Charles Jay Sykes (born November 11, 1954) is an American political commentator who was editor-in-chief of the website The Bulwark.[1] From 1993 to 2016, Sykes hosted a conservative talk show on WTMJ in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was also the editor of Right Wisconsin which was co-owned with WTMJ's then-parent company E. W. Scripps. Sykes is a frequent commentator on MSNBC.
After graduating from Nicolet High School, Sykes enrolled at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, where in 1975 he graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's degree in English.[2] While at Milwaukee, Sykes was a member of the Young Democrats, and following a nonreligious upbringing, Sykes converted to Roman Catholicism at age 18. In 1974, using the slogan "A Different Kind of Democrat" due to his opposition to abortion, Sykes challenged Republican incumbent Jim Sensenbrenner for Wisconsin State Assembly and lost. As Milwaukee Magazine profiled, "his pro-life campaign signaled a growing crack in his liberalism. And as elements within the antiwar movement became violent, he became increasingly disillusioned."[2]
Career
Writing
Sykes began his career as a journalist, starting in 1975 with West Allis, Wisconsin, weekly The Northeast Post for a year. In 1976, Sykes joined The Milwaukee Journal, starting with reporting on stories in the North Shore suburbs, before being promoted to the Milwaukee City Hall beat during the administration of Mayor Henry Maier.[2][3] After seven years of reporting in the Milwaukee area, Sykes moved to Cleveland in 1982 as a staff writer for Cleveland Magazine, but the magazine went out of business by the end of the year.[2] In 1983 Sykes returned to Milwaukee as managing editor at Milwaukee Magazine and moved up to editor-in-chief in January 1984. Sykes wrote features, investigative articles, and commentary for Milwaukee Magazine.[2]
Sykes is a published author, primarily concerning education. He made his book debut in 1988 with Profscam: Professors and the Demise of Higher Education, inspired by his father's essay published posthumously in the October 1985 Milwaukee Magazine recalling his experience teaching at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.[2][6]
In an era when the national success of Rush Limbaugh was inspiring similar call-in talk radio shows around the U.S., Sykes started hosting talk radio in 1989 as a substitute host for Mark Belling at WISN in Milwaukee. Sykes got his own show on WISN by 1992. Lacking a contract with WISN, Sykes jumped to WTMJ within a year and hosted a morning show there until December 19, 2016.[2][11] In 2002, Sykes and fellow WTMJ host Jeff Wagner gained prominence in leading a campaign to recall Milwaukee CountyExecutiveTom Ament, who was embroiled in scandal for changing the county pension policy to give himself and close aides large payouts; Ament controversially retired at the end of February 2002, rather than resign, to retain his pension.[12][13] In a 2005 speech, Jay Heck, executive director of the Wisconsin branch of the liberal political advocacy group Common Cause referred to Sykes' influence on local politicians. "The Sykes Republicans from southeastern Wisconsin are worried that he will castigate them by calling them RINOs, 'Republicans in name only.' So (he makes it) very difficult for Republicans to be independent of the party line on any issue."[14]
Post Trump's 2016 presidential bid
Sykes opposed Donald Trump's 2016 presidential bid, campaiged against him and cast a write-in vote for independent conservative candidate Evan McMullin.[15][16][17] In October 2016, Sykes announced that he had decided late in 2015 to quit his radio show for unspecified personal reasons.[18] In December 2016, Sykes wrote an op-ed for The New York Times suggesting that the conservative movement had lost its way during the 2016 campaign, saying "...as we learned this year, we had succeeded in persuading our audiences to ignore and discount any information from the mainstream media. Over time, we'd succeeded in delegitimizing the media altogether — all the normal guideposts were down, the referees discredited."[8] From January to April 2017, he was part of a rotating set of hosts of Indivisible, a call-in talk show distributed by WNYC public radio in New York City, along with Brian Lehrer of WNYC and Kerri Miller of Minnesota Public Radio among others. The show analyzed and discussed the first 100 days of Trump's presidency.[19]
Sykes became the host of The Daily Standard, the revived podcast of The Weekly Standard magazine in February 2018.[20] Sykes was the founder and editor-at-large of The Bulwark and host of "The Bulwark Podcast" from 2018 to 2023. He left The Bulwark on February 9, 2024.[21] At the time he stated that he will continue writing and giving commentary, including at MSNBC, but at a more measured pace.[22]
Over the course of his public life, Sykes has gone from mainstream liberal, to conservative Democrat, to strongly conservative Republican, to libertarian, and is currently (2024) featured as a vehemently anti-Trump voice on the network MSNBC.[24][25]
Personal life
In May 1975, at the age of nineteen, Sykes married eighteen-year-old Christine Libbey. Five months later, their daughter was born. The marriage ended in divorce in early 1978, and was annulled by the Catholic Church two years later.[26]
As early as 1996, rumors had circulated of a relationship between Sykes and Janet Riordan, an opera singer and author seven years his junior. He married her one year after his divorce from Diane.[26]
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