‘Losing Friends’ Over How She Covers the New Hampshire Primary

James Pindell, a Boston Globe reporter who is covering his fifth New Hampshire primary, disagreed, describing “Stranglehold” as a novel journalistic development.

“You would occasionally have long-form pieces that looked at the institution, but never with a critical eye,” Mr. Pindell said. “It would be a soft, featurey thing, with a lot of war stories. Never something like this.”

Mr. Pindell, who appeared as a guest on the show, has noticed that not everyone is a fan. When he bumped into a New Hampshire political insider in the course of his reporting, he got an earful.

“There was no small talk,” Mr. Pindell said. “He started right into ‘Stranglehold’ and how much he hates it.”

Ms. Chooljian, the journalist stirring the pot, grew up in Hampstead, a town of about 8,000 in the state’s southeastern crook. Her father, Barry Chooljian, is an accomplished high school wrestling coach. Her mother, Carrie, is a social worker.

She decided to attend St. Anselm College in Manchester partly out of interest in the primary. She said she attended the 2008 debate where Barack Obama told Hillary Clinton, “You’re likable enough.”

“I found my career through the primary,” Ms. Chooljian said.

After St. Anselm, she earned a master’s degree at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and went to work at the Chicago public radio station WBEZ. She covered Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the 2016 Democratic and Republican conventions for the station. In 2017, she returned to New Hampshire — which, thanks to her years away, came into sharper focus.

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