Patrick Range McDonald is an author, journalist, and activist based in Los Angeles, California. He writes about a wide array of subjects, and has dedicated his career to holding the powerful accountable and giving voice to the voiceless. Through his longtime work and extensive traveling around the world, McDonald holds a unique understanding of how the powerful operate. It informs, one way or another, all his writing.
As an investigative reporter at L.A. Weekly, McDonald earned numerous awards, including “Journalist of the Year” and “Best News Feature” from the Los Angeles Press Club and the national “Public Service” award from the Association of Alternative Newsmedia.
For the “Journalist of the Year” award, judges wrote: “‘Range’ is an appropriate middle name. What incredibly detailed reporting on a variety of complicated topics. What an ability to make us feel as if we know the players. What skill in explaining messy situations. The very essence of solid journalism.”
For the “Best News Feature” award, judges commented: “Documents a groundswell of democracy while explaining a new law through a real-world prism. Powerful. Incredibly well-sourced and informative, yet provides a human touch. The story of poor minorities trying to make a change documented how the masses can move the establishment. Inspiring to others, this story shows what newspapers do like no other. Bravo.”
For the “Public Service” award, McDonald wrote a major exposé that played a key role in restoring funding for the Los Angeles Public Library system. McDonald is most proud of this award because L.A.’s public libraries provide important services to young people from underserved neighborhoods, seniors, immigrants, working-class families, the unemployed, and students.
As an author, McDonald co-wrote the memoir of Richard J. Riordan, the maverick former mayor of Los Angeles. Titled The Mayor: How I Turned Around Los Angeles After Riots, an Earthquake and the O.J. Simpson Murder Trial, the book became a New York Times and Los Angeles Times best seller.
McDonald also wrote Righteous Rebels: AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s Crusade to Change the World. It tells the inspiring, untold story of AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the world’s largest HIV/AIDS medical-care nonprofit. AHF works in more than 40 countries and has saved millions of lives around the globe.
In a rave review, The Lancet, the prestigious medical journal, wrote: “McDonald has managed a deft balancing act with this book: on one hand providing a fascinating inside view of a billion-dollar non-profit organization, while on the other hand providing a history of both the AIDS Healthcare Foundation and the AIDS crisis, full of human interest and compelling portraits of the major players in the organization. However, this book was written with a larger purpose in mind: to inspire readers to take action and to provide a ‘blueprint for how anyone can absolutely change the world.'”
McDonald was then the historical consultant for the documentary Keeping the Promise: AHF 30 Years, narrated by Oscar-winning actress Meryl Streep.
He is currently the advocacy journalist for Housing Is A Human Right, one of the leading housing justice organizations in the United States. For his work, McDonald received the “Best Activism Journalism” award from the Los Angeles Press Club for an investigation into L.A.’s gentrification crisis. He also wrote Selling Off California: The Untold Story, a short book that exposes the back-room alliances and devastating policies that fuel the housing affordability and homelessness crises in California. It was a finalist for a Los Angeles Press Club award.
McDonald has also worked on three ballot measures in California to end statewide rent control restrictions, writing numerous articles and hard-hitting special reports about the real estate industry’s destructive housing agenda.
He has written for Politico magazine, Advocate, New Times – LA, New York Press, and Westchester County Weekly, among other publications. In 2023, McDonald founded Letters From Over Here at Medium, where he published one-of-a-kind essays about the world-renowned artist Jean-Michel Basquiat and Manchester United, arguably the biggest football club on the planet, among other stories.
At Medium, he also published an exposé about corporate landlords and the California Apartment Association spending millions in campaign contributions to influence local and state political races throughout California. It’s a story that’s never been told in such depth.
McDonald is a member of the Los Angeles Press Club and Investigative Reporters & Editors (IRE), the most prominent organization for investigative journalists. He’s also graduate of Fordham University in the Bronx, and earned a master’s degree in Magazine Writing from New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. He can be followed on Instagram, Bluesky, and Facebook, and can be contacted at Instagram. His writing is “Proudly AI-Free.”(TM)