1. Marco Travaglio is the author of many books and a columnist for several other national newspapers and magazines, his main interests have been judicial reporting and current affairs and politics, dealing with issues ranging from the fight against the Italian Mafia to corruption.
An early critic of Silvio Berlusconi, Marco Travaglio became one of the leading voices of anti-Berlusconism.
Marco Travaglio praised right-wing politicians, such as Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, and said he belongs to the liberal Right of Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, Luigi Einaudi, Alcide De Gasperi, and Montanelli.
Marco Travaglio said he voted for those who had the best chance to remove Berlusconi from power and for anti-corruption parties, such as Italy of Values and Civil Revolution.
Marco Travaglio was born in Turin, Italy, the son of a Turinese surveyor who was a train designer at Fiat Ferroviaria; his brother, Franco Marco Travaglio, is an author, director, and librettist of modern musicals.
Marco Travaglio then worked under the renowned journalist Indro Montanelli for newspapers like Il Giornale and La Voce, and gained the attention of Montanelli himself, who once said of him that he makes use of "a more refined and not legally punishable weapon: the archives".
Marco Travaglio then introduced his bestseller book L'odore dei soldi, which investigates the origin of Berlusconi's early fortunes.
On 10 May 2008, Marco Travaglio commented on Renato Schifani's election as president of the Senate of the Republic that one should "simply ask of the second highest office of the state to explain those relationships with those men who have subsequently been condemned for association with the Mafia" on the RAI current affairs talk show television program Che tempo che fa.
The statement of Marco Travaglio resulted in fierce negative reactions from Italian politicians, including from the Italian centre-left, except for Antonio Di Pietro, who said that Marco Travaglio was "merely doing his job".
Schifani said Marco Travaglio's accusation was based on "inconsistent or manipulated facts, not even worthy of generating suspicions", adding that "someone wants to undermine the dialogue between the government and the opposition".
Marco Travaglio considers himself as having always been a liberal or, in his own words, "liberal-Montanellian".
Marco Travaglio explained his vote for Lega Nord as the fulfillment of a promise he had made to himself after leaving Il Giornale in 1994: he would have voted for whoever would throw down Berlusconi.
In February 2022, Marco Travaglio called the news of an impending Russian invasion of Ukraine an "American fake news", doing so even the day before the invasion started, which resulted in criticism, as well as being listed among denialists of the invasion.
Marco Travaglio is a leading critic of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and his stances have been criticized as anti-Ukraine and pro-Vladimir Putin.
Marco Travaglio's newspaper's reporting on the war has been seen as so pro-Russia that the Russian embassy has praised and retweeted it.
In June 2023, upon the death and state funeral of Berlusconi, Marco Travaglio was critical towards what he perceived as a beatification of the deceased leader, citing his multiple scandals.
Marco Travaglio won the Political Satire Award in Forte dei Marmi for his columns on L'Unita, the Press Freedom Award of the National Association of German Journalists, and the Premiolino.
Several books by Marco Travaglio are co-authored, usually with other investigative journalists.