Joe Klein (born September 7, 1946) is a longtime Washington, D.C. and New York journalist and columnist, known for his novel Primary Colors, an anonymously written roman à clef portraying Bill Clinton's first presidential campaign. Klein is currently a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is a former Guggenheim Fellow. Since 2003 he has been a contributor at the current affairs Time news group. In April 2006, he published Politics Lost, a book on what he calls the "pollster-consultant industrial complex". He has also written articles and book reviews for The New Republic, The New York Times, The Washington Post, LIFE and Rolling Stone.

Klein graduated from the Hackley School and the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in American civilization. In 1969, Klein began reporting for the Essex County Newspapers, and The Peabody Times in Peabody, Massachusetts In 1972, he reported for Boston's WGBH, and until 1974 he was also the news editor for The Real Paper in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was a contributing editor for Rolling Stone from 1975 to 1980, and Washington bureau chief from 1975 to 1977. He became friends with actor-director Tom Laughlin after interviewing him for Rolling Stone and appeared briefly as a reporter in Laughlin's 1977 film Billy Jack Goes to Washington.

Jeff Greenfield (born June 10, 1943) is an American television journalist and author.

He was born in New York City to parents Benjamin and Helen. He grew up in Manhattan and graduated from the Bronx High School of Science in 1960. He obtained a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1964, where he served as editor-in-chief of the Daily Cardinal. He graduated with a Bachelor of Laws from the Yale Law School in 1966, where he was a Note and Comment editor of the Yale Law Journal. He also served as a speechwriter for Senator Robert F. Kennedy.

Greenfield lives in New York and Salisbury, Connecticut. He was married to Carrie Carmichael until their divorce in February 1993. They have one daughter, Casey, and one son, David. On April 24, 1993, he married Karen Gannett, from whom he is now divorced. On Feb. 12, 1997, he met Dena Sklar, whom he subsequently married.

Over the course of his career he has reported primarily on domestic politics and the media, and occasionally on culture. He appeared on the Firing Line television program in 1968. He served as media commentator for CBS News from 1979 to 1983 and as Political and Media Analyst for ABC News from 1983 to 1997, often appearing on the Nightline program. He served as a Senior Analyst at CNN from 1998 to 2007. On 1 May 2007, Greenfield returned to CBS News to serve as Senior Political Correspondent and plans to leave CBS at the end of April 2011. He is currently doing political commentary on NBC Nightly News. Mr. Greenfield has been host of the national public television series "CEO EXCHANGE", featuring in-depth interviews with high-profile chief executive officers, for five seasons.

Christopher John "Chris" Matthews (born December 17, 1945) is an American news anchor and political commentator known for his nightly hour-long talk show, Hardball with Chris Matthews, which is televised on the American cable television channel MSNBC. On weekends he hosts the syndicated NBC News–produced panel discussion program The Chris Matthews Show. Matthews makes frequent appearances on many other NBC and MSNBC programs. On March 22, 2009, Matthews renewed the contract for Hardball with Chris Matthews through 2012.

Matthews was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Irish American parents and is a Roman Catholic. He attended La Salle College High School. He is a 1967 graduate of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, and did graduate work in economics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Matthews served in the United States Peace Corps in Swaziland from 1968 to 1970 as a trade development adviser.

When Matthews first arrived in Washington, D.C., he worked as a police officer with the United States Capitol Police. Subsequently, he served on the staffs of four Democratic members of Congress, including Senators Frank Moss and Edmund Muskie. In 1974, he mounted an unsuccessful campaign for Pennsylvania's 4th congressional district seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in which he received about 24% of the vote in the primary. Matthews was a presidential speechwriter during the Carter administration and later worked for six years as a top aide to longtime Speaker of the House of Representatives Tip O'Neill, playing a direct role in many key political battles with the Reagan administration.

Edward Andrew "Ed" Schultz (born January 27, 1954) Is an American television and radio host, a liberal political commentator, and a former sports broadcaster. He is the host of The Ed Show, a daily news talk program on MSNBC, and The Ed Schultz Show, a talk radio show, nationally syndicated by Dial Global, promising "straight talk".

Schultz was born in Norfolk, Virginia, and grew up in the Larchmont area near Old Dominion University, the son of George (an engineer) and Mary (an English teacher). He graduated in 1972 from Maury High School in Norfolk. He moved to Minnesota to play football on a scholarship from Minnesota State University Moorhead. He made All-American and became the NAIA passing leader in 1977 and signed as a free agent with the Oakland Raiders. In 1979, Schultz tried out for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, a Canadian Football League team.

After his football career ended, he worked as a sportscaster in Fargo, North Dakota for two local stations, first KTHI-TV (now KVLY-TV) then from 1988 WDAY-TV. Schultz anchored nightly sports broadcasts at WDAY and starting in 1982 did radio play-by-play of North Dakota State University (NDSU) football games. Management asked Schultz to take some time off after an incident in which Schultz exited the broadcast booth to look for a North Dakota State fan who threw a beer bottle towards the booth.