-level Twitter employee concerning the nature of his tweets.[34] Goldman stated that Internet company executives have always been advised by their attorneys not to make promises to or even to speak to anyone about their individual accounts "for reasons that should now be obvious".[34]
On April 14, 2023, Berenson filed a lawsuit in a federal district court against president Biden in his official capacity, members of his administration in their individual capacities, and a board member and the CEO of Pfizer regarding allegations of First Amendment violations and other claims resulting from the Twitter ban of Berenson.[35]
Personal Life
Berenson describes growing up "center, center-right" but always voting Democrat.[16] He says he voted for Donald Trump in the 2024 election.[36]
^Tixier Herald, Diana; Stavole-Carter, Samuel (2019). Genreflecting: A Guide to Popular Reading Interests (8th ed.). ABC-CLIO. p. 206. ISBN9781440858482.
^ abcdeTiffany, Kaitlyn (2022-08-24). "A Prominent Vaccine Skeptic Returns to Twitter". The Atlantic. Berenson's victory was not based on his argument that his ban was a violation of the First Amendment; the judge rejected this claim. Instead, his success seems to have hinged on promises made to him by a high-level Twitter employee. "The points you're raising should not be an issue at all," the company's then–vice president of global communications assured Berenson at one point, according to the complaint. The lawsuit says the same executive later told Berenson that his name had "never come up in the discussions" about Twitter's COVID-19 misinformation policies. Goldman believes that the court's decision to allow a claim based on that correspondence prompted Twitter to settle. Internet-service executives have always been instructed by lawyers not to talk with people about their individual accounts and not to make any promises about what might happen, Goldman said, "for reasons that should now be obvious".
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